While the lower three chakras are mainly concerned with issues of the ego and how we relate to ourselves – first chakra being concerned with issues of home, health, and family, second chakra with sexuality and how we are able to creatively express ourselves, and third chakra entwined with how we feel about ourselves and how we are able to access and express our personal power – the heart chakra is the point at which the energy flow begins to expand to include the ever-loving world around us.
Located at heart center, the heart chakra is all about how we relate to others. It vibrates to the color green, which is a beautiful color to resonate with seeing as it, of all the colors of the rainbow, is most present in our environment. Grass green, flower green, and the many varying shades of green that make up the bushes, plants, and trees that populate our world.
The Sanskrit name for the heart chakra is Anahata, which translates to Unstruck Chord This name is relevant because our heart needs another soul to reach out and touch it. When the heart chakra is able to connect with another being, the unique tone resonates within to create it’s own blissful sound to fill up the soul.
The demon of the heart chakra is grief. Many people, when experiencing a profound pain, find that their first reaction is to wall themselves off from the world around them. They very carefully create a solid wall around their tender heart chakra, making it impossible for others to hurt them, but also making it impossible to connect with others.
Just as would happen if you were to build a solid wall between a small plant and the light of the sun, your heart will wither and slowly begin to die without an open connection with the world around.
Symptoms of a heart chakra that is underdeveloped include being shy, lonely, isolated, and lacking in empathy. All these are symptoms of a block, or a wall around the heart chakra.
To open a blocked heart chakra, practice a dynamic version of Warrior One where you inhale to raise your arms into a V shape over your head, with your fingertips stretching towards the sky as you draw your shoulder blades together to support your open heart. As you exhale, extend your arms out at your sides as though preparing to give somebody a big hug and aim your fingertips slightly behind you. Practice this exercise for an equal number of breaths on each side and move slowly and purposefully, drawing out each movement and breath to it’s fullest.
Your heart chakra may have an excessive amount of energy if you often feel jealous, possessive or find yourself in co-dependent relationships. If this is the case, chances are you are experiencing an imbalance of energy in the surrounding chakras – in this case, the fifth, or throat chakra and the third, or solar plexus chakra. Try intoning a mantra such as Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo, which honors the heart chakra as the seat of our lifetime’s wisdom and the inner guru.
You can also practice meditating on pure, divine love. Do this by sitting in an easy-seated pose with your hands cupped in a bowl shape in front of your heart. As you still and focus on your breath, imagine a sparkling white light entering your crown chakra and making a strong, clear pathway to your heart. Visualize this light as containing pure, divine love and filling you up. As you sit and breathe and take in this divine light, imagine it traveling through your veins and infusing all of your body until each of your cells shines with this same pure white light.
Anahata Chakra is connected with the heart, lungs, and circulatory system. If you experience any symptoms of dis-ease in these areas of your body, you may want to create a practice designed to balance your heart chakra.
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