The heart chakra referred to as “Anahata” in Sanskrit, is our center of love and compassion. The center chakra is the bridge between the lower 3 chakras the upper 3 chakras. Here sits our ability to openly love others as we whole-heartedly love ourselves. Yet, it’s also where we hold heartache and our deepest affections.
Having healthy, loving relationships with the people in our lives and with ourselves is a strong indicator our heart chakra is open. On the contrary, if you have toxic relationships, act overly jealous or controlling, are uneasy about forgiving others, and cannot accept people, your heart chakra may be imbalanced.
Quick Facts about the Heart Chakra
Central Aspect: Love and compassion
Location: Center of the chest
Color: Green
Primary Function: Supports balance of lower and higher chakras, allows to give and receive love freely.
Element: Air
Affirmation: I love
Balanced Energy: Able to give and receive love genuinely, desire to nurture others, cultivate compassion, create room for unconditional love, be in touch with feelings, and feel joy.
Overactive Energy: Lead to possessiveness, clinging, demanding, codependency, moody, and conditional love.
Unbalanced Energy: Cause paranoia, fear of rejection, need for constant reassurance, inability to forgive others or move on from past experiences, bottled emotions.
Physical Symptoms: Chest pain, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, high/low blood pressure, respiratory issues, asthma/allergies
Emotional Symptoms: Resentment, loneliness, critical, possessive, repressed feelings
>> To get a complete overview of chakras, we recommend clicking here to read our guide to chakras, how to unblock them to unleash your power.
How to Balance Your Heart Chakra
Love has the power to move mountains. It’s a vital chakra to nurture and balance. Practicing the self-healing techniques listed below will allow for increased self-compassion, acceptance, and joy. The recommended options here are free, and you can do it in the comfort of your home.
Below are six easy ways to activate your heart chakra. You can heal, strengthen, and balance your heart chakra by committing to just 5 minutes a day on 1-2 techniques.
Crystals to Heal Your Heart Chakra
ROSE QUARTZ: Promotes compassion, kindness, and unconditional love, allows us to have self-love and emotional healing, enhances joy and peace, stimulates playfulness
AVENTURINE: Promotes prosperity, promotes unconditional love, allows us to release anxiety, enhances leadership abilities
EMERALD: Promotes prosperity, enhances unconditional love, compassion, and romance, encourages kindness and forgiveness, is great for the manifestation, increases spiritual awareness and enhances serenity, allows us to experience Divine love and protection, helps to heal trauma
FUCHSITE: Encourages emotional-physical-spiritual healing, allows for renewal, rejuvenation, and balance, increases prosperity and love, intensifies the energy of other crystals
JADE: Allows for protection and safe travel, helps to ease feelings of guilt, interrupts negative thought patterns, strengthens life force energies, increases trust, promotes love of all kinds
MALACHITE: Absorbs negative energy, guards against pollution (energetic and physical, protects us against accidents, relieves fears associated with travel
How to Use Crystals to Activate Your Heart Chakra: Place the crystal on or near the heart chakra, in a pocket, as jewelry, or in your receiving (nondominant) hand during meditation and/or while speaking affirmations. (Total Time: 5 minutes)
Yoga Poses to Activate Your Heart Chakra
MOUNTAIN POSE (Tadasana): This effortless pose provides energy to the chest and allows it to open up. It helps unblock and heal the heart chakra.
CAMEL POSE (Ustrasana): This pose stretches the chest, abdominal area, and quadriceps. Additionally, it allows for the heart to open up to help the heart chakra.
FISH POSE (Matsyasana): This pose provides positive energy that helps open and release tension. It focuses on the area around the heart chakra.
WHEEL POSE (Urdhva Dhanurasana): This pose bends the back and is slightly more challenging. It allows the front of the body to experience opening and stretching. It opens the heart and supplies more energy.
