Living with an open heart

In these times when we are bombarded with images of war, loss and disregard for human suffering cultivating an ‘open heart’ leaves us vulnerable to being hurt. Why is it important to live with an open heart? What role does practicing yoga have in allowing us to care for ourselves as well as others?

The practices within yoga encourage kindness and compassion. Every time we come to our mat we are giving ourself the opportunity to ‘slow down’, to come away from our everyday patterns of existence and discover a way of being that connects us to our breath, our body and something deeper. Even if we are not consciously doing so, we are opening energy pathways within our body and connecting to not only our physical sensations but to the deeper channels that reside within the spiritual realms and feed something deeper within us. Our heart centre rests here.

It takes courage to bring our attention to our heart centre. Some of us understand this to be anahata chakra and some of us practice without labels. For most of us, it takes time to be aware of the feelings and sensations that reside within this area. Coming into contact with the physical experiences around our heart are a good place to start as it is a lot easier to allow physical sensation to be felt than it is emotional.

We can take the time to tune into our heart by simply placing our hands over it and becoming aware of our breath. This technique is often used in meditation and allows us to not only becoming aware of the pulsing and blood flow within us but also to the connection to our emotional state. Our heart can feel heavy and ache for example if we are experiencing grief, loss and related life events. Our heart can also feel numb or closed down when we are blocking out ‘stuff’ that we are going through but do not want to acknowledge. Our heart can also feel open, joyous and loving. Studies conducted over many years (heartmath.org) have shown the correlation between our emotional state, our cognitive function and our heart rhythms. These studies have also shown that our heart can influence the way we think and feel so coming into contact with our heart centre will have an effect on our wellbeing.

Yoga practice encourages focused attention on our breathing. The more we practice, the more we can understand that changes in our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) take place. Our exhalation brings the para sympathetic nervous system into play. This is the part of the ANS that brings us to calmer state and counteracts the production of stress hormones. With practice we can begin to feel our heart rhythm and its connection to both our breath and our emotional state.

It has also been discovered that within the lining of the heart there are receptors that produce oxytocin. Oxytocin is stimulated through touch and is a hormone that increases feelings of connectedness and wellbeing and so reduces feelings of stress. By placing our hands over our heart and breathing with focused attention we are encouraging the production of oxytocin and having a direct influence on our emotions and subsequent feelings of wellbeing. Consciously bringing our awareness to our heart gradually allows us experience deep emotions and this can be termed as ‘opening our heart’.

As a consequence, we do not only feel love but we also feel pain. As human beings, the more self-aware we become the greater our ability to empathise with others grows. When we listen to other people’s story’s we can almost feel what they feel; if we see someone hurt themselves; we feel for them. At the time of writing this we may be feeling overwhelmed with the images of human suffering that are being reported from Ukraine and so it is vital to recognise the power of compassion and love that we also harbour. It is for this reason that practicing something like Yoga or a similar nourishing form of exercise is vital. Giving ourselves care and time to reflect and be with what we are feeling heals and nourishes us. Our heart is infinite and our ability to feel has no bounds. Living with an open heart is not easy but living without it is to not notice the beauty and wonder that is this world we inhabit.