the luminous bridge between the ego & the heart

It's time for the realness to come through. It's time for an Energetic Breakdown!

Personally I've been feeling somewhat of an internal struggle for a little while now. It's a vulnerability I thought I'd successfully hidden beneath a thick layer of pretending everything is ok. I had been telling myself I don't deserve to be so bold, so bright, so open about my authentic self, probably for fear of what others might think, how I'd be judged & what kind of impact my personal growth may have on my closest relationships. But what you resists persists & by golly I cannot resist any longer! Now these conflicting feelings have reared their heads & are holding me accountable to live out my dharma & be my authentic self. I've got some fears about making big changes (huge lift shifting changes) & often plagued by self doubts of inadequacy, lack of self-worth, old programmings of poverty as more noble than wealth & abundance....they all seem to love the dark stormy dance between my Ego & my Heart.

I literally feel this area of my body, the diaphragm, pulsing like a heartbeat, begging to be acknowledged, breathed into, to be nurtured & awakened. Yes as a yogini I breathe consciously & yes I definitely know the correlation between the depth of our breath & the depth of our being. Still, I am a human, a person who is here on Earth to learn & figure shit out. There are times when it can be so hard to breathe into the uncomfortable places of complacency, to breathe into the uncertainty of change. It's feels even more intense especially since I'm teaching it other folks on the regular. 

With that being said, my personal practices of yoga & spirituality as well as my professional teachings & offerings tend to revolve around the connection to & awareness of Energy. Hence my intrigue & magnetism to diving into the Chakra System. Now if you are new to Chakras this might sound a bit "out there,"  but trust me everyone has Chakras...even you! Perhaps you're just not tuned into them yet or have not had the exposure or education to understand their significance. 
Consider Chakras as revolving doors of life force energy, running along your spine (Sushumna) which is your biggest energy channel (Nadi). From root to crown (and beyond!) each energetic center pulls energy in & sends it out. We absorb & emit frequencies, colors, sounds & more. The Chakra System is the inner journey of the Self, an internal blueprint of energy. I liken it to a navigational system for expanding our awareness of physical, emotional, psychological & spiritual growth & understanding. If one or more of these energetic centers is stagnant, blocked, excessive or deficient, the result is you guessed it.....dis-ease. Sound familiar?
So naturally I think to myself....I'm feeling a bit crazy lately, I'm so busy with all these projects yet I'm low on funds & feeling drained. I'm having a hard time deciphering for myself what's Ego-driven & Heart-centered, what's fair?.....fair to whom? Where's my place in this crazy world? 
What's going on with my Chakras? I have a hunch....

Let's take a snapshot of 2 specific Chakras: 
the 3rd Chakra / Manipura: Personal Power, Independence, Fire, Light, Charisma, Forging the Path, Purpose, the Ego, Autonomy, Digestion, Liver, Pancreas;  
& the 4th Chakra / Anahata: Unity, Balance, Love, Joy, Compassion, Air, the Breath, Thymus Gland & Heart.
But there is more....there is an energetic space between these two Chakras. It's an evolving Chakra center....the luminous bridge between the Ego & the Heart. This Chakra is known as the Diaphragmatic Chakra.

When the Diaphragmatic Chakra is in balance we're able to breathe deeply into our awareness of the Self, uniting how we feel with what we need to do. We then are able to liberate that energy upward into the space of the Heart. This way we don't get stuck in our passions or power, and learn to harmonize our personal wisdoms with the good of the whole. Our capacity to release self-doubt & the need to be validated by others for approval resides here. Deeply breathing into the space between the 3rd & 4th Chakras supports us in opening the tightness, the rigidity, the tension & stress which can accumulate into an unhealthy roadblock when one is not living authentically as one IZ. (did ya get that joke there?)

When this Chakra is blocked we cut off the intelligence of our emotional wisdom, unable to feel deeply who we are & what we stand for. And often times the Ego gets a bad rep because of the potentially extreme behaviors guided by arrogance, greed & self-centeredness. Yet the Ego is NOT BAD...it's a necessary component to recognizing the power of your being. Those potentially unhealthy qualities of the Ego are distinctly different than healthy expressions of authenticity, confidence, abundance & self-care. 

So how do you & how do I, cultivate the balanced qualities of a healthy Ego & open Heart?
We practice working with the breath. 

Check out my video (my first ever video!) titled, "4 square healing breath" to learn this technique.

I've been practicing this technique & it really works! You can feel everything slow down & come back into balance, calming the wasteful worries of the mind & truly focusing on the present moment & the fluidity of the breath.

Funny the other day one of my students said, "You probably never need to take a yoga class since you are such an amazing yoga teacher!"
I couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Au contrare!" I replied. "That's like saying once you are a chef you never need to eat food again!" We both cracked up at the realization ....
We are never done learning.

Keep on breathing & keepin' on growing my friends!
love, IZ WORD