Work from your heart, not your brain to create harmony” - BKS Iyengar

Backbends are often referred to as ‘heart opening’ poses and their many benefits are pretty clear. Physically – they stretch the hips, open the shoulders and chest, build strength in the legs, arms and back muscles and can even alleviate back and neck pain. Mentally and emotionally they invite courage and vulnerability, help us to face fears and remain calm in the face of difficult situations.

How many times in yoga class have you been told to open your heart, lift your heart, or draw your heart forward? This is a very common cue indicating students should drop their shoulders away from their ears, lift their chest, and bend through the thoracic spine. Including backbends in your practice encourages an even deeper physical opening of the chest and heart center. They also elongate the spine; release tension and stress from the neck, shoulders, and back; create space for the lungs and deeper breaths; and energize your practice, body, and mind. In addition to backbends, focusing on love and gratitude while practicing will open your emotional heart. Opening the heart teaches us to be humble, vulnerable, and lead with our hearts in both practice and life.

Explore the following yoga practices to open your heart, cultivate gratitude and bring more love into your life:

Set up your practice space

Use colors, stones, and essential oils related to the heart chakra in your yoga practice space and on your body. The heart chakra is located in the physical heart and governs love, kindness and compassion. It’s represented by the colors green and pink, the stones rose quartz and watermelon tourmaline, and essential oils of rose and jasmine.

Body Scan

Begin your yoga or meditation practice with a body scan. Sit in a comfortable seated position and check in with your posture. Is your chest collapsed or lifted? If your chest is collapsed, you are physically protecting your heart. Lift the chest and open the shoulders to bring the heart to the front. Then rest one or both hands on the heart. Leave them there for a few deep breaths. Note how this feels.

Breathe into the heart

Focus your breath work on your heart. Imagine you are breathing from the heart and into the heart. Feel the chest rise and fall with your breath. Again take note of any feelings that arise.

Mudras

A mudra is a gesture or seal that channels our life force. Incorporate mudras into your practice to energize the heart. To practice Anjali mudra, bring the palms together at the heart and press the thumbs into the sternum. Use Anjali mudra at the beginning of practice while seated and in Mountain pose (Tadasana). As you grow comfortable with the mudra, use it with different poses throughout your practice.

Mantras

Use a mantra during your practice. The mantra for the heart chakra is “yam” pronounced similar to “young” or in English, “I love.” If using “I love,” think “I” as you inhale and “love” as you exhale.

Bring gratitude into your practice

Lasting, loving relationships are significantly influenced by expressions of gratitude. According to a study published in 2014, gratitude is what holds two people together. The study reported that after expressions of gratitude, participants reported feeling more loving. Gratitude also increases feelings of happiness and well-being. Practice gratitude on the mat to get comfortable expressing thanks to your loved ones. Think of three things you are grateful for at the start or end of your yoga practice.

Asana

When practicing heart opening backbends, it is important to maintain balance by using counterposes. After any deep back-bending yoga pose, neutralize the spine with a simple twist and then counter with a forward folding pose. Backbends energize and physically open, expand, and lift the heart. Forward folds give your heart a chance to recharge and rest. Begin with gentle backbends such as Dog Tilt pose (Svanasana), Cobra pose (Bhujangasana), or Bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana). For a deeper backbend try Camel pose (Ustrasana) or Upward Bow pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana). These backbends bring the heart above the head. This is a physical representation of following or leading with your heart. For more specific asana recommendations, try this heart-centered sequence.

Heart Meditation

Close your practice with a heart-centered meditation. This can be as simple as breathing into the heart and using the mantra “I love” as mentioned earlier. You may also incorporate a mudra here, such as Anjali mudra.

Take any or all of these recommendations and mix them into your daily practice. As you move from your mat and through your day, come back to your intention of love and gratitude.

New beginnings are easier done when we can approach people and situations with an open heart and mind. It is not uncommon for us to build walls over time – learned behaviours and reactions that we have developed as a way to protect ourselves. However, in order to truly build the life we want, we will often have to confront and deal with these defence mechanisms to encourage openness + to invite opportunities in. The article below discusses how heart opening asanas can help you along this journey.

Just as you can practice heart opening in your thoughts and emotions, you can also experience opening the heart space in your physical body.

For many, “opening your heart” implies receptivity to love and intimacy in a romantic relationship ring on the candy and flowers. However, everyone, including single yoga practitioners, can experience heart opening in other kinds of relationships: with caring friends and family members, pets, teachers and mentors, and with our own students.

