Heart Chakra Healing: How to Open and Balance Your Anahata or Heart Chakra

Since time immemorial, the heart chakra has been considered as the source of balance, love, and unity in both the physical body as well as the spiritual body. When this Chakra is imbalanced, everything else in our lives is impacted and a blocked heart chakra can lead to loneliness, bitterness, and even isolation. Heart Chakra healing guided meditation can help in opening up your heart to love and friendships and, will help you explore new possibilities.

 

What is the Heart Chakra?

The heart chakra is referred to as “Anahata” in Sanskrit and is located directly above your heart. It is the fourth of the seven chakras and is associated with color green and element of air. It responds to and helps to shape your capacity for compassion, affection, and love.

 

How to know if Heart Chakra Blocked?

When the Heart Chakra is blocked or misaligned, you will struggle to relate to other people. You will be less compassionate than usual and may be impatient, you will find it harder than usual to trust, and you won’t feel at peace. Rather, you will feel restless and disgruntled. A blocked Heart Chakra can also manifest physically. Some Chakra experts think such a misalignment may be linked to issues like high blood pressure and low immune system function.

 

Heart Chakra Healing and Its Importance

Heart chakra healing is important because it helps clear, cleanse, heal and balance our lives overall. It allows us to see beyond and let go of anger and frustrations in our lives, and it helps us live with compassion and kindness in our hearts. Our power to heal our minds and spirits allows us to connect to natural elements, especially air, which is crucial as we breathe during meditation. We also understand the connection of breath with our life and other life forms on earth, especially plants, which produces oxygen.

 

Heart Chakra Healing: How To Open And Unblock Your Heart Chakra

An opened heart chakra allows you to better understand and meet your needs, and to give love to others. You may also find that intense emotions gradually become less frightening to you. You can develop new ways of accepting and moving past your emotions without having to repress them. By learning techniques and exercises to unblocking your Heart Chakra, you can boost your self-knowledge and replenish your emotional resources. Here are four processes to help you unblock and realign the heart chakra:

 

1. Use Heart Chakra Stones And Jewelry For Healing

 

Chakra stones are very easy to use. Sometimes, all you need to do is wear them on your person (e.g. in a necklace, ring or earrings). You should also consider holding one in your hand during a heart chakra meditation. Here are stones & crystals for balancing of heart chakra

1. Rose Quartz

2. Aventurine

3. Moonstone

4. Rhodonite

5. Jade

Learn more about crystals for heart chakra healing HERE 

2. Heart Chakra Yoga Postures

 

Empower, awaken, and support your heart with the following yoga poses especially beneficial in opening up the Heart Chakra. Lengthening your muscles and tendons that hold your heart allows you to open your body and let the energy flow through your open chest. Make sure to do deep breaths to your chest for five minutes as you comfortably open your heart.

1. Bhujangasana or Cobra Pose

2. Ustrasana or Camel Pose

3. Marjariasana or Cat pose

4. Bitilasana or Cow Pose

5. Matsyasana or Fish Pose

 

3. Heart Chakra Meditations

 

Simple breathing exercises and body scanning can promote alignment in all the chakras. That said, there are two powerful heart chakra meditation techniques you can use when you sense a blockage. Here they are:

1. Flame of the Heart Meditation

An ancient and sacred Anahata chakra meditation you can try is Flame of the Heart, which aims to cultivate awareness and light in your heart-space. This is done as you imagine a steady glow of a candle, as you meditate.

To do this, start by sitting down comfortably on a support cushion. Begin by releasing the weight of legs and pelvis on the support cushion. Close your eyes and visualize the flame in the center of your heart. Breathe in and out as you imagine the flames burning in your heart with a steady fire.

Concentrate in the steady flame to avoid any distractions which can cause uncontrollable fire or flicker. Maintain steady and soft breathing to maintain a still fire. For at least ten minutes, control your breathing and do not get distracted in order to keep a steady flame.

 

2. Cave of the Heart Meditation

 The meditation happens at the depths of your heart, which is beyond comprehension and transcends any name or location. In order to do this, sit comfortably and start with soft, slow breathing strokes.

Relax your bones, jaw, tongue, and throat as you breathe and then slowly bring your awareness to the cave of your heart. Start by becoming aware of your heart - the anatomy, the blood flow, and the veins - then, focus on an emotional incident that happened to you in the past hours or days. Focus on the emotions that you felt and the emotions you felt towards the people during that event.

Now, meditate and become aware of your inner heart. Be keen and notice how the outside affects your breathing, your heart rate, and, eventually, the signals in your body. Notice how you observe your feelings, the temperature of your body, then pulse and tingles you feel in your nerves. These are sensations that you need to process and identify in order for you to release the toxic feeling that blocks your heart chakra.

Slowly, bring your meditation to the surface of your heart, from the face inward to your spine, which is considered as the secret heart outside karma, conditions, and causes. When in this part, focus on the light and happiness in your heart and avoid being distracted by your senses. Instead, focus on silence and timelessness, which this dimension of awareness exemplifies. Remain in this heart healing meditation for ten to thirty minutes.

 

4. Heart Chakra Affirmations

 

You may already be using affirmations, as they are wonderful for getting rid of old, limiting beliefs and building confidence. You can get the heart chakra to directly respond to affirmations by using certain words and phrases, and these can be repeated if you feel your heart chakra closing up. Here are a few good ideas:

1. “I forgive others, and I forgive myself.”

2. “I love myself unconditionally, and offer the same love to others.”

3. “I know my own emotions, and I accept whatever form they may take.”

4. “I am open to love, and receive more of it every day.”

5. “I give love freely, and it brings me joy.”

 

When you first start looking into chakra healing techniques to help your blockages, it’s tough to know where to start. If you particularly want to improve your emotional life, understand your feelings and become happier, it’s well worth starting with the heart chakra. Eventually it is important to balance and work with all the seven chakras and so you will learn them all, as your learning progresses in the journey of life.