Answers to All Your Questions About the Heart Chakra (Updated)

In the last few weeks, we covered the lower chakras from root to solar plexus chakras. Finally, we’re in the center of the chakra system at the heart chakra, about to move up the ladder to the higher chakras. Before you move on, what’s so important about the heart chakra? How do you feel when it’s active and out of balance? What does it do to the rest of the chakra system?🧐

The fourth chakra is known as the hub of love in the body. But that doesn’t mean heart chakra is all about romance. Love here also encapsulates unconditional love for the world and our fellow beings too. Located in the middle of your chest, this chakra makes you feel calm, composed, compassionate, pure, happy, and even beautiful. It’s the energy of acceptance.

While some might think it’s easy to tap into the powers of the heart, it takes more love than you can imagine. Let’s get you prepped for it!

Today we’ll learn all about the heart chakra using the topics below:

• What is the meaning of heart chakra?
• What are the traits of the fourth chakra such as its location, symbol, color, element, ruling planet, and so on?
• How do you feel when the heart chakra is off-kilter? What causes it?
• What’s the relation of the heart chakra with the other chakras in the body?
• How to open heart chakra in seven effective ways?
• which crystals to use for heart chakra healing?

Basics: What is the heart chakra?

Knowledge is vital, so is health. But something that conquers all that and more is "love".❤️ Heart chakra a.k.a "Anahata" chakra is the "seat of love". It encompasses all kinds of love from self-love to lust, romance, and even spiritual love.

Anahata is a Sanskrit word that derives meanings like pure, unstruck, unhurt, unbeaten, untouched, and flawless. That’s why heart chakra is often referred to as the "pristine chakra" because love is powerful only when it’s pure. Heart chakra helps you connect with people, nature, the world, the universe, and the cosmos around you.

The heart chakra is the physical center of the human body and popularly called the "hrit", "hridaya", and "surya chakra". It brings forth the motto of loving yourself and all around you, just like the commandment Jesus gave in the New Testament.

Apart from Hinduism, heart chakra finds a place in Tibetan Buddhism, Qigong, and Sufism too. Buddhism describes it as an important aspect of meditation, Qigong says it converts "qi" energy into spiritual force, and Sufism calls it the heart of the mystic (Qaib).

Understanding the characteristics of the heart chakra

Considered the chakra awakened by the "sense of touch", heart chakra develops from the age of 21 to 28. It’s when you begin to experience heartbreak, betrayal, and even the extent of love in the cosmos. To understand the working, and range of the fourth chakra, it’s important to decode all its traits first. Only then would you be able to realize whether it’s out of balance. Let’s find out all about it today!📝

Where is the heart chakra located?

Anahata chakra is called heart chakra, but it’s not actually located over your heart, but around the middle of the chest at the same height as your heart. There are also theories that pinpoint it around the center of the spine or towards the left side (close to your heart).

What’s the symbol of the heart chakra?

Hrit chakra is commonly represented using a lotus with 12 petals. It’s made up of two triangles that form a six-legged star inside the heart chakra lotus. The two triangles here are symbols of male and female energy that’s called "Purusha" and "Prakriti".

The 12 petals of the heart chakra lotus signify 12 eternal qualities; namely—bliss, peace, harmony, love, understanding, empathy, clarity, purity, unity, compassion, kindness, forgiveness.

What’s the heart chakra color?

While Hridaya chakra is commonly represented by the color green, pink is also often used to represent this "chakra of love". It stands for the ability to give and receive love from others as well as the world around you. Typically, green represents the "higher heart" and pink "the lower heart".

What’s the element associated with the heart chakra?

The element of "air" is the core energy of Anahata chakra with the seed mantra of "yam". It’s represented by the deity of wind. Scriptures show it as Lord Vayu holding a sliver of grass while riding an antelope. The "air" element symbolizes freedom, openness, and the free flow of love associated with the fourth chakra.🪂

What’s the planet ruling the heart chakra?

Venus is the ruler of the heart in the chakra system. It’s the planet of beauty, romance, and unconditional love. When your heart chakra is open, you’ll feel confident and loved. A little-known influence of Goddess Venus is on luck, success, financial freedom, and stability. When this planet is on your side, it can bring luck and well-being into your life.

What happens when the heart chakra is balanced?

