What would it be like to share a love affair with everything on Planet Earth?

I mean everything.

Everything down to the potatoes, mosquitos, and rocking chairs.

What would it feel like to love freely, to forgive easily, and to see beauty in every moment of every day?

I’ll tell you this much.

You certainly wouldn’t find yourself taking anything for granted.

You wouldn’t feel caught in the rat race, allowing your days to rush past in an unconscious, smartphone-distracted blur.

Sound familiar?

Then it may be time to shift your attention to chakra number four.

Explore energy healing through the lens of the fourth chakra to create a more beautiful life.

What is the Heart Chakra?

In Sanskrit, the fourth chakra is called anahata, which means “unstruck.”

Picture a gleaming, polished bell resting in the center of your heart. When you gaze at it, you can only imagine the healing, full-bodied sound that would ring out from its shiny exterior.

Here’s the special thing about this bell: it never rings, and yet it makes a sound that is present everywhere all at once.

The unstruck bell is responsible for the omnipresent phenomenon of silence, also known as the most perfect sound.

Because it resides in the heart, we can understand that just as silence exists everywhere, there is love.

Pure, unconditional love exists everywhere in all things, running as the common thread between everything and everyone in existence.

In the same vein, no matter how often you act with perfectly unconditional love, you never lose the capacity to do so.

Selfless love has no limits. It can only regenerate; it can only create more true love.

In chakra anahata, the unstruck bell rings out with whole, complete silence that can never be touched.

You Might Also Like: The Complete Glossary of Sanskrit Words Used in Yoga

Why is the Fourth Chakra Important?

When we realize that both love and silence are everywhere, we start to see boundaries and separation slipping away.

When we focus on the love that binds everything together, we pay less attention to what drives us apart.

Living with a sense of connectedness to all things leaves no room for feelings of loneliness, isolation, or anger. How can you find fault with somebody else when they are you?

Anger and frustration slip away, giving way to compassion and loving kindness.

Training yourself to heal mind and spirit in this way also connects you with the natural elements, specifically, the element of air.

As you explore the ways in which we are all connected, you’ll find a whole new appreciation for your breath.

Embrace the steady flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide that flows between you, the plants and trees around you, and the other life forms on

Earth to gain an appreciation for spirit.

By heightening your awareness of your breathing you reap a host of physical benefits as well. (Lower blood pressure, decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol, better sleep, a well-regulated metabolism, and sharper focus, anyone?)

What does an Anahata Chakra Blockage Feel Like?

Anahata is considered to be the gateway to the higher chakras, meaning that a closed heart chakra prevents total balance and spiritual awakening.

A blocked heart equals a blocked throat, third eye chakra, and crown chakra.

Ain’t nobody got time for dat.

If you struggle with compassion, are easily frustrated by others, if you are overwhelmed by grief you just can’t seem to shake, or if you’ve felt hurt or damaged by relationships, you could suffer from a blocked heart chakra.

If forgiveness is as foreign a concept to you as the feeling of utter contentment with your life, it’s time you experience some chakra balancing, stat.

Pay special attention to the inability to forgive as it arises in yourself and others. Not only does forgiveness require us to invite loving emotions into our hearts when we are hurt, it is also charged with a special dose of life force energy.

Why?

Because in order to forgive, we must live in the present moment and therefore live in truth. To suffer from the inability to forgive is to be trapped in the past, and your preconceived notions of what should be, rather than acceptance of what is.

Let’s be honest. Any time spent living in the past is time wasted, and holding grudges only hurts the holder, in more ways that we can imagine.

Methods of Heart Chakra Healing

Chakra healing can be a super beautiful process, incorporating yoga, meditation, chanting, stones and crystals, and essential oils. Clear negative energy and open your heart chakra with a yoga and meditation practice, or experiment with the stones and crystals associated with heart chakra healing.

Heart chakra stones are predominantly the color green, with touches of pink. Their healing properties lie in their unique vibration that can interact with the vibration of different emotional states.

Try rhodochrosite, rutilated quartz, rhodonite, malachite stone, rose quartz, aventurine, and clear quartz.

Chakra Yoga Poses

Practise heart-opening, flowing sequences in your favorite vinyasa yoga classes with a teacher who challenges not only your physical body but your mind and spirit as well.

Or, try the Hatha yoga poses below designed to create space in your heart chakra and empower more awakening in your daily life.

Yoga Pose 1. Restorative Heart Opening with Support

Matsyasana supported fish

Healing the heart chakra begins with finding an open vessel for energy flow in the upper chakras.

Lengthen the muscles and tendons surrounding your heart center by finding either a yoga bolster or a folded-up blanket or towel. When folded, your yoga prop should be roughly as long as your torso, and slightly wider than your head.

Positioning the prop along your spine and under your head, lie back on the floor with your arms stretched out to the sides. Cross, extend, or rest your legs on each other to find the most comfortable position.

Breathe deeply into your chest and belly for 3-5 minutes, and slowly make your way out of the pose.

Yoga Pose 2. Cobra Pose

Start by lying on your belly with your legs extended behind you, the tops of your feet flat against the floor. Place the palms of our hands on the ground just in front of your shoulders. Make sure that your elbows are close to your body.

Take a deep inhalation and slowly lift your chest forward and up. Pull your shoulder blades together, bringing your shoulders away from your ears. If you’re feeling up for it, continue to lift until your arms are straight and your chest is open. If there is pressure in your lower back and you’re not into it, lower until it feels comfortable.

Yoga Pose 3. Camel Pose Circles

Place a book or block next to your right ankle as you kneel. Engage your core, press your hips forward slightly, and set your right hand on the block.

As you inhale, sweep your left arm across your body and backwards until you feel a lengthening sensation along the front of your body and chest. Exhale to circle your arm back around to the front. Repeat 3-5 times on each side, resting in between each side with hands over your heart.

Heart Chakra Meditation

The best way to receive the divine healing embrace of heart chakra energy through meditation is to invite as much gratitude into your daily life as possible.

When you are in touch with your own emotions of gratitude, love naturally overflows.

When you share this inspired way of being with those around you, you start to experience the feeling of community; you learn how it feels to share a space of love with the entire world.

To try a chakra meditation for gratitude yourself, start by stopping whatever other tasks and exercises you are doing to tune into your inner silence.

Pay attention to the rise and fall of your chest as you take a deep breath in and out. Send consciousness into the subtle pause between each breath, falling into a sweet sense of rhythm.

Invite a person who is close to you into your thoughts. Send them empathy and as much loving kindness as you can muster. Meditate on the warmth of pink or green energy flowing between your heart centre and theirs.

Repeat this with a total of three people in your life to clear your green chakra, allowing energy to run freely along your spine through all your major chakras, turning an unbalanced emotional issue into spiritual growth.

Chanting

Some good news: there is more than one Sanskrit word to choose from when selecting a mantra to clear a blocked heart chakra.

Try chanting the seed mantra associated with this energy center Yam, (remember that it sounds like “yum,” not like the root vegetable topped with marshmallows at Thanksgiving).

You can also invite an open heart into your life using a range of positive affirmations targeted for grief, forgiveness, physical pain, kindness, emotional evolution, or relationships with your spiritual Self.

Traditionally, yogis chant the Sanskrit phrase “Om Mane Padme Hum,” which translates to mean “the jewel of all wisdom lies in the heart,” and includes several powerful chakra opening vibrations.

You can also try: