Heart Chakra

Symbol: Lotus of 12 petals containing two intersecting circles making up a 6 pointed star demonstrating the perfect balance between spirit descending towards matter and the upward pointing matter rising towards Spirit.

Key lesson: Learning to feel love and to balance the love of others and the love of self.  Mastering the Heart Chakra helps us to enhance our emotional development and recognize that potency of that powerful energy we call “love”.

This central chakra is the passage through which we move from the lower to the higher centres, shifting us from the realm of basic needs into the realm of blessings.  Our challenge is to pass the tests of unconditional love, compassion and forgiveness with which we are challenged daily, in order to move on to the higher centres.

The heart is centre of your emotional power, where love and compassion are both given and received. As our emotional sensor, it tells us whether we feel love or wounded. Problems with this chakra arise when there is a limited experience of love, either receiving or giving love.  Eg.  Doing something when your heart isn’t in it; feeling unworthy of being loved; withholding love or affection from others or a lack of loving feeling towards certain people or even life in general. 

We tend to think of the heart as only concerned with “soft” irrational feelings. We prefer to put greater emphasis on “head” activity, yet when allowed, the heart can be a far more accurate barometer of deeper needs. Listening to the heart in matters of love is vital to maintaining healthy, mutually respectful relationships. As we make our journey towards the Higher Self our relationships painfully expose us to how little we love ourselves. When we strip away the thin veneer that covers the lack of self-intimacy and fill it energetically with joy, peace and self acceptance, we start to build the solid foundation upon which unconditional love flourishes.

Those that dismiss or shun intimacy demonstrate their fear of looking inward. They neglect the opportunities that relationships offer for self knowledge – acknowledging and loving our dark side as well as the parts we admire.  This is the basis of unconditional love.

Element: Air…. If you feel stifled or suffocated by life, it may be time for a “change of air”. Freeing up your energy at your heart chakra is like taking a breath of fresh air. It allows you to experience life with fewer mental limitations. A person’s relationship with air reflects their relations with love.

Colour:  Pink (external love), Green (self love).

Emotional Dysfunctions:  Co-dependency, fears concerning loneliness, commitment and /or betrayal.

Physical Dysfunctions: Shallow or difficult breathing, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer.

Conscious Dysfunctions: Perception of love, relationships with people close to the heart. 

Associated Body Parts:  Heart and circulatory, chest, lungs, shoulders, arms, ribs, breasts, diaphragm and thymus gland. 

Sense:  Touch… When we hug, we can feel what each other feel within. Sensitivity about being touched indicates heart chakra insensitivity. 

Foods: Vegetables.

Incense/Oils: Rose, Bergamot, Melissa.

Crystals: Watermelon Tourmaline, Rose Quartz, Emerald, Green Calcite, Jade, Azurite, Aventurine, Malachite and Moonstone.

Associated Animal:  Gazelle/Antelope

Chakra Characteristics:

Excessive: (Too fast)  Possessive, loves conditionally, withholds emotionally, overly dramatic.

Deficient: (Blocked or sluggish) Fears rejection, loves too much, feels unworthy to receive love, self pity.

Balanced: Compassionate, loves unconditionally, nurturing, desires spiritual experience in love making.

Archetypes: 

 “Performer” – Some people mask personal wounds by playing at being  “in love”; a very different experience to truly loving someone. A common example of this personality is the co-dependent, who looks outside for the love they crave, kidding themselves that their wounds can be healed by finding someone else to draw strength from. It doesn’t have to be a “sexual” relationship, it can be just another source of emotional release sometimes materialistic.  

We can also love too much . . . So often we profess to love another person but we wrap the love up in a cloak of jealousy, possessiveness and emotional instability. We may misinterpret the strong feelings engendered by these dysfunctional attitudes for “love”, where in fact this is really about externalizing something that needs to come from within, in order to avoid facing up to long held fears concerning heart and betrayal. 

However,  true “lovers” have the capacity to love themselves unconditionally. 
They don’t need other people to buoy them up, they freely open their hearts and share self acceptance with others.  These generous free spirited individuals offer themselves wholeheartedly to others because they know that the core of their being is secure. Being in touch with emotions, they take a lighter approach to relationships, in the certain knowledge of forgiveness and compassion which their dysfunctional counterparts look for others to provide, is available to them internally at any time.

Lovers are magnetic, radiant individuals who truly  “own” themselves. They are easily recognizable because it is impossible not to be affected by their positive energy.

  

Ask yourself:

·       Do you respond to others through the mind and intellect rather than the Heart?  If so, begin to tune into the hearts messages, focus on what you truly feel without judging. The heart has the answers.

·       How much do you feel connected with others? Smile more . . . amazing how many connect with you through smiling back at you. 

·       Are you hard on yourself for failing? Balance is required . . . with yourself as well as others.

·       Do you put on your “good face”? Learn to detach from your feelings.  When you heart is full of pain, acknowledge that it represents another lesson.  Accept the lesson and move forward.

·       Are you compassionate or do you judge others? Know that no one can hurt you . . . it's how you react to what they do to you . . . that is the cause of your pain.

·       Do you feel lonely or neglected in your relationships? Do you project the true love outwardly for others and inwardly for self? Be true and integral with your inner essence and project it outwardly with others.   

AFFIRMATIONS:

 I SEND LOVE TO EVERYONE I KNOW, ALL HEARTS ARE OPEN TO RECEIVE MY LOVE.

I ACCEPT THAT PAIN IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF MY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.

I LOVE MYSELF FOR WHO I AM AND THE POTENTIAL WITHIN ME.

ALL PAST HURT – I RELEASE INTO THE HANDS OF LOVE.

THE LOVE I FEEL FOR MYSELF AND OTHERS IS UNCONDITIONAL.

LOVE WILL SET ME FREE, OTHERS LOVE THE BEST THEY CAN.  IF SOMEONE DOESN’T LOVE ME ENOUGH, THEY MAY BE LIMITED IN THIER EXPRESSION OF LOVE AND DESERVE MY COMPASSION.