Heart Opening Yoga for Valentine’s Day

It’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m surrounded by all things related to love and hearts and such. From tv commercials to seasonal store displays, to playlist suggestions, to social media feeds. It was inevitable that I’d feel the need to blog about something heart related.

I chose to focus on yoga positions today, since lately my life has been crazy and I’ve been turning to yoga as a way to address my stress, increase my strength (physical, mental, and spiritual strengths), and do some boundary work.

I’ve chosen a few poses that focus more on the heart center. These poses work to open the heart center on a physical level, expanding the chest and lungs, allowing for deeper breathing, and working the antithesis of the typical daily hunched-over-a-computer or lounging-on-the-couch postures that our bodies spend so much time in. They also expand the metaphysical/ emotional/ spiritual heart: think love, grief, joy, etc.. According to Ayurvedic tradition, opening the anahata chakra, located at the heart center, we bridge the energies of the lower and upper chakras, and our inner and outer worlds (the physical and the spiritual). We improve compassion, love, and relationships. Who can’t use more of all that?!

POSE 1: ANAHATASANA (heart melting pose)

1. Start in Bharmanasana (tabletop position). On all fours, hands under shoulders, knees under hips. Back straight, and lengthen by envisioning your head and tailbone pulling to opposite sides of the room.
2. Activate your core by pulling inward. Don’t suck in your belly; imagine you are tightening a corset, cinching in all around your middle.
3. Walk your hands forward, stretching out, but keep those hips over the knees and keep the length along your torso.
4. Feel your shoulder blades trying to kiss, pulling together across your back, while melting your heart to the floor. You can rest your forehead on a yoga block or prop, or on the floor if you have the flexibility.
5. Keeping the length in your cinched torso, surrender it downward and feel the opening in the heart. Breathe into this expanded space you’ve created.
6. I like to also visualize how I am grounded to Earth in this pose, feeling my energy move downward as I’m so “in my head” all the time and air element dominant.

POSE 2: ARDHA PURVOTTANASANA (reverse tabletop)

I love this one at the end of a busy work day. It’s pretty much the opposite of sitting at my computer, and realigns me by creating kind of an equal-and-opposite position.

1. Sit down on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, about hip distance apart. Put your hands on the floor with straight arms. Your fingertips will point toward the direction of your feet, and your arms are slightly behind your hips.
2. Press into the four corners of your feet, and the breadth of your palms and across the length of your fingers. Feel your body move upward to create a tabletop position, keeping your torso lengthened and stable. Move up, up, up. You should not be able to see your knees. Gaze upward and feel the stretch across the front of the body. Breathe into the space.

POSE 3: MATSYASANA (fish pose)

An amazing heart opener, this can be done traditionally or as Salamba Matsyasana: supported fish pose, for a more relaxing, supported position. I usually do fish pose as part of a flow when exercising in the morning, and the supported version as a stand alone to relax after a stressful work day.

For the traditional version:

1. Lie on your back, feet together, hands under your bottom, arms hugged into your sides.
2. Press down into your elbows to feel your heart center rise up.
3. Carefully, slowly, tilt your head backward. You can rest it on the floor if you have the flexibility. As your head comes back, feel your heart center open further and rise upward even more.

For the supported version (you’ll need blocks or bolsters as support):

1. Lie your blocks or other props, aligned vertically, along your mat.
2. Sit in front of the props, then lean back onto them. The end of the low block/ prop should hit the lower edge of your ribs.
3. Settle into the pose, allowing your head to rest comfortably. Your torso can melt down onto the lower block/ prop as you create space in your chest, lifting the heart upward. Keep your back long and feel the lengthening; don’t compress the spine. Your arms can reach out at a 45 degree angle, palms upward, resting on the floor.
4. Breathe deeply into the heart space as you relax into the floor.

POSE 4: SETU BANDHA SARVANGASANA (bridge pose)

This one is another antidote to the hunched over positions our bodies are typically in, and it strengthens the back body as well.

1. Lie on your back. Bend your knees and rest the soles of your feet on the ground, about hip width apart.
2. Arms are by your sides, palms down toward the floor.
3. Breathe and feel all four corners of your feet pressing into the floor as your hips move upward to the sky. Reach your fingers toward your feet and feel your shoulder blades hugging toward each other as they stabilize you.
4. If you can, keep wiggling your shoulders back and down, then clasp your hands underneath you as you continue to bring the hips to the sky.
5. Feel the expansion and space in your chest. Breathe into the space and grow your heart.

POSE 5: UTTHITA TADASANA (Five Pointed Star Pose)

I like doing the “arms up” version of this one to express my joy, and spread my joy and love out to the world. Also to show my openness to receive joy and love from others.

1. Stand up, feet and legs spread wide. Keep your body balanced between the two legs, and feel balance into all four corners of the feet.
2. Arms straight down at your sides. Inhale and feel your arms spread out wide, pulling to the opposite sides of the room, then raising and stretching to form a star.
3. Feel the stretch and expansion as your legs root downward and outward, and your arms reach upward and outward. Feel your spine lengthen as your tailbone grounds you downward and the crown of your head reaches upward.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Blessings,

Melanie