Balance of the heart chakra happens when it’s open without any blocks. Upon activation, this chakra can influence your complete body and mind. Here’s what you feel when it’s in balance:

• Love: The ability to give and receive love is powered only when the heart chakra is active.
• Emotional balance: You’ll feel emotionally stable when your Hrit energy is open.
• Happiness: The feeling of satisfaction comes with the opening of the Anahata chakra that often ends up making you happy.
• Empathy: You’ll find it effortless to feel for others, their pain, and joy when the fourth chakra is on your side.
• Compassion: When Anahata chakra is open, you begin to develop loving energies not just towards yourself, but others, and even Mother Earth too.
• Acceptance: Heart chakra instills you with the power to accept your flaws and strengths alike.
• Self-love: It’s easy to feel beautiful and respectful towards yourself when Hrit chakra is balanced.
• Forgiveness: You’ll find it possible to forgive others without feeling the need for taking revenge.
• Positivity: Negative feelings won’t derail you and you’ll feel full of positive thoughts throughout life with an open fourth chakra.🎠
• Health: Your overall health improves when the heart chakra is full because the heart pumps blood to all parts of the body.

Heart chakra imbalances: Overactive and underactive heart chakra

When nothing seems to satisfy you anymore, it mightn’t just be the seasonal blues. Instead, it might be time to take a second look at the balance of your heart chakra. Heart Chakra imbalance can often translate into widespread discomfort over other chakras.✅

What can you do to avoid it? First off, let’s learn the signs of imbalance and its causes.

Symptoms of the overactive and underactive heart chakra  

When your heart chakra energy is booming excessively, it can affect your chakra system adversely. Just as an overactive heart chakra is detrimental, an underactive heart chakra also invites perils into your life.

Here’s what to look out for:

• Rejection: If you’re facing constant rejections in your personal life, it could be a result of the underactive or overactive heart chakra.
• Forgetfulness: Struggling to remember your good and bad memories could be a sign of underactive Anahata chakra.
• Trust issues: People who find it hard to believe others or have a way of perpetually doubting others, often end up with a whacky "Hrit" chakra that makes them anti-social.
• Stress: Constant anxiety, depression, and stress are typically a sign of an off-kilter heart chakra.
• Self-depreciation: For those of you who have a habit of putting yourself down, heart chakra imbalance might be the culprit.
• Inability to respect others: Some people have a difficult time accepting others whether it has to do with their faith, sexual orientation, or way of life, which is a direct effect of blocked Hridaya chakra.
• Codependency: Finding it impossible to depend on yourself but having to feed another’s negativity to survive is also a sign of heart chakra inactivity.
• Selfishness: Negative traits like possessiveness and jealousy stems from problematic Anahata chakra energies.
• Overeexcitement: When you find it hard to celebrate positive things in life without going overboard, your overactive fourth chakra might be the reason.
• Physical signs: From tightness in the chest to heartburn and diseases of the heart, lungs, thymus, arms, and hands, heart chakra imbalance shows up in many ways.
• Over-sensitive: Those who find it hard to take productive criticism or turn too defensive when faced with the same have an issue of the middle chakra.  

Explain what causes heart chakra imbalances

The Anahata chakra is a strong chakra that gets blocked when matters of the heart are disrupted. That’s why the first main cause of heart chakra blockage is heartbreak. If you’re going through abandonment or betrayal from your loved ones, the first chakra to get affected is the fourth one.

Any type of traumatic event including abuse of any kind including the little-known financial abuse can affect this chakra. If you feel choked without any freedom, you need to watch out. Whether it’s from guilt or revenge, the heart chakra is the direct descendant of such feelings.

Just as emotional things can negatively affect the "Hrit" chakra, physical things can too. When you binge on junk food, it can lead to physical problems of the heart as well as spiritual issues.

The connection between the heart chakra and other primary chakras

Spiritually, the heart is the center of your chakra system. And physically, it keeps the rest of the body alive by pumping blood to the nooks and corners of your body. Technically, the heart provides heat to the other chakras and body parts. That’s why the fourth chakra is intertwined with all the rest of the chakras.

So let’s find out what makes this central chakra inevitable to the rest of the system.  

Heart chakra vs. Solar plexus and throat chakras

The adjacent chakras are directly affected by the heart chakra. By bridging the lower and higher chakras, it acts as a link between the earth (lower chakras) and the spirit world (higher chakras).🏋🏻‍♂️

When it comes to the solar plexus chakra, heart chakra helps to pump blood and keep your personal sun within the solar plexus bright. It’s the support chakra that keeps the celiac plexus healthy.