With deep introspection and honesty, you can also practice heart opening in more challenging situations, such as your relationships with difficult people or those with whom you disagree philosophically or politically. As you visualize and practice opening your heart in your various relationships, you’re learning ahimsa, or compassion, which is number one on the list of yamas and niyamas.

Know Your Physical Heart Space

Just as you can practice heart opening in your thoughts and emotions, you can also experience opening the heart space in your physical body. Your heart resides within the thoracic cavity, which is surrounded by a bony cylinder, the rib cage, comprised of 12 ribs on the right and 12 on the left; your sternum (breastbone) in the front; and the spine in the back. The bones are held together by soft tissues, including muscles large and small; cartilage between the vertebrae in the spine, between the three parts of the sternum, and as part of each rib as it attaches to the sternum; and by ligaments, which join bone to bone. There are ligaments, for example, between each pair of vertebrae, and ligaments holding each rib onto its adjacent vertebrae. Your diaphragm, the dome shaped muscle that separates the heart and lungs above from the digestive and reproductive organs below, forms the floor of the thoracic cavity.

Ideally, the soft tissues supporting the bony cylinder remain resilient for a lifetime, so the cylinder is able to expand freely with each breath and the rib cage doesn’t become a rigid and restrictive container for the heart and lungs. You might picture a stiffened rib cage like armour: The lungs won’t be able to expand completely to receive a deep, full breath; and the rigidity may also limit blood flow to and within the heart. An immovable rib cage is also a limiting factor in Pranayama and many yoga poses, especially twists (which require rotation) and backbends (which require spinal extension), because its rigidity prevents the thoracic spine from moving through its normal range of motion. The lack of thoracic extension in backbends can contribute to lower back and neck pain caused by the lumbar and cervical spine hyperextending (overarching) to compensate for the lack of midback movement.

Conscious work with the breath is one of the best ways to improve rib cage mobility, gently stretch thoracic soft tissues, and open the heart space. Any time people feel threatened, be it by pain, challenge, or pressure to perform, the need to guard or defend oneself usually results in holding the breath or breathing in shallow, erratic patterns. These defensive breath patterns cause muscle tightness in the very areas we’re trying to open, as well as gripping in the upper abdomen, which restricts the normal movement of the diaphragm. By teaching your students to practice slow, gently expansive breathing (while avoiding aggressive action, such as pushing or forcing the breath, which generates more inappropriate muscle tightness), you’ll help them start to break up rib cage rigidity and the armor of tightly gripped chest, back, and abdominal muscles.

Simple Positions to Open the Heart

To avoid setting off guarding mechanisms while practicing breathing that expands the rib cage, it’s best to use simple, pain-free positions. To open the chest and abdomen, a wonderful position is a gentle and supported backbend. Try it while lying over a rolled blanket or towel (use a smaller roll for very tight students), placing the roll crosswise under the thoracic spine (the midback, where the ribs attach) and resting the arms in an open position, with palms up. This position gently expands the front rib cage and upper abdomen with each inhalation. Keep the knees bent and place one to two inches of support under the head to help prevent lumbar and cervical hyperextension.

Simple twists invite expansion of the side ribs. Try lying on your right side, with your knees pulled up toward your chest to create a 90-degree angle at the hips. On an inhalation, open your left arm behind you while turning your head to the left. Don’t let the left arm dangle in mid-air. Place just enough support (a block or blanket) under the left arm so you feel some stretch but no pain in the chest and/or side ribs. If your midback, including the space between the shoulder blades, is tight and flat, practice Balasana (Child’s Pose) with arms overhead or beside your calves. People with stiff spines and hips may not be able to get their heads to the floor and so will need support under the head in this pose. Usually a block or folded blanket under the head provides enough height to support the weight of the head, so the neck muscles can relax.

Whether opening the chest in a supported backbend, the side rib cage in a twist, or the thoracic spine and rib cage in Child’s Pose, talk to yourself or to your students about breath patterns. Invite your inhalation to gradually become a little slower, smoother, and deeper, again avoiding any tension-producing forcefulness. Then bring your awareness to the part of the rib cage you want to open (such as the front ribs in supported backbends and the side ribs in twists). It may help to place a hand on the area so you can feel the expansion from the outside as well as the inside. Let the inhalation gently expand and open the ribs, then relax and surrender to gravity with each exhalation.

Practice breathing in each position for two to three minutes, a few times a week if not every day. You’ll be rewarded with deep relaxation, improved breath awareness, opened heart space, and if you so choose a life-altering practice of ahimsa.

Article source: https://www.yogajournal.com/teach/opening-the-heart/
Article author: Julie Gudmestad