The Fourth Chakra, also known as the Heart Chakra or Anahata, allows love and positivity to enter your life. The heart chakra is located in the center of the chest, not quite where the heart is but where the center of the chest is. It vibrates with the color green, and its symbol is two intersecting triangles that form a six pointed star. Surrounding the star are twelve petals. The element most closely associated with Anahata is air and it controls the thymus gland, the immune system, the heart and lungs, the circulatory system and the upper extremities. This chakra is in charge of our ability to love, to have healthy relationships, find compassion and empathy, forgiveness, to bring positive change in our lives, it allows us to grieve in a healthy fashion and achieve peace. Learn more about the seven chakras here.
The Fourth Chakra – Love
Our fourth Chakra wants to help us love and be loved. When this chakra is blocked you will struggle with socialization and avoid interactions with others, you may find that you are overly critical of yourself and others, you lack empathy, or feel isolated. You may also begin suffering from hypertension, lung infections or inflammation, and a number of other cardio-pulmonary issues. Keeping the heart chakra balanced is important because if it is too open you can struggle as well. A heart chakra that is too open will cause you to be too demanding both of others and of yourself. Martyrdom for those in your life is a sure sign of an out of balance chakra that is too open rather than closed. You may also feel like a victim and lose all sense of your personal boundaries.
Keeping it Balanced
Keeping your heart chakra balanced is easy. Meditation is one of the best ways to help to balance any chakra and the 4th chakra is no different. Meditate while visualizing a green orb of energy where the heart chakra is located; as you meditate imagine this green energy growing and expanding throughout the body. Focus on your inhalation and feed the air into the orb allowing it to grow the energy even more. Let this energy fill you with a love not just for people in your life, but for yourself – we cannot be balanced if we do not have a love for ourselves. If you like to meditate with the assistance of gemstones you will want to include pink or clear quartz, jade, and green calcite. Pink quartz is an important stone for developing a healthy self-love hence its inclusion in the list. Those who prefer to use oils during meditation will benefit from rose, geranium, neroli, ylang ylang, jasmine or bergamot. Use affirmations such as ‘I am love and all love resides within me,’ or ‘I am wanted, I am loved, and I live in balance’ to help focus your energy. Yoga poses that assist the 4th chakra are those poses that stretch the upper back and chest open and elongate the lower back. Lift your heart center and breathe while repeating your affirmations.
Forgive and Forget
One of the most important life changes necessary for a healthy heart chakra is the ability to forgive and accept. Remember, forgiveness is about you, not about who you are forgiving. Forgive those who have wronged you, accept that they may never come to understand what they have done, and allow the love you feel for the world to extend to them. This will help you heal and begin to achieve balance once more.