Yoga Chakra Activation: Get into the following poses and hold for three to five breaths, or as long as it feels comfortable. Come out of the pose on an inhale. (Total Time: 5 minutes)
Essential Oils to Open Your Heart Chakra
ROSE: Rose contains the highest spiritual frequency of all essential oils. It starts off the heart chakra and allows us to feel unconditional love. Rose awakens our capacity for self-love, compassion, and self-nurturing. In addition, it provides relief when we are dealing with emotional wounds.
GERANIUM: This is a heart-opening essential oil. It works similarly to rose and jasmine by warming up the body to open up the heart. It is a floral-scented oil that helps to bring balance to the body. Geranium has a calming effect and will balance out any strong feelings one may be having.
NEROLI: Neroli naturally tranquilizes and regulates the nervous system. It contains a vibrational frequency that helps with opening the heart chakra. Neroli promotes confidence, courage, strength, peace, and joy. Also, it helps us to open our hearts and give more freely to others and encourages us to love ourselves and others.
BERGAMOT: Bergamot, usually used in aromatherapy, helps elevate mood and alleviate stress. The essential oil is also said to have antiseptic characteristics. It also supports healing for the heart chakra and allows us to let go of heartbreak.
LAVENDER: Lavender essential oil promotes relaxation for the heart chakra and lets us let go of the stress response. It also allows for the release of fear. In such a relaxed state, we can connect with our center and open up to more love.
YLANG YLANG: The essential oil from Ylang Ylang essential oil is one of the best remedies for the heart chakra. It releases negative emotions and deep emotional sadness, leaving you with positive energies. In addition, it opens up the heart, allowing it to receive more love and acceptance.
How to Use Essential Oils to Activate Your Heart Chakra: Apply the oil (diluted with a carrier oil) and apply it to your hands, rub them together, and deeply inhale or dab onto your heart chakra at the center of your chest. (Total Time: 5 minutes)
Affirmations to Open Your Love Chakra
“I am open to love.”
“I forgive myself and others.”
“I am connected to others.”
“I am worthy and able to give and receive love unconditionally, and I feel a sense of peace and calm within my heart.”
“I am at one with nature.”
“I live in balance and peace.”
“I am peaceful.”
How to Use Affirmations to Activate Your Heart Chakra: Affirmations can be said any time, anywhere. Speak affirmations during meditation. Before, during, or after Yoga. Times when you feel uncertain. Even in times you are feeling good. In conjunction, you may hold crystals when saying your affirmations. Adding affirmations put us into an even higher vibration. (Total Time: 5 minutes)
Meditation to Balance Your Heart Chakra
Sit on the ground comfortably with your legs crossed or lie flat. Sit with your hands beside you. If you have crystals, hold them in your receiving hand (dominant hand). Close your eyes, focus on your breath.
Take deep belly breaths, in and out, as you visualize the area of your heart chakra with a mind-to-body connection. You may also repeat affirmations as you breathe in and out.
You can perform it daily or weekly; aim for around 20 minutes each time. If you are a beginner, start with 5 minutes and build it up.
There are no rules. If your mind wanders, bring your focus back to your breath.
Nutritional Food to Heal Your Heart Chakra
How to Heal your Heart Chakra with Food: Think green! Any food that correlates with the color frequency of the heart chakra is a good start. Try incorporating some of the following: Spinach, Kale, Chard, Celery, Broccoli, Zucchini, Cucumber, Avocado, Lime, Dandelion Greens, Parsley, and Matcha.
Conclusion
The heart chakra can easily become bruised by heartache, loss, or imbalances in other chakras. When you experience blockages in your love chakra, it can lead to a lot of emotional pain and agony. Therefore, it’s important to practice balancing your heart chakra and have love and compassion for yourself and others.
Balancing your heart chakra will open you up to the beautiful possibilities of life. It is the one thing that lives on the planet need for survival.
Spending 5 minutes a day on 1-2 of the recommended practices can allow you to overcome mental and physical barriers that are causing a blockage.
Still not sure if your solar plexus chakra is blocked? Sign up for the Chakra Healing Workshop.
