Understanding the Chakras: HEART Chakra
At the midpoint of the seven chakras, the fourth in our series is the heart chakra, or anahata.
It sits at the transition point between the lower three chakras, which focus on our relationship to our body, emotions, and the earth, and the upper chakras, which relate to our spirituality, consciousness, and awareness of our place in the universe.
I’ve already covered the three lower chakras earlier in this blog series. You can read the other posts to find out more about the root chakra, the sacral chakra, and the solar plexus chakra
At the center of our spines, the heart chakra is the bridge between the physical and the spiritual. Its element is air, and it is associated with the color green.
As you might expect, the heart chakra is the center of love. But this doesn’t just mean romantic love. It includes self-love, compassion, empathy, and kindness. A balanced heart chakra helps us build healthy relationships with ourselves and others.
The heart chakra is also home to our intuition. The phrase ‘follow your heart’ means to make decisions based on your instincts and emotions, not cold logic.
And it connects us to our emotions, as well as to the world around us. It is associated with transformation and the acceptance of change.
Where is the Heart Chakra?
Given its name, you won’t be surprised to find that the heart chakra is located in the center of your chest and is related to your heart and lungs.
The heart chakra also covers the thymus gland, which sits between your lungs, behind the breastbone. This gland plays an essential role in our immune systems and how we age.
The Heart Chakra in Balance
When your heart chakra is open and balanced, you feel a sense of love and compassion for both yourself and others. Empathetic and kind, you find it easy to maintain healthy relationships with friends, family, and lovers.
You are connected with your emotions. They don’t overwhelm you, but you can let them ebb and flow without being carried away by them. You embrace joy and allow yourself to feel grief. You know how to listen to your intuition and let it guide you.
Because you extend compassion and empathy to everyone, you find it easy to forgive people, including yourself. You don’t hold grudges. And you are able to let relationships go when it is time.
You also know your own limits and can hold healthy boundaries to protect yourself from being carried away by the needs of others.
You feel connected to the world around you. You appreciate beauty, embrace wonder, and find acceptance for changing circumstances.
Deficiencies in the Heart Chakra
When the flow of energy through your heart chakra is blocked or sluggish, you find it hard to build and maintain relationships. You might notice that your connections with other people are all surface-level – you never move deeper with them.
You struggle to feel empathy for other people, or love and compassion for yourself. You might suppress your feelings and find it difficult to trust others. You may also find it challenging to trust yourself.
You will tend to hold onto grudges and be slow to forgive people, including yourself. You will also struggle to feel joy or to lose yourself in the moment. Instead of feeling connected to the world, you often have a sense of being alone.
You are likely to feel insecure and may become jealous. You shy away from commitment and often keep other people at arm's length.
Physically, blockages in the heart chakra can show up as chest pains, respiratory issues, or problems with the cardiovascular system. You might experience issues with your circulation or have pain in your upper back and shoulders.
Excesses in the Heart Chakra
When energy flows too freely through the heart chakra, your ability to maintain healthy boundaries is eroded. You struggle to find balance in your relationships, giving everything you have and not being open to receiving in return.
You put other people before yourself to an extent that puts you at risk of burning out. You don’t keep back any love or compassion for yourself.
You also find that you are easily carried away by your emotions and are ruled by them. You rely on other people for praise and validation, making you co-dependent in your relationships.
What Triggers Blockages in the Heart Chakra?
Any emotional trauma can cause blockages in your heart chakra. It is often related to periods of change, such as a physical illness, the end of a relationship, the loss of a loved one, or any other significant upheaval in your daily life.
Stress is another common cause of blocked energy in the heart chakra. Family strife or other sources of conflict with loved ones can affect the heart chakra too.
How Can You Bring Your Heart Chakra Back into Balance?
Embracing joy, acceptance, and gratitude can help to heal your heart chakra and bring you back into balance. There are also physical exercises you can try, such as yoga and breathwork, to help you unblock this chakra and get the energy flowing freely again.
1. Breathwork
The heart chakra’s element is air, and it relates to our lungs as well as our hearts. So, some simple breathing exercises can help to release blockages and open your heart chakra.
Concentrate on taking deep breaths, using your chest instead of your diaphragm. You can combine this with meditation, imaging a gentle green light bathing your chest as you inhale and exhale.
Or you might visualize a rose blooming in your chest while you breathe. Each breath feeds the flower, helping it grow stronger and more beautiful.
2. Yoga: Chest Openers
Yoga poses that open the chest can help to unblock the heart chakra. Examples include cobra (bhujangasana), camel pose (ustrasana), bow pose (bhanurasana), cat-cow (marjaryasana/bitilasana), or wild thing (camatkarasana).
3. Express Gratitude
Simply noticing the blessings in your life can be a powerful practice to unblock the heart chakra and encourage you to feel love and compassion for your circumstances.
Keep a gratitude journal in whatever format works best for you. This might be on paper, or you might simply list things in your mind.
4. Pamper Yourself
Take some time to treat yourself with loving kindness by pampering your body and mind. You might, for example, take a long bath or give yourself a massage. Use essential oils that correspond to the heart chakra, such as rose, marjoram, lavender, or neroli.
5. Make Time for Joy
Give yourself permission to spend time doing activities you love and that bring you joy. These don’t need to be big or time-consuming. Simple activities, such as putting on some music and dancing in your own home, can be enough. Just prioritize things that feed your heart.
6. Sound baths
A sound bath uses waves of sound to relax your mind and unblock areas of stagnant energy. They can be used to open any blocked chakra, with specific notes corresponding to each chakra. The heart chakra’s note is F.
Although you can find sound meditations online that are aimed at unblocking the heart chakra, many people believe it is more effective when you are physically present in the same space as the instruments used to make the sound. So, you may want to seek out a sound therapist to work with.
Healing your heart chakra is an ongoing process. When it is in balance, you will find yourself in deep connection with yourself and with the world around you. Emotionally aware and full of empathy, you will be able to extend love and forgiveness to everyone you encounter.
I hope this guide has given you some ideas for how to get started with healing your heart chakra and bringing it back into balance.