OPENING YOUR HEART CHAKRA

The heart chakra, the 4th chakra or Anahata chakra - the wellspring of love, warmth, compassion, and joy is located in the center of the chest at the heart level.

Anahata moves love through your life. It is the center of your deep bonds with other beings, your sense of caring and compassion, your feelings of self-love, altruism, generosity, kindness, and respect. Anahata is an integrating and unifying chakra - bringing to wholeness - as such, it is your healing center. Indeed, most spiritual traditions recognize love as the ultimate healing force.

The energy of anahata allows us to recognize that we are part of something larger, that we are interconnected within an intricate web of relationships extending through life and the universe. Anahata allows us to recognize and get in touch with the sacred and fundamental truth that runs through all of life and connects everything together.

The "way of the heart" or the "path of the heart" is living your life from this energy center of love. It means living your life with loving kindness and compassion towards others. It means that your heart is open to others and you inspire kindness and compassion in others. You create safe and supportive environment.

Others can feel your love and warmth. They feel loved and accepted unconditionally. People feel at peace around you, as there is no judgment coming from you.

When anahata is open and energy is flowing freely, you are not only loving to others, you are also loving to yourself. You know when you need to say no and when you need care and self-nurturing.

Most of the world's spiritual traditions recognize love as the unifying force, the energy that is the most fundamental part of the universe, and of ourselves. To open to love is to reach to the deepest places and connect with our true essence, our spirit, and our soul.

Heart Chakra Affirmations

I am open to love. All love resides within my heart. I deeply and completely love and accept myself. I nurture my inner child. I am wanted and loved. I live in balance, in a state of gracefulness and gratitude. I love the beauty of nature and the animal world. I forgive myself. I am open to love and kindness. I am grateful for all the challenges that helped me to transform and open up to love. I am connected with other human beings. I feel a sense of unity with nature and animals. I accept things as they are. I am peaceful.

Sanskrit name: Anahata - unstruck Element: Air Color: Green Shape: Crescent moon Petals of the lotus: Twelve Seed sound: Lam Vowel sound: Ay Rights: To love Endocrine gland: Thymus Physical association: Heart, lungs, circulatory system, arms, hands Psychological function: Love Identity: Social identity Developmental stage: 3.5 to 7 years Challenge: Grief Plane: The plane of balance Planets: Venus (lunar, feminine), Sun Deity: Vishnu, Lakshmi, Krishna Mythological Animal: Antelope, dove, birds Sense organ: Skin Predominant sense: Touch Incense: Jasmin, lavender, rose Herb: Yarrow, meadowsweet, oris root Sephira: Tiphareth Tarot suite: Swords

The Heart Chakra color is green, and the secondary color is pink. It is seated deep within your heart.

Heart Chakra Gemstones like rose quartz, green quartz, emeralds, green, pink and watermelon tourmaline, malachite, jade, aventurine, ruby zoolite, moss agate, peridotite, and pink sapphire are used for harmonizing the Heart.

Flower essences and essential oils used for Fourth Chakra balancing are rose, rosewood, jasmine, holly, poppy, bergamot, Melissa, pine and eucalyptus.

Food for the Anahata are vegetables and leafy greens like kale, spinach, dandelion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, celery and squash. Green and herbal teas also nourish the Heart Chakra, as do spices such as sage, cilantro, basil, thyme and parsley.

Heart Chakra Issues

Many issues of love, grief, hatred, anger, jealousy, fears of betrayal, of loneliness, as well as the ability to heal ourselves and others are centered in the fourth chakra.

From this position in the middle of the body the fourth chakra is the balance between your body and spirit. This chakra is the place where unconditional love is centered. Unconditional Love is a creative and powerful energy that may guide and help us through the most difficult times. This energy is available in any moment, if we turn our attention to it and use it to free us from our limits and fears.

Ask yourself some of these questions:

What emotional memories do I need to heal?
What relationships current or past require healing?
Are my emotional wounds taking over, causing me to try and control people or situations around me?
Do I allow the wounds of others to control me? How do I let that happen?
What do I need to forgive myself for? Who needs forgiving from me?

To have this fourth chakra energy fully touch our daily life requires intent and practice. This begins within our self, for without the ability to love ourselves, we cannot truly experience love from another or give it truly to another. In loving ourselves we allow the intent to generate the feeling of unconditional love within us, and then to share this feeling with others. Whatever we send out is returned to us.

A powerful practice to open to and embody unconditional love is one from the Buddhist tradition. It is called Metta Practice and only takes fifteen minutes to do each day.

SYMPTOMS

Blockages can manifest as immune system or heart problems, or a lack of compassion. Characteristics of a blocked heart chakra include fear of rejection, feeling unworthy of love or loving too much.

If there is blockage in the heart chakra, you may feel unworthy of love and skeptical of anyone who wants to love you (and paranoid that you will wind up hurt, yet again), or your love relationships may be completely co-dependent.

CAUSES

You've probably experienced one or more of the following; shaming, authoritarianism, volatile situations, domination of will, physical abuse, dangerous environment, fear of punishment, enmeshment, age inappropriate responsibilities or inherited shame from parent.

If this chakra is imbalanced in some way it means that somewhere along the line, there has been a disruption in your attitude and understanding of love. You may want to give your love with the hopes of gaining control of a person or situation and thus confusing love with manipulation, or you may be giving your love in the hopes of gaining recognition to boost damaged self-esteem. You may consequently be a possessive and mistrustful person who lacks much compassion.

If the heart chakra is completely blocked, this tends to manifest itself in the antithesis of what the heart represents: you are literally heart-less and quite icy in how you receive yourself and others. If you are not open to love in your life, it is not possible to feel very happy and joyful about life or yourself and, people with blocked heart chakras most certainly do not.