What is the Heart Chakra?
A spinning wheel of energy
The Heart Chakra is the 4th Chakra in your primary chakra system. It is a whirling vortex of energy located in the center of your chest and is in the middle of the other six primary chakras. You can read more about all the chakras here.
It is the energy center for giving and receiving love: joy, compassion, and selflessness. For example, after 9/11, exuberant heart chakra energy brought us together: genuine compassion, empathy, and a willingness to put others before ourselves.
The energy generated from the Heart Chakra is powerful, magnificent, and divine. It is pure, unconditional Love. This Love is the greatest healing force in the world.
It is the center of Christ Consciousness (a state of consciousness where self realization and a connection with the Divine or God is found).
The Sanskrit word for the Heart Chakra is Anahata, meaning “whole” or “unbroken.” It is associated with the color green and pink.
Unbalanced or blocked energy flow
Blocked Heart Chakras can cause people to become bitter, lonely, and isolated. They need help finding a balance between giving and receiving. They can be impersonal, lack boundaries, and love with conditions.
Your Heart Chakra is connected to your heart, lungs, rib cage, shoulders, upper back, arms, and hands. There is also a connection with skin and touch.
The Heart Chakra is also associated with the Thymus gland and the Lymphatic and Immune systems.
When your Heart Chakra is weak or blocked, you can be more susceptible to physical dis-ease in any or all of the areas mentioned above.
How to find your Heart Chakra
It is not about physical location
You now know the physical location of your Heart Chakra. Have you ever witnessed someone putting their hand to their chest when they’ve seen or heard something profound? That’s the spot. Everyone varies a little but it is somewhere around mid-sternum.
So, how about feeling your Heart Chakra energy? Knowing where it is because you feel it, not with your hands but with your energetic self.
Finding the energy through feeling
You can begin by sitting in nature. If that’s not possible, sit comfortably with your eyes closed and imagine a beautiful natural place.
Take a moment to ground yourself. Breathe in the fresh air and feel this place. Give yourself time here to comfortably adjust and take in the beauty. What it smells like, and the sounds of the trees and the animals. Let the natural sounds distract you for a time. If this is challenging, return to it as you can and practice.
As you relax in this place, feeling calm and safe, think of something or someone that brings you complete joy. For me, this is my oldest brother Charlie. Thinking of him is a direct link to my Heart Chakra. When I first started acknowledging my Heart Chakra energy, thinking of Charlie was the quickest way for me to tune into this energy source.
Love, joy and your Heart Chakra energy
My heart energy has tumbled through many waves of emotions and experiences, providing me with reasons to harden my heart. However, I have Charlie as my example of pure love and joy. Hardening my heart would mean shutting him out, too, and that love energy won’t be severed.
He has always been my example of joy and compassion and a reminder that not all is lost. He has been my guiding star long before I realized it. The key to the person I am today.
As you think of your person, place, or moment in time, look for the feeling in the area in your chest. I ask you to explore it. Opening up this energy does come with vulnerability. If that thought makes you uncomfortable, make sure your in a safe place to explore it.
The first few times I did this, I cried. This is a divine feeling, and acknowledging it can be powerful.
Let the emotion flow through you; do not suppress it. Take deep breaths and feel the energy expand from this place through your whole body and eventually out into your surroundings. Come back and do this exercise until you know this feeling well.
Perhaps you feel hardened by people. Please take note of this so you can work on it. If you want support with this, please reach out to me.
When I think about Charlie, and my dog, Shiner, that energy intensifies!
Following the thread of energy
Once you have a good connection to your Heart Chakra, you can follow the thread to other people, pets, and moments that generate this same energy.
For me, this looks like the moments my boys played baseball together, their hugs and laughter, words they made up when they were little, hugs from my husband, road trips with him in the Jeep, places I’ve been in nature, singing, writing, playing music and helping others.
With some patience and practice, you’ll weave a whole blanket of this energy around you; you’ll become more and more aware of your heart energy, and can begin using it to manifest and send unconditional love to yourself and others.
Healing Your Heart Chakra
If you have trouble feeling your heart’s energy, contact me to schedule some time to talk. Reiki sessions are also beneficial for working through blocks and imbalances.
You can begin to work on healing your Heart Chakra by:
- Use Rose, Tarragon, or Jasmine essential oils in a diffuser or your bath water
- Drink tea infused with Thyme.
- Carry Jade or Rose Quartz gemstones with you
- Say Affirmations: I lovingly accept myself as I am. My heart is open to give and receive love. I am grateful for my ability to love unconditionally. Repeat these often, especially if they feel uncomfortable.
- Spend time in nature – for us rural folks, this does not include outside chores.
- Listen to music that touches your heart
- Wear green
- Cobra pose is a good yoga pose for the heart chakra