The Heart Chakra

WHEN OUR FIRE IS STRONG, WE DARE TO LIVE OUR DREAMS AND BE OUT THERE IN THE WORLD DOING WHAT WE BELIEVE IN, LIVING IN ALIGNMENT WITH WHO WE ARE.

The heart chakra colors our life with compassion, love, and beauty. Driven by the principles of transformation and integration, the fourth energy center is said to bridge earthly and spiritual aspirations. The heart chakra, or Anahata, deals with unconditional love and emotional power. At its core, this chakra is emotional and propels us to enhance our emotional development. The heart embodies a gentle wisdom that teaches us the ways of love and compassion. This chakra is responsible for the balance between earth (foundational, material, prime creation) and our emotions (ethereal, spiritual, metaphysical creativity)

LOCATION: low center of the chest

REPRESENTS: self acceptance and loving

ASSOCIATED ANATOMY: thymus and lymph glands, heart, rib cage, lungs, skin, arms, hands

BODILY FUNCTIONS: circulation, immune system

PHYSICAL ELEMENT: air

COLOR: Green

AFFIRMATION: I love

Understanding the subtle changes in our physical body and emotions can lead us to understand more about who we are. By paying close attention we can find out throughout self discovery what we need to feel more balanced and harmonious.

Balanced: When the heart chakra is open, you may feel being deeply connected, the harmonious exchange of energy with all that is around you, and the appreciation of beauty. When our heart chakra is open, waves of love and compassion flow within us, enabling us quickly to forgive, and accept others and yourself. Balancing the heart chakra allows us to release our emotional pain through unconditional love.

Excessive: If the heart chakra is overly open, it may be overly demanding, especially close family or partner. We might also have a need to fulfill other people’s perceived needs to the cost of one’s balance, which may result in the tendency to feel like a victim. A person with an excessive heart chakra may lose a sense of personal boundaries in a way that is detrimental for well-being. When our heart chakra is overactive, we get disconnected in our relationships and get controlled by emotions, experiencing immense feelings of happiness, jealousy, sadness, love, grief, anger, and possessiveness.

Deficient: When our heart chakra is underactive, we feel lack of compassion for self and others, lack of empathy and become cold-hearted, we can be emotionally inaccessible, or overly sensitive. An underactive here chakra makes us feel scared to love or be loved because of your fear of betrayal & hence we continue to hold on to bitterness, sorrow and grief and do not trust others, become judgmental, critical and intolerant. 

ESSENTIAL OILS FOR THE HEART CHAKRA

Apply the essential oils to the bottoms of the feet and/or roll along the heart.

Aromatically: apply the oils to your palms and cup your nose and take deep, long breaths.

Lavender encourages a calm mind and specifically the insecurities that are felt when one risks their true feelings. Lavender addresses a deep fear of being heard and seen. Lavender is a great choice for those who seek to release the tension around their heart that stems from fear of expressing themselves. This oil encourages emotional honesty to give the experience of unconditional love, acceptance and peace of mind. This calming and expressive oil is a great choice to bring about a feeling of being loved, seen and heard.

Cypress aids in transition, transformation and renewal while helping to release the need to control and to feel more trusting of life. Cypress encourages a person to cast aside their worries and tension around the heart and learn to enjoy the thrill of being alive. This oil brings out feeling of trust, being flexible and emotionally adaptable through allow life to flow through you.

Laurel Leaf essential oil promotes a courageous heart as it opens the heart to goodness. It empowers you to target clear mind function, better gut instincts, body health and breathing, and a positive emotional state with less fear and anxiety. This confidence building essential oil is a perfect choice for a brave heart. 

Whisper is a beautiful blend being out a kind, gentle spirit as it softens the heart. These oils work together to bring out a feminine energy in both men and women, and in doing this allows the person to let go of the tough exterior and allow gentleness and emotional connection to come forth. This helps to reduce feelings of hostility and anger. This blend includes patchouli, bergamot, sandalwood, rose, vanilla, jasmine, cinnamon, vetiver, labdanum, cocoa and ylang and ylang.

Lemon is a delightful oil engages the mind however it is also a great choice for those seeking genuine joy. This bright aroma immediately beings a lightness to the spirit and helps one have a natural playfulness and buoyancy in the heart.

Wild Orange oil addresses a wide variety of emotional issues. By inspiring abundance, creativity, fun, spontaneity, and playfulness will orange brings out the the joy in our lives. Wild orange also assists in our natural creative sense and inspires limitless solutions to our lives. Wild Orange is a great choice for an abundant heart full of love and compassion.

GEMSTONE FOR THE HEART CHAKRA

Rose Quartz is the stone of Unconditional Love. Rose Quartz purifies and opens the heart at all levels to promote love, self-love, friendship, deep inner healing and feelings of peace. Calming and reassuring, it helps to comfort in times of grief. Rose Quartz dispels negativity and protects against environmental pollution, replacing it with loving vibes.

Green Aventurine is the stone of opportunity. Green Aventurine comforts, harmonizes, protects the heart, and can help attract love later in life. It is one of the premier stones to attract luck, abundance and success. Green Aventurine has a particularly soothing energy behind it, and is recommended for working through unresolved emotional issues.

