Heart Chakra

If you particularly want to improve your emotional life, understand your feelings better, and be happier then focus on your Heart Chakra (Anahata).

The heart chakra is the wellspring of love, warmth, compassion, and joy. Anahata is an integrating and unifying chakra, it's your healing center. After all, isn’t love the ultimate healing force? The unifying force and the energy that is the most fundamental part of the universe, and of ourselves.

But, what if the energy of your heart chakra is not balanced or blocked? You will likely be having feelings of negative emotions of anger, grief, hate, isolation, and jealousy. In this case, you need to heal and align your heart chakra.

To discover the secret forces within this gentle energy, let’s take a look at the fundamental facts about heart chakra or Anahata and introduce you to heart healing.

Next Chakra: 👉 Throat Chakra

What Is Heart Chakra Or Anahata?

The Heart Chakra, also known as Anahata meaning “unhurt” in Sanskrit, is one of the major energy centers of our body. It is the fourth out of the total seven chakras. The heart chakra is positioned directly above the heart, slightly to the left at the center of the chest. It is the middle one of all chakras and it connects the higher chakras (the heaven) with the lower chakras (the physical world).

Anahata is the center of your deep bonds with other beings, your caring and compassionate attitude, feelings of self-love, generosity, kindness and respect. It responds to and helps to shape your capacity for love, affection, and compassion. Also, it corresponds to the hearts, lungs, thymus glands, and cardiac plexus.

The fourth chakra’s natural element is air, and this air disperses and integrates a spiritual understanding of love, compassion, and connection to everything that you encounter. Because, air, just like love is within and all around us.

Those with an open and balanced heart chakra harbor deep love, empathy, and forgiveness. On the other hand when the chakra is blocked the person will manifest grief, anger, hatred, and jealousy. He/she will also have difficulty opening up to people in their life.

One can easily open the heart chakra, which is the start of your healing process.

Let’s Have A Look At The Basics Of The Heart Chakra:

Location: In the middle of the chest, just above the heart
Element: Air
Color: Green
Seed Vibration Mantra: Yam
What does the Heart Chakra control?: Love, Joy and Inner Peace

Signs Of Misaligned/Blocked Heart Chakra:

A blocked heart chakra includes the following symptoms:

Restlessness
Difficulty trusting others
Impatience and irritability
Lack of empathy
Unforgiving
Overly critical of self and others

Some of the physical symptoms triggered by a blocked heart chakra can include these (though some of these can have purely biological triggers to):

Insomnia
Increase in blood pressure
Weak immune system

Any kind of grief or loss can mean you need to practice heart chakra healing exercises. Also, if you are struggling to accept a truth about yourself, this type of overwhelming emotion can push the heart chakra out of alignment.

How To Open, Activate And Unblock Your Heart Chakra?

The additional benefit of an open heart chakra is that it aids in all kinds of chakra healing. Opening your heart will open the door to infinite possibilities. So to unblock and realign your heart chakra you can try the following approaches.

Do Meditation

To balance your heart chakra, it's wise you follow a meditation practice. There are specific meditation techniques you can use when you sense a blockage developing. Try the following method which is actually quite easy especially for beginners.

Choose a calm and quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.
Sit comfortably with your spine straight. Don’t be stiff.
Now breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth for a few minutes. As you do this, feel your body relaxing.
Imagine a green light moving up through your body starting at the base of the spine towards the heart.
Visualize that energy turning into a bright green ball of energy sitting at the level of the heart chakra.
As you inhale and exhale, envision that ball becoming bigger and brighter.
Tune to feelings of love for yourself and others, letting the green energy radiate through your whole body.
End the meditation after 3-4 minutes.

Practice Yoga

The yoga poses to expand the Anahata chakra usually include poses such as passive chest openers, shoulder openers, ar positions, and backbends. Some good examples of these yoga techniques are such as Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose), Ustrasana (Camel Pose), Supta Baddha Konasana (Supine Bound Angle Pose), and Matsysana (Fish Pose). Practicing these poses will open the heart and will help to activate and balance the heart chakra.

Say Affirmations

Affirmations are a powerful and wonderful way of getting rid of old, limiting beliefs, and building confidence. You can say them every day to keep potential blockages at bay. You can also repeat them if you think the heart is closing up. Some of the useful positive affirmations to use are as follows:

I live with an open heart.
I choose love, joy, and compassion.
I live in harmony with all other beings.
I release and let go of all resentment.
I love myself unconditionally, and offer the same love to others.

Include Chakra Food In Your Diet

Since the color of the heart chakra is a beautiful green, heal your 4th chakra with fresh, raw green foods. Yes, eat green, lots of it!

You can’t go wrong with green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, kale, peas, zucchini and green bell peppers can help heal and balance your heart chakra. Green fruits like green apples, kiwi, guava, green limes, and avocado can also assist.

Warm drinks like a cup of green tea or a bowl of soup can be a great heart healer. Alternatively, experiment with superfoods like quinoa, barley, and chlorella or play with a variety of herbs like basil, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme.

Here’s a tip, you can drink fresh green juice, serve yourself a salad, or start your day with a healthy green smoothie.