How to Open Your Heart Chakra With Yoga

Yoga has grown in popularity, largely because of the physical fitness benefits of the practice. Yet yoga's appeal doesn't simply lie in what it can do for your body --- the mind-body connection is central to what yoga is all about. Yoga can be used to relax the mind, balance the spirit, and open one's chakras. The heart chakra is located in the middle of your chest and practitioners believe that an imbalanced heart chakra can lead to severe health problems as well as emotional unhappiness. Luckily, the heart chakra can be opened with some fairly basic yoga postures.

Instructions

    • 1

      Learn some kundalini yoga exercises such as the chest fly pose. Yoga poses that open the heart chakra often involve opening the heart. The kundalini yoga discipline focuses on meditative and spiritual awareness and offers many poses that are perfect for opening the heart. The chest fly is recommended to those with heart chakra issues. To do this pose, sit with your legs crossed. Raise your arms to your sides with your palms facing up. Rotate your arms forward, stopping just before your palms meet, then rotate them back, spreading your chest open. Repeat this slowly for one to five minutes.

    • 2

      Try the fish pose, which is another yoga posture that is beneficial to those wanting to open the heart chakra. The pose involves laying flat on your back and placing your hands under your buttocks. You then raise your lower back, pushing your chest toward the ceiling. This pose not only opens your chest but stimulates your lymphatic system.

    • 3

      Do the cobra pose, a very well-known yoga posture. It too will help to open the heart chakra. Other heart chakra poses that many yoga students will know include the bow and the camel.

    • 4

      Calm your brain and your body with meditation. Yoga practitioners recommend ending your practice with a corpse pose (lying flat on the ground) and completely relaxing your body and mind.