This week we continue our exploration of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether/space. This week's focus is on the air element, located in the heart or the fourth chakra. It's name in Sanskrit is the Anahata chakra and has the color of vibrant green.
As previously stated, these elements are an integral part, not only of our Universal environment, but of the subtle energy systems of the chakras. We have seven chakras, spinning wheels of energy, that run from the base of our spine to the crown of our head. When we experience our connection to the elements we are able to deepen our sense of an inherent relationship to all that's around and within us. Each chakra represents varying aspects of ourselves from the most physical to the most ethereal.
Air energy, the fourth of the seven chakras lies in the center of all the chakras, forming a meeting point of the lower three, more physically bound energy centers to the upper three more ethereal realms.
What magnifies the significance of the air element in yoga is its relationship to the breath. We can go through our entire lives without being conscious of how we breathe. And what makes yoga unique is the connection to breath. If we practice yoga postures without any awareness of what's happening with our breath, we are simply doing calisthenics. It's the ability of pranayama (altering breath to change states) that penetrates through all the levels of our being from the most obvious physical body to the most blissful aspects of consciousness and it can be incredibly powerful.
Research has shown that 80% of anxious symptoms can be reduced within a minute of diaphragmatic breathing. In other words, when we feel the stressors of life building up, we have one immediate tool to tear them down...deep, belly breaths that emphasize a longer and slower exhalation.
In order to expand the air element of our heart chakra we can incorporate within our yoga practice a regular pranayama (breath) practice as well as deepening our knowledge and awareness as to what is happening to the breath as we engage in different postures and sequences. Poses that "open the heart space" such as backbends and expansions of the chest are also useful. But in a deeper sense, everything comes together in the heart...the very physical grounding of the lower three chakras come to a sense of balance within the heart and at the same time, support the expansion and create a foundation for the energy to expand in this love focused part of our being. It also is a transitional point for how we speak our truth, follow our intuition and connect to higher consciousness through the upper three chakras. When we can come fully into our heart and embrace the air element, we begin to recognize how all of us are connected.
One of the ways this connection to all beings is evident is that we are all breathing the same air: the air that our ancestors breathed and that all beings are breathing throughout the world. We all share a common breath. Imagine if each of us literally lived and breathed these breaths from an intention of peace, compassion and love, what an incredible gift each of us, with every breath, would be offering to all beings everywhere. Truly, a breath of the heart.
We can further manifest the air element through wearing a rich, bright green color and chanting the bija mantra-yam, yam, yam and using such affirmations as:
I am loved. I let love in.
I am kind to myself.
I live in peace and gratitude.
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