Heart Chakra - Anahata
This Chakra is the center of love and nurturing.
You are worthy of love.
Be open to receiving the love available to you now, the free-flowing love that is your birthright.
Live in balance with others. Let your heart's energy flow freely in and out. There is an infinite supply of love.
When balanced, it brings compassion, peace, and love.
When the Heart Chakra is Blocked
When the Heart Chakra is blocked or misaligned, you'll struggle to relate to others.
You may be less compassionate than usual and may be impatient.
You'll commonly find it harder than usual to trust and won't feel at peace. Rather, you'll feel restless and disgruntled.
A closed Heart Chakra can give way to grief, anger, jealousy, fear of betrayal, and hatred toward yourself and others—especially in holding a grudge against something or someone.
Holding onto hurt harbors negative feelings and removes you from opportunities to love.
A blocked Heart Chakra can also manifest physically.
Some Chakra experts think such misalignment may be linked to high blood pressure and low immune system function.
Symptoms of a blocked Heart Chakra include the following:
- Restlessness
- Difficulty trusting others
- Impatience and irritability
- Lack of empathy
Some of the physical symptoms of a blocked Heart Chakra can include these (though note that these issues can, of course, have purely biological roots):
- Insomnia
- Increase in blood pressure
- A decrease in immune system function
Balancing the Heart Chakra
If you want to open your Heart Chakra, loving others is not enough—you must also cultivate bold self-love.
We are not dying of heartbreak because we do not know how to love one another.
We are dying of heartbreak because we do not love ourselves!
Many of us are cloaked in too much armor to receive love from others fully.
Unconditional love cannot be shared or received until self-love has been generated and sustained.
This is the work of the Heart Chakra.
Here are ways to balance your Heart Chakra.
Physical:
- Pay attention to your posture.
- Most of us walk around like hunchbacks, unconsciously closing our hearts.
- Begin to become aware of your posture while sitting, standing, and walking.
- Straighten the spine, engage the core, open the front of your chest, and drop your shoulders.
- Check in frequently to ensure you don't lose it and notice if you feel somewhat vulnerable in specific scenarios.
Mental:
- Write a love letter.
- Spend some time writing to yourself.
- Tell yourself all the things you love about yourself.
- Write as if you are writing to the love of your life.
- Eventually, that is who you will become.
Emotional:
- Try a metta meditation.
- Close your eyes and visualize yourself sitting in front of you.
- Wish yourself the following:
- May I feel safe.
- May I be healthy.
- May I be joyful.
- May I know love.
- Next, visualize someone you love or appreciate.
- Wish them the exact phrases of loving-kindness:
- May they feel safe.
- May they be healthy.
- May they be joyful.
- May they know love.
- Next, visualize someone you have a conflict with or with whom you find challenging.
- I wish them the same:
- May they feel safe.
- May they be healthy.
- May they be joyful.
- May they know love.
- Sit in meditation for five minutes, bathing in the feelings you have generated for yourself and others.
Spiritual:
- Participate in a service or volunteer activity.
- Being of service is an opportunity to give unconditionally.
- Choose an activity that allows you to interact with others who may be suffering in ways you are not.
- Being of service is a way to generate compassion and experience how your compassion for others affects your well-being.
Heart Chakra Advice
Spending time with family, pets, forgiveness, reiki, open-heartedness, touch -- with a partner, dance, massage, peace, healing past relationships, letting go, trusting in unconditional love... giving and receiving unconditional love.How to Open the Heart Chakra
- Sit cross-legged. Let the tips of your index finger and thumb touch.
- Put your left hand on your left knee and your right hand in front of the lower part of your breast bone (so a bit above the solar plexus).
- Concentrate on the Heart chakra at the spine, level with the heart.
- Chant the sound YAM.