The heart chakra – Anahata

Words SANDY STEVENS

Wikipedia suggests that Anahata is the heart chakra. In Sanskrit, Anahata (Nad) refers to the eternal sound, the sound of the celestial realm. Anahata is also associated with balance, calmness, and serenity. The heart chakra became suddenly meaningful when something unexpected happened in my life a short time ago.

On a lovely sunny morning, out of nowhere, I had a heart attack. As I rose from bed and my feet touched the ground, I knew something was not quite normal. I wasn’t in pain, but I experienced great discomfort. It felt as if I had a tight band around my chest. After telephoning my son to please come and take care of Buddy, my beloved dog, I called an ambulance to take care of the physical side of what was happening inside my body.

While attending to these practicalities, I silently chanted HU – pronounced hue – the ancient eternal sound, which is a part of my daily spiritual practice which I rely on without fail and trust completely. Despite feeling quite sick, I just knew all would be well and I had no need to be concerned.

I was soon inside the ambulance, lying on a gurney, being cared for by some efficient and skilled paramedics. The young woman who was ministering to my immediate needs, placed a tiny pill under my tongue, and within minutes I felt much better. Such relief! Free from discomfort, I was able to relax and begin to enjoy this novel situation. After all, I had never had a heart attack before!

I am passionate about living in the moment. This skill has become a part of my life and is as natural to me as breathing. I had no concerns about what had happened, certain as I was that my physical well-being would be looked after at the hospital once we arrived.

Living this way has liberated me from unnecessary stress and worries, so despite my circumstances, I was able to bring my attention to the young paramedic and to chat with her about what was on my mind at the time. I told her about a book I had recently published and how most of my time and energy had gone into creating a website and blog to connect with others who might be interested in spirituality as I was.

This little incident – the heart attack – might slow me down in achieving what I had planned! She was a good listener, and very interested in spirituality. Soon we were both exploring the purpose of this heart attack. Had it occurred so I could connect with her, talk with her about the book and the spiritual experiences many people have? We had a good laugh at this idea, even though personally, I had seen such ‘coincidences’ often enough to know how very real this can be.

Curious to know more, we were soon discussing the difference between belief and experience – two very different things – and how one could distinguish between what was real or not.

As we approached the hospital, my companion was looking up the book title on her mobile phone because, by now, she was determined to read it. No matter how much she tried, somehow, she could not find it. After several unsuccessful results – and feeling a bit silly – I spelled the title to her letter by letter.

It was only then the mystery was solved: instead of entering ‘The’ in the search engine, she had been entering the letter ‘Z.’

This is where the magic happened! You see, while the young woman was dumbstruck as to why she would have entered the letter ‘Z’ instead of ‘The’ (stating that her English was pretty good and she had no idea how this had happened), I went on a totally different tangent.

Z is short for Wah Z, the spiritual name of my Inner Guide and therefore very meaningful to me. When I am aware of being a conduit for love, connecting soul to soul with another, I suddenly become teary just as I did on this occasion. It’s like an inner sign that Divine Spirit has used me to touch something or someone in a special way. These are tears of love and of joy, like touching the heart of God for a few precious seconds. The day’s event had now become a divine gift.

This was the beginning of a few very special days that helped me keep my heart open to find more joyful love, no matter the place or situation. Once again, it was proof that life can be full of amazing adventures when we are able to look at any event from a higher viewpoint.

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