Heart Chakra and Questioning Gratitude

Heart Chakra and Gratitude
Over the past few years there has been a surge of awareness regarding the role of gratitude in helping to bring the energies of peace, happiness and abundance into our lives. The frequency produced by the feeling of gratitude has a healthy effect on our brains and helps us to begin to rewire systems to have a more positive outlook, presence and expression in our lives.

We are told that this is a participatory universe and so it follows that the more we are actively involved in our own development the more we add to not only our own lives but to the overall good. Focusing on more positive emotions, learning how our minds really work and engaging methods that help us increase our higher awareness are all ways that we can improve our lives and at the same time contribute positively to the world.

Centering Within Your Heart
Poets, mystics and philosophers often speak of the heart as the place where we enter into the wholeness of our selves, a place within us that contains mystery and understanding beyond what our rational, logical mind understands.

Ancient traditions point to the heart chakra as the center where human consciousness shifts and the capacity for balance between the inner and outer worlds can be developed.
It is in the heart chakra where we develop the ability to be attuned to Self and other. It is through the heart that we access deeper awareness and capacity for spirituality.
Additionally, in the esoteric traditions, the heart is seen as the place where we contact the Observer Self – what some have called the voice of the Soul – that aspect of Self that is beyond the enslavement of thought and emotion.

The Observer Self
The Observer Self is the aspect of us that has access to truth with a capital T. It is that part which is capable of direct and present experience. It is also the facet of consciousness that allows for creative solutions to situations that stymie our ego self.

The positive, balanced qualities of the heart chakra are: Love, Acceptance, Balance, True Intimacy, Harmony, Compassion and Devotion. Unbalanced heart energies are those expressed as codependency.

It is part of the spiritual journey to use our heart’s energy to engage in self reflection, connect with our soul, move toward balance and develop healthy self love and acceptance.
When we do so, we bring a healthy flow of heart energy to our lives and are able to share heartfelt energy with others.

Developing the Observer Self
The focus of the lower self or mind is on the areas of life and experience that are the province of the first three chakras. Unbalanced energies here manifest in preoccupations anchored in fear, misdirected passion, power struggles and identity problems.

The heart chakra provides the possibility of opening to an inner space where we can connect with wholeness, learn self love and acceptance and embrace the duality of life rather than being caught in the separatism of the ego with its judgments of good and bad, black and white. It is in the heart that we have the ability to move beyond the judgment and analysis of the intellect into acceptance, compassion and wisdom.

Development of the Observer Self is a natural and necessary step at this juncture in the journey. This development is not just a change in ideas about things; it is a shift in the level of consciousness from which we experience the world, people, events, places and things. It is essentially a change to living from the inside out instead of the outside in.

Living more from the Observer brings with it a greater state of coherence of our energy, more inner peace and greater stillness of mind that allows for more conscious creation in our lives.