YOGA FOR THE HEART CHAKRA

When we feel stuck, we often isolate ourselves or seek to escape. Unfortunately this creates a cycle of feeling alone and disconnected. A balanced solar plexus chakra can bring with it sense of positivity and connection to own’s personal power. Balance your solar plexus chakra with the following yoga postures.

Cat/Cow: We create emotional balance when we practice cat and cow. While Cat and Cow may look “easy,” it is a powerful pose for the mind. The breath synchronized movement increases coordination, fosters intentional focus, and invigorates the vital life force in the body. It is associated with increased emotional balance and stability of the mind and reducing feelings of stress while creating a sense of calm. Cat/Cow Pose strengthens and improves flexibility of the spine through utilization of the reciprocal relationship between the upper and lower back.

Lunge Pose with Backbend: Lunge strengthens your quads while creating flexibility in your hips and the backbend elevated the energy of the heart. This shape, combined with the squaring of the hips and full plant of the ball joint of the back foot, requires that one have a great perception of where their body is in space. The lunge with a slight backbend is great for opening the heart and developing courage. This pose has you standing really strong: one leg back, one leg forward, hips facing forward, and your chest (and heart lifted.). This powerful stance can help you gain inner strength while also letting you open up your heart to yourself and others.

Bridge Pose: Bridge Pose is a gentler variation of Wheel Pose and it begins to create flexibility and strength in your spine and as a result, the heart is opened. As our heart rises above the head in this posture, we allow the mind to quiet and we can truly begin to lead with our heart. Staying in this posture for 5-10 breath cycles is soothing for overactive emotions (supported with a block or not).

Cobra Pose: Cobra pose strengthens and tones your arms while creating flexibility in your spine. This lifting of the heart is another powerful reminder of the lift that we can achieve by letting our heart guide us. This posture reduces stress and anxiety which allows us to feel more joy and happiness. This pose is one that invigorates the heart while also improving circulation.

Eagle Arms: Creating space between the shoulder blades we allow the heart to also radiate through the back as a symbolic reminder that all experiences bring lessons. We can learn to open ourselves up to the past with a sense of unconditional love for all things. In this pose we are, in a way, constricting the flow of blood through our bodies. This happens when we cross arms and squeeze them together. This is similar to the pressure we experience during a massage. This massaging action is a great way to stimulate and release the flow of fresh, immunity yielding blood throughout the body, thus providing excellent benefits of circulation on many levels. 

To learn more about essential oils, yoga, chakra balancing and more, just visit me at this gorgeous page.

Heart Chakra

In Sanskrit, the heart chakra is called Anahata, which means “unstruck” or “unhurt.” Its name implies that deep beneath our personal stories of brokenness and the pain in our heart, wholeness, boundless love, and a wellspring of compassion reside.

The Heart Chakra

The fourth chakra, the heart chakra,rests in the center of the chakra system at the core of our spirit. Its physical location is the heart, upper chest, and upper back. The fourth is the balance point, integrating the world of matter (the lower three chakras) with the world of spirit (the upper three chakras). Through the heart chakra, we open to and connect with harmony and peace. The health of our heart center registers the quality and power of love in our life.

Being an even-numbered, feminine chakra, the heart center naturally yearns to release and let go. When we feel fearful, there is no room for love, and our bodies show contraction. When we choose love, the fear melts away, and our practice takes on a joyful quality.

Balancing the heart chakra

Doing backbends develops the trust and surrender we need to open the heart fully. In many backbending poses, the heart is positioned higher than the head. It’s wonderfully refreshing to let the mind drop away from the top position and instead lead with the heart.

Some signs that the heart chakra is overpowering your life can include co-dependency, possessiveness, jealousy, heart disease, and high blood pressure. For these symptoms, forward bends are the best antidote, because they are grounding and foster introspection. While people with deficient heart chakras need to open to receive love more fully, those with excessive heart chakras find healing by slowing down to discover inside themselves the nourishment they have been seeking from others.

Yoga, Essential Oils and Crystals for the Heart Chakra

Yoga Postures—eagle, camel, bow, cobra, bridge.

Essential Oils—lavender, cypress, lemon, orange, whisper blend and sandalwood. Apply to the heart area.

Crystals—rose quartz and green tourmaline.

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Heart Chakra

The fourth chakra, the heart chakra,rests in the center of the chakra system, at the core of our spirit. Its physical location is the heart, upper chest, and upper back. The fourth is the balance point, integrating the world of matter (the lower three chakras) with the world of spirit (the upper three chakras). The element of this chakra is air, which is why we feel breathless when we are consumed with love and when we have heartache. The health of our heart center registers the quality and power of love in our life.

In Sanskrit, the heart chakra is called Anahata, which means “unstruck” or “unhurt.” Its name implies that deep beneath our personal stories of brokenness and the pain in our heart, wholeness, boundless love, and a wellspring of compassion reside.

Being an even-numbered, feminine chakra, the heart center naturally yearns to release and let go. When we feel fearful, there is no room for love, and our bodies show contraction.

Some signs that the heart chakra is overpowering your life can include co-dependency, possessiveness, jealousy, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Helping others, being of service, random acts of kindness are all heart chakra work. The most powerful way to open, energize, and balance not just the heart chakra but all of our chakras is to love ourselves and others. Give and receive love.

Learn more about all the chakras in this free ebook.