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If you haven’t been following our chakra series here’s a quick recap. Chakra is the Sanskrit word for wheel, and the chakras are literally spinning energy wheels. There are seven major energy junctures along the spine that serve as connection points between the physical body and consciousness. You can’t see or touch the chakras, but you can think of the them as areas of concentrated energy. These energy centers, receive, process, and express our vital life energy. If there is a deficiency or excess of energy in your body, it can create a dissonance or blockage of energy flow in one or any of the other chakras. What follows can result in physical, emotional, spiritual or mental imbalances. Emotional or mental imbalances can lead to physical imbalances, and vice versa. In other words, everything is connected. In order to feel our most authentic self, it’s important to understand our energies on a deeper level and to work to balance them. Understanding our chakras is a useful tool to better understand ourselves, as it equips us with the knowledge to work with our own energy in a deeper way. Subtle energies inform and transcend our five senses. Subtle energy is a healing energy that anyone can use to perceive and utilize. Today we’ll delve into the heart chakra, also known as the Anahata chakra, and one of the most widely known chakras in popular culture.

The heart chakra is the fourth chakra, found quite literally in the center of your chest near the physical heart, along the spine. This chakra is all about our ability to love and be loved, basically, it’s where we feel love and where we receive love. Some of us can give love more easily than we can receive love, while other’s some are more prone to receiving love than giving. It’s also associated with feelings like compassion, empathy and forgiveness. Anahata literally translates from Sanskrit as “unhurt”. Therefore, a blocked or out of balance heart chakra can manifest in holding grudges, obsessing with trust issues, feeling lonely, bitterness, and a difficulty in forming sustainable relationships. Any emotional issues such as lacking empathy, difficulty in forgiving and feeling anxious or stressed are all manifestations of a blocked heart chakra. As the emotional and physical are closely linked, bodily ailments stemming from a blocked heart chakra can include conditions linked to the center of the chest, since your heart, lungs and chest are in the energetic field of this chakra. Chest pains, heart attacks, breast issues, and breathing difficulties as well as arm and upper back issues are all related to this chakra being out of balance. A healthy heart chakra rises above low energy feelings of jealousy, bitterness and holding grudges. A balanced and open heart chakra invites joy, contentment, gratitude and humility. The joy and unconditional love that a heart-centered person emanates is so powerful that everyone around them can feel it. So how can we invite this shift into our heart chakras?

Starting with food, the heart chakra is associated with the color green, so any green foods, such as leafy vegetables including spinach, kale, dandelion greens, broccoli, cabbage and celery are guaranteed to boost your heart chakra’s energy flow. Raw greens are considered to have a cooling, yin effect, which compliments the heart in its tenderness. As the heart chakra is associated with the air element, light and easily digestible foods like raw greens are supportive of this energy. Green teas also promote heart chakra health as do green smoothies, juices and herbs such as basil, thyme and cilantro. Include a small side salad at every meal or blend a green smoothie for breakfast to start the day with a health promoting and heart boosting option. If you’re a fan of fruits, incorporate kiwi, green grapes or green melon into your diet for a tasty treat when you’re craving something sweet. Replace your morning cup of coffee with a green tea to stabilize your nerves and enjoy a calm yet alert vibe to start your day, rather than riding the frazzled coffee high followed by an inevitable crash. One last tip, keep your fridge full since its thought that the state of your fridge, how empty or full it is, reveals the state of your love life. Keeping a stocked fridge is important to cultivate love in your life.

In yoga, heart openers are practiced to shed vulnerabilities, exposing our hearts to the world in an open and receiving gesture. Poses such as camel, wheel, bridge, upward facing dog and bow pose are excellent at stimulating the heart chakra energies, circulation, and encouraging us to accept ourselves as we are. While practicing heart openers, it helps to repeat a mantra such as “I am pure love. Unlimited love flows through me and surrounds me.” Meditation also revolving around such mantras is one of the most powerful ways to become truly heart-centered. Sitting quietly expands your consciousness and allows you to feel in your true nature, that of unconditional love. The more you tune in and connect with your true nature, the stronger love will be in all areas of your life. It all starts with loving yourself.

Stones can help you to sit deeper in meditation on the heart chakra, and also attract more love into your life. Rose quartz, the stone of unconditional love is the most notable example. Even carrying a rose quartz in your handbag, pocket or keeping one under your pillow is said to help attract love into your life and keep your heart open to possibilities. Other stones that support the energy of the heart chakra include emerald, rhodonite, green jade and prehnite. Sitting in meditation with a stone in your hand and focusing on mantras that open the heart are extremely powerful ways to let energy flow through your heart center. If you don’t have a stone, you can always join your hands in prayer, or Anjali mudra at the center of your chest to invite the same energy flow. Essential oils such as cypress, jasmine, lavender, neroli or sandalwood enhance the healing powers of the heart chakra. Burn your favorite selection or rub a few drops between your palms and inhale the aroma as you settle into a heart chakra focused meditation.

The heart chakra is considered the first of what are known as the more ethereal, high vibration chakras. The ones that corresponded to air or space. Another way to invite openness into the heart chakra is via touch. Interestingly, your hands and arms are considered extensions of the heart chakra and therefore touching others is a physical extension of this chakra. Hugging family and close friends or even pets foster this connection with your heart chakra. A hands-free way to show gratitude to those around you is by seeking opportunities to say thank you, even for the small things. Smile at people you pass during your daily routine, even if they don’t smile back at first. What you give you will get back, even if it’s in unexpected ways.

Living from your heart makes you truly magnetic to others. It makes everything you do more powerful and aligns your actions with the higher good. Research in alternative medicine shows that the magnetic field around the heart is five thousand times stronger than the magnetic field of the brain. So powerful in fact, that it can be felt a few feet outside the body. Try incorporating these easy and accessible tips into your life to really amp up and fortify your heart chakra energy. We promise that your life will transform in more ways than one.