On the other hand, when the heart chakra energy is pumped upwards, it helps to strengthen your communication skills by empowering the throat chakra. Such a support system helps you find stability and truth in life.

Heart chakra vs. Other chakras

When the heart is weak, no part of the body or mind is spared from weakness. Eventually, your health deteriorates and your mind loses the will to go on. It can affect the sacral chakra by disconnecting the feelings and the crown chakra by detaching the energy. In the long run, a problematic Anahata might replace intuitions with delusions and passion with violence.

Moreover, when there isn’t any love left in your heart, hatred, self-pity, confusion, and other negative feelings begin to emerge.

How to heal the heart chakra? 7 effective methods explained

A blocked heart chakra transpires into a list of calamities, whether it’s a physical or spiritual realm that you’re concerned about. But healing the Anahata energy isn’t such a tough call. Small things like being grateful for the good in your life, saying thanks to others, spending time with your loved ones, and pampering yourself can all help to boot up the Anahata.

Any type of activity that enthralls the heart such as petting animals, volunteering, charity, or even just enjoying art can pump up the heart vibrations.

Here’s a list of other surefire ways to get your Hrit chakra going on full throttle.📝

Breathwork

Every breath is a combined effort of the heart and the lungs and that’s why doing "pranayama" or any breathing exercise will fire up Anahata energies. Moreover, breathing promotes the heart chakra element of air. Find a suitable space, preferably in open nature to regularly train your heart chakra. To get started, take a look at this video of breathing exercise exclusively for the Hrit chakra.

Affirmations

Next comes energy of thoughts, mantras, or chants that can pump up the fourth chakra. All you need to do is calm down and sit in a safe place to recite one or more affirmations several times throughout the day.

Here are some heart chakra affirmations you can try right away for healing:

• I open my heart to receive love.
• I am ready to give love.
• I forgive my foes.
• I am the source of love.
• I forgive myself.
• I will be kind to myself and others.
• I am thankful for all the good in my life.
• I accept myself and others the way we are.
• I deserve the love I receive.

Music

Sounds or acoustic healing has a great part in spiritual healing today. In fact, music at the frequency of 639 Hz is considered excellent for waking up the heart chakra. Another acoustic healing technique is the Tibetan Singing bowl that can cure the blocked Anahata. Here’s a track at 639 Hz to awaken the heart energies with meditation or for easy listening.

Yoga

When the heart energies are stuck, you can open it up with the combination of breathing, gestures, and concentration. You can try yogasanas like the Wheel Pose, Bridge Pose, Bow Pose, or the Reverse Plank to power up the heart chakra.

Food

You can heal the heart chakra without doing a ton of work too. Eating green veggies like kale, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, broccoli, and french beans are all perfect for empowering the Anahata chakra. Fruits like green apple, avocado, and kiwi are also great for clearing up the fourth chakra.

Aroma

The sense of smell can also clean the blockages in the heart chakra. You can burn herbs or essentials to inhale the scent of the heart chakra. For making this happen, you can’t just use any herb or flower. Instead, go for rose, geranium, neroli, jasmine, bergamot, or lavender because they are filled with heart chakra energies.

Crystal

Lastly, there’s a way to tap into the heart chakra powers without having to lift a mountain or two. All you need to do is get heart chakra crystals and conduct rituals to open up this chakra. Let’s find out how to use crystals for this below.👇🏻

What are the best crystals for heart chakra healing?

Tapping into the energy of the heart chakra brings unconditional love, happiness, and positivity beyond your wildest dreams. It’s a treasure house of good vibes that never end. With crystals that are made entirely of heart chakra energies, you can attain healing and even find new powers stemming from the same.

Let’s find out how to use crystals and jewelry made of the same for healing the Hrit chakra.

Peridot

A balancing stone that brings the power of kindness and love to your heart, peridot is a yellow-green stone. It’s called the "extreme gem" by the GIA as it’s found in meteorites, stardust, and lava. The stone can protect your aura and hydrate the physical body.

Called the "stone of springtime", it can attract luck and abundance into your life. Most crystal users regard it as the gem of wisdom and learning too. It can heal the endocrine system and reproductive system apart from the heart.

