41.0°

I have not seen any studies correlating beauty and heart disease, but I venture to propose that there is a correlation. In order to find beauty in anything or anybody, we need to open our hearts a little to the beauty of ourselves, even for a moment, just to connect deeply with beauty.

We step aside in that moment, no matter how brief, with the continual fight within us, criticizing our every move, closing us off from our deepest emotions, the ones we'd rather not feel. When we move to that position, the position of unconditional love, we can see the beauty in what is before us and what is within us. That simultaneous presence of beauty within and without brings great peace, and can shift our entire energy flow.

Imagine losing yourself looking into a flower, or a waterfall, or into a child's eyes. The feeling of giving up the fight, quitting the critique replays in the head, and opening to beauty is one that invites us to open to our depth. Moving to that position is the same movement where healing happens, where change and a shift of energy occurs.

We can move there consciously, with direction, using energy balancing. And though we cannot force unconditional love, or opening to our depth, we can line ourselves up for it using this structure, of focused awareness.

Try this exercise: Sit or stand looking at a flower. Connect with your heart chakra (energy organ) at the lower third of the sternum, or breast bone in the center of the chest. Keep looking at the flower while you stay connected with your heart chakra. Go back and forth with your awareness, flower, heart chakra, flower, heart chakra feeling the intensity build.

Let the awareness in your heart chakra spread out over your entire chest, into your shoulders and down both of your arms all the way to your fingers. Feel the energy in your palms. Feel the energy between your palms, in the air from one hand to the other.

Take your time. Connect back with your heart chakra. Feel your beauty. Come back to the flower; feel the beauty. You can repeat the exercise as many times as you like and whenever you want to open your heart to beauty.

The heart chakra sits in the center of the energy field, and connects the lower, dense energies that are more physical based with the faster, lighter energies of the mind and the spirit. So the heart can be the key to blending our mind and body and our spiritual and physical dimensions. Because it is so central, it is vulnerable to blockages, whether blockages in thinking or in our physical manifestation or our expression. Anything can be blocked or opened and transformed with the heart chakra.

Today heart disease is one of the most common life threats, illnesses, and disabilities. Depression in the energy medicine model is defined as a separation from the heart, an inability to connect with feelings or with others, a blockage to the heart. Mood dis-orders are one of the most common conditions we see in family medicine, associated with feelings, lack of feelings, and blockages in the heart.

Working with the heart chakra can be instrumental for physical and mental health.

I will hold a free energy balancing group and meditation instruction focusing on the heart at 5:15 p.m. tonight at 119 Seward St, Suite 17. Participants will learn energy balancing exercises to use for opening their hearts to their own beauty and healing. No RSVP necessary. Call 523-9355 for information or questions.

• Dr. Maureen Longworth is a family physician also certified in holistic medicine with a private practice in downtown Juneau.