Chakra 4: The Heart Chakra (Anahata)

It's been argued that the heart chakra is the most important chakra of our energy system for this time. It lays right in the centre of our being with the bottom three chakras bellow it and the top three chakras above. The heart, in turn, is the balancing force of our being and allows us to explore higher states of consciousness. Without the heart, we remain stuck in our base three chakras. The heart is the "unstuck" or "unwounded" consciousness which has been healed and has integrated the wounds of the lower three chakras. The heart chakra is also referred to as the "seat of the soul" and is the gateway into the spiritual realms. You will see the heart chakra depicted as being "green" but it can also be pink or gold.

Together we will explore:

• A few facts about the Heart Chakra

• Common imbalances in the Heart Chakra

• Tips on how to bring more balance to this energy centre

Subscribe to my mailing list and receive a FREE Heart Chakra Cellphone Wallpaper. These wallpapers can be used for meditations designed to help you harness the energy of each inner body chakra.

Facts about the Heart Chakra

• 60% of the heart cells are actually neural cells. The heart acts just like a second brain which allow it to send out and receive information to and from the brain and to the entire body. Interestingly enough, the heart actually sends out more information to the brain than the heart receives from the brain! The heart also has an electromagnetic field that is 60 times larger than that of the brain and spans a distance of 3 feet around the entire body. Fun fact, this is approximate size of the human aura which is leading science to believe in the ancient traditions that our ancestors had regarding the humans energies body and auric field!

• The emotions of the heart are represented as unconditional love, hope, trust, equanimity, reverence, peace, grace, gratitude, compassion, loving kindness, sympathetic joy and forgiveness. Learning to stimulate these emotions inside of yourself from scratch, can help to bring balance to your personal energy body by gently opening the heart and uplifting the lower three chakras.

• The heart chakra is the home to the psychic energy healer. An energy healer will often have an activated heart chakra and is able to send out healing energies to others around them. People who are natural energy healers tend to move into professions which involve helping others. Nurses, doctors, therapists and councillors are usually all natural healers and use their ability to nurture others back to health. Energy healers usually also empathic and clairesentient so they can feel what energies are out of balance and need healing. The heart chakra can also work through the hands and offer healing techniques such as reiki, chiropractic care, massage & hands on energy healing.

Common imbalance of the Heart Chakra:

• Being overly positive which can lead to flakiness and the lack of responsibility because "everything always works out"

• Struggling to find balance in certain aspects of life

• Feeling overly concerned with others and neglecting the self

• Becoming demanding, jealous, possessive, arrogant or dependent

• Inability to say "no"

• Feelings of martyrdom

• Feeling anti-social, cold, critical, judgemental or intolerant

• Fearing intimacy

• Passive aggressiveness

• Lacking compassion

• Loving too much

• Being stuck in patterns of denial and not being able to realize problematic circumstances in life

• Heart and lung diseases & issues

• Getting tied up in co-dependent relationships

• Lack of boundaries

• Poor circulation

• High or low blood pressure

• Low immune system

• Breast issues

Could you have an unbalanced Heart Chakra?

Answer the following questions to help you evaluate the health of your Heart Chakra. These questions can help you to determine potential imbalances in your heart chakra which we can address next.

1. Do you store away past traumas and avoid dealing with the root causes of them?

2. Are you a compassionate person?

3. Do you hold onto grudges and find it hard to forgive others?

4. Do relationships tend to come and go?

Tips on bringing balance to the Heart Chakra

Colours: Green, Pink and Gold are the colours of the Hearth Chakra! Visualizing an orb of one of these colours expanding in your heart chakra area can help you to really tap into your heart chakra energy. An easy way to work with the colour green is to get your FREE Heart Chakra Wallpaper when you subscribe to my mailing list here. You can also try elevating your heart chakra by wearing more green, pink or gold, or by painting certain parts of your home in a vibrant green colour. Adding green and pink plants in the home can also invigorate your heart chakra energy and encourage heart chakra emotions!

Crystals: The best crystals to work with when bringing balance to or opening your heart chakra are:

• Rose Quarts

• Emerald

• Green Aventurine

• Rhodonite

• Green Jade

• Malachite

• Rhodochrosite

• Prehnite

• Green Tourmaline

Food: As we learnt, we want to nurture our physical heart health which can be accomplished by supporting it physically with the foods we eat! In this case, you want to reduce saturated and processed fats and increase your intake of Omega-3 fats. A Mediterranean diet that includes fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, herring and sardines are a great examples of how you can add more Omegas into your diet. Aim for at least one or two fatty fish meals per week. You can also supplement with an Omega 3 vitamins once per day. Leafy greens are also going to help support your heart health. Go for some of the more bitter greens like collards, arugula, Swiss chard, kale, mustard green, dandelion greens etc. Brassicas like cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and wok choy will also help! Other delicious green options include: onions, leeks, celery, avocados, peppers, zucchini, green apples, pears and kiwis!

