Anahata Chakra: Heart Expansion
Practicing Love.
Welcome to the Heart Chakra. This is the most beautiful energy centre! It is the meeting of the Chakras that are rooted in the body, with those that are in the mind. It is where the grounding of the root, the emotional of the sacral, the power of the solar, meet the expression of the throat, the visioning of the third eye, and the community of the crown. The heart is the love for all of these.
There are so many different type of love we can focus on…
There is the honouring of you through self love
The choice of unconditional love of the family
The love that you find in friendships
The power of romantic love
And these types of love mean something different to everyone.
The love I want to focus on today is the love that I strive for - One-ness; a sense of belonging with the community and the world around me. I want to feel an innate love for every individual, animal and environment. This is the love that has really been moving through us at The Wake Collective recently.
I thought I would take today just to talk a little bit about our values, and what inspires us - share with you some practical ways in which we practice love.
Animals
For us, Veganism is a mindset of selfless love. It is about doing minimal harm with every aspect of your life, from what you are eating, to what are you wearing, and to how you treat every living thing.
We recently attended a talk by Bob from Family Freedom that was all about Vegan activism. The amazing take-away that we got from this talk, was to ‘lead with your inspiration’.
Every individual is on their own journey in life, and comes to understandings and decisions at different time. This talk opened up our eyes to the ability to inspire in your everyday life and to lead with positivity and not negativity around your beliefs. He spoke about the ability to inspire with every encounter - when you encounter an individual who doesn’t share your Vegan beliefs, never lead with shame, don’t point out ‘flaws’ or where you think they are wrong. This is an opportunity to share knowledge, and to inspire from your own experiences. Lets help the narrative of Veganism to be one of positivity!
What we are doing at The Wake Collective…
Retreat
We have created a menu of plant based meals, there to inspire any individual coming on a retreat!
Programme
Throughout our Awaken programmes (7 Day and 7 Month) we give different vegan meal and food suggestions that align with the Chakras
Watching
Carnage - Simon Amstell’s 2017 mock-umentary. Such a clever take on the topic, full of humour, love and education. “It's 2067, the UK is vegan, but older generations are suffering the guilt of their carnivorous past. Simon Amstell asks us to forgive them for the horrors of what they swallowed”. Check it out here.
Reading
We are currently reading Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. A 1975 book ‘widely considered within the animal liberation movement to be the founding philosophical statement of its ideas’. Its an eye opening book, still with resonance nearly 45 years on, we will post a full article once we have finished the book… Buy the Kindle edition here
Eating
Anything from ‘The Vegan Build’ cookbook. @the.vegan.build are a fellow Isle of Wight company, who have created a beautiful cookbook, with easy, nutritious recipes. There is then the added bonus of so much nutritional information, so that you get exactly what you need in your diet with no fuss! Our particular favourite is their ‘Dahl-ing’. See some exerts from the cookbook here.
The Environment
At The Wake Collective we learn so much from nature. We find so much inspiration in nature and its history, colour, and complexities. It is where we go to relax and recharge. The beach, the forest, the parks, the tree’s - the grounding energy is so important to us.
There is so much beauty in nature, and so many ways you can both appreciate it and bring it into your life. At the moment we are so inspired by Rebecca Desnos at @plants_are_magic. Her book on plant dying and beautiful Instagram feed are amazing collections of ways to bring the magic of nature to your life.
What we are doing at The Wake Collective…
Retreat
We are so proud to be a UK based retreat! We are accessible by public transport from London and neighbouring European countries. We are excited to expand the UK offering of wellness retreats, and create a boutique healing space that you don’t need to fly somewhere to access.
Programmes
“Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis .” Read more here… We are focusing a lot of our energy on our online programmes. And, in line with the rest of the collective, 10% of all income from the programme goes towards a tree planting charity. See our full environmental commitment here.
Following
Venetia Falconer and Max La Manna. Venetia Falconer is an amazing champion of sustainable fashion and #OOOTD / out outfit of the day hashtag - which we absolutely love! Her husband Max La Manna is an amazing zero waste chef who serves up so much foodie inspiration. Both are also Vegan so all recipes are animal friendly! Their recent wedding gave so much inspiration about how to do a large event sustainably with zero waste.
Using
Refillable shampoo, washing up liquid, shower gel, cleaning products! It is easy to do, saves on so much plastic waste, and is often cheaper. We buy Faith in Nature products and refill - see their list of refill stations here. The Body Shop on Bond Street have also just started with refillable bottles - so its great to see this starting to hit the high street!
Eating
Seasonally and locally. When possible we buy from local farms, farmers market, or use what we grow in our garden! We know that isn't always practical, so when in the supermarket we always make sure we are buying items grown in the UK so that we don't contribute to all those extra air miles.
Individuals
This love can be both the easiest and the most difficult! When it comes to the individuals, there is so much conflict, and opinion, that we often get blocked in this form of love. But we are finding a way to love through barriers - finding a oneness and belonging so that you love every individual, regardless.
Laura, founder of The Wake Collective, has a great teaching that I want to mention here. “The being is perfect and the actions can be less than perfect”
Through this thought, we can love that someone is a living, human, being - just as we love as an animal for being sentient and having care. Whilst we can also disagree with the actions that someone takes or the opinions that they hold.
What we are doing at The Wake Collective…
Retreat
At the core of our retreats is sharing and community. Every day we share with the other individuals journeying with us to learn deeply from their story. It is enriching and enlightening to allow the experiences of others to deepen your love for them and the community.
Programme
Our programmes are open to anyone and everyone! We offer the ability to practice from home, in a personal space. We are non-judgemental, and if you have fear about going to your first class, or need some alone time, we can offer that.
Listening
Russell Brand’s wonderful Podcast ‘Under The Skin’. In particular his episode with Brene Brown - they discuss compassion and the happiness you gain from always acting from a place of compassion. Brene Brown states “I know my life is better when I work from the assumption that everyone is doing the best they can.”(Dare to Lead). I can’t recommend this enlightening process enough - if you assume everyone is doing the best they can in every day that they are given, you open your eyes to humanity.
Practicing
Our listening skills! We are practicing truly hearing what someone is really saying to understand, and always respond with care.
Honouring
Amma. Amma is a beautiful symbol of love across all borders - a Hindu spiritual leader, guru and humanitarian, who is revered as a hugging saint by her followers. Her followers come from all different faiths and countries, and are bound by one common thread - their love. For us, Amma is a symbol of true and innate compassion.
“If we penetrate deeply into all aspects and all areas of life, we will find that hidden behind everything is love. We will discover that love is the force, the power and inspiration behind every word and every action. This applies to all people, irrespective of race, caste, creed, sect, religion or of what work people do.”
- Amma
This is how we practice love!
Through all of the above and so much more!
How do you practice love?
A W A K E N is a 7 Day Meditation and Mindset programme programme based on the Chakra framework - taking you on a journey to unveil the fullness of your potential.