The best way to incorporate the healing energies of peridot is by wearing it as a ring on your dominant hand. Get a peridot ring today!

Emerald

One of the earliest-adored healing stones, Emerald was Cleopatra’s favorite stone for jewelry and Emperor Nero’s sunglasses. It’s the stone of "successful love" and one that helps you recover easily from physical and emotional distress.

Emerald isn’t just a stone at present, it’s a color too. The dark green color also makes it one of the most expensive healing rocks on the planet. It can increase your faith, loyalty, romantic bliss, love, unity, and compassion. The stone is perfect for new beginnings and continuous growth.

You can use it to heal your heart chakra by wearing long emerald necklaces that hover over your heart chakra to keep the Anahata charged throughout.😎

Jade

Seen in gorgeous colors like lilac and lemon, Jade is a powerful heart chakra stone that’s known to bring relaxation, peace, and tranquility to the wearer. It has been known as the luckiest stone in Chinese history since the stone age.

There are many grades of jade and the most expensive one is called Imperial Jade and it comes from Myanmar. It’s the best healing crystal for protection, harmony, self-confidence, satisfaction, strength, and good health. Jade is so well-connected to the heart that it can heal heartbreaks and heartaches. You can use jade eggs for yoni exercises for healing the feminine body.

Green Aventurine

A quartz stone in a shade of green that’s darker than jade, green aventurine is a "success stone" that can attract prosperity into your life. It’s composed of tranquilizing energies that can calm down tension and stress in a single touch.

Also called the "stone of opportunity and luck", green aventurine can diffuse negativity with its presence, bring compassion into the heart, and cleanse the problems created by electromagnetic waves. It can calm down nausea and uneasiness when used for a long time too. To bring love through feng shui into your life, make a heart chakra grid made of 12 green aventurine stones and set it in the southwest corner today.

Malachite

Green malachite is one of the best stones to protect your soul from black magic, evil spells, and any kind of negativity. It’s capable of clearing bad energies by keeping your heart chakra pumped at all times. Malachite is a calming stone that promotes unconditional love.

Keep in mind that malachite shouldn’t come into contact with water as it contains toxins that can do more harm than good in such a case. You can use it to power up your heart chakra by wearing it as a pendant on a long chain that hangs over your heart chakra.

Rhodochrosite

A gemstone that means "rose" in Greek, rhodochrosite is popular as the Inca rose and raspberry spar in many places around the world. It’s an extremely rare healing stone that’s known to light up the heart chakra with love vibrations.

The rose-colored stone with white flecks and patterns is extremely powerful because it fills you with the energy to battle your demons and own your issues. It’s excellent for peace and relaxation, especially when worn as jewelry throughout the day on the heart chakra. You can also keep it on your bedside table to promote romance in the bedroom.

Rose Quartz

Another pink-colored heart chakra stone, rose quartz is a fragile crystal with even more delicate love vibrations. It can eliminate grief, help you overcome the pain of heartbreak, and forgive yourself as well as others.🥰

Just touching this stone can fill you with love and compassion immediately. But if you make an elixir using rose quartz, it will help you absorb more of its energies. That being said, the easiest way to keep your Anahata in tune is by wearing a rose quartz ring or pendant throughout the day. It’s best for inner healing as it opens your heart to release fears, stress, and tension easily.

Embrace the love by wearing heart chakra crystal jewelry

The heart is the bridge between the earth and the spirit. It connects the lower chakras with the higher chakras. Located in the middle of the chest, Anahata chakra is represented by a lotus with 12 petals in the color green and pink. It’s associated with the element of "air" and ruled by Goddess Venus.

Heart chakra empowers the throat chakra to communicate the truth and solar plexus to achieve the pink of health. It can further affect other chakras to become stronger. If you feel your heart chakra is off-balance, you can heal it using breathwork, affirmations, yoga, music, aroma, and heart chakra foods.

But the best and quickest way to heal a blocked heart chakra is using crystals like peridot, emerald, jade, green aventurine, malachite, rhodochrosite, and rose quartz. You can wear these crystals on the heart chakra as a pendant or on your fingers as a ring to keep the Anahata chakra charged. Other ways to use heart chakra crystals are by making a love grid, elixir, yoni egg, and so on.

Choose a method that puts you at ease and start vibrating heart energies today.