Herbs: Herbal medicines are helpful in balancing the body and help to relieve certain body ailments on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. Try the following to help balance your heart chakra.

• Marjoram

• Basil

• Lady's Mantel

• Nettle

• Hops

• Hibiscus

• Lavender

• Hawthorn (especially used to lower blood pressure & preventing blood clots)

WARNING: Be mindful and check with your doctor before you try any herbal medicine if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or if you are on any other pharmaceutical medicines!

Sound: Singing bowls played in the note "F" can help to stimulate the same resonance of the heart chakra. Try this singing bowl sound bath HERE and see what happens!

Singing: Chanting the heart chakra mantra "YAM" will help to create a resonance in this area of the body. Place your hands above your heart and take a deep belly breath in. You will feel your diaphragm engaging then hold this pushed out belly breath. On the exhale, keep your belly pushed out and sing from your heart the sound YAAAA-AAMMM. Notice the energies moving through your heart chakra and sit in silence before taking your next breath in. You can sing this consecutively a couple of times to help activate your heart chakra.

Essential Oils: My favourite essential oils to connect with the heart include:

• Rose Otto

• Rose Absolute

• Rose Geranium

• Jasmine

• Pine

• Rosewood

Mindfulness: When we look at the heart chakra, we can see a variety of imbalances that range between being overly sympathetic with others or being completely closed off which lead to harshness. When dealing with the heart chakra, we need to first make sure that we are working towards balancing the lower three chakras. The heart naturally helps to bring balance to these lower chakras but a conscious awareness of any imbalances there will be a first step towards elevating those energies into the heart.

Next we want to keep the heart balanced by checking in with the heart energies within ourselves. This means, keeping others in mind as well as ourselves. Examples of this look like, having compassion for others needs and balancing that by having compassion for ourselves. Experiencing sympathetic joy for others happiness and joy needs to be balanced by appreciation for our own blessings in life. Loving kindness to ourselves and others need to be balanced with a sense of equanimity and non-judgement. Getting in the habit of checking in with the heart will ensure that it stays in balance. The heart requires non-judgement, kindness and grace in order to stay functional and in alignment. A certain degree of tough love can also go a long way.

Yoga: Physical movement is a key component to a healthy heart chakra. Regular movement exercises will not only help to support the physical heart by providing better circulation and strengthening the heart muscles, but it also helps to cleanse the heart of blocked emotions and mental discomfort. Running is a great exercise to promote a healthy strong heart and is one of my favourite tools to purge away unwanted emotional and mental energies. A runners high is a well known fact for a reason! Yoga is also going to help bring balance to the heart chakra and practicing a variety of yoga styles can encourage different energies in this chakra. A vinyasa flow will help to get your heart pumping, while a soothing yin class can help relax the body, lower blood pressure and improve circulation in areas of the body that may be locked up with tension. Yoga can also help to unlock certain stuck emotions around the heart and provides a safe environment to explore the energies of the heart chakra. Try certain poses that focus on opening the front of the chest and areas surrounding the heart. The best poses include:

• Camel pose

• Cobra pose

• Cat pose

• Forward folds

• Eagle pose

• Fish pose

• Bridge pose

In my Yoga On DEMAND program I offer a wide variety of classes that target the Heart Chakra specifically. I've designed classes that work on the different heart chakra energies and provide energy work insights to help open, cleanse, and expand the heart chakra energies!

If you'd like to explore your Heart Chakra through yoga, consider joining Yoga On DEMAND. The photos bellow showcase a few of the classes available for developing your Heart Chakra! Join HERE.

I hope you have found this article inspiring and insightful! If you have any questions or success stories regarding your heart chakra, please share them in the comment section bellow. This can be encouraging wisdom for others along their spiritual journey! If you'd lik support on your self healing journey consider working with me one-on-one for an energy reading session HERE. Otherwise consider my Mindfulness Journals which provide you with a four week self study journey within yourself. These journals are designed to provide healing and new wisdom along your journey. Check out my journals HERE.

Love & Light to you All.

Renelle B