The Heart Chakra

The Heart Chakra may be one of the most important chakras in the system because it acts as the center, or the source of energy that helps balance the rest. Think of this chakra as a water-well of energy that nourishes the whole chakra system. When that well is poisoned, then the system is unwell.

• Color: Green
• Location: Center of the chest; heart
• Element: Air
• Development Stage: 21 – 26 years old

Rising above the Solar Plexus Chakra’s journey, the Heart Chakra gathers its deepest core experiences during the ages of 21-26. We’re coming from the awareness of our environment (Root Chakra), to understanding how we relate to others (Sacral Chakra), to establishing our self-identity (Solar Plexus Chakra), to… Suddenly learning that adult life may not be going so great?

Love & the Heart Chakra

The Heart Chakra carries our core experiences of love, compassion, and judgement. We all experience the energy of love differently, because we all have different core experiences related to:

• Root Chakra: Home, environment, town & country, resources
• Sacral Chakra: Family, friends, romantic relationships, creativity
• Solar Plexus Chakra: Purpose, self-image, power

These core experiences teach us about worth, affection, and attention. They also help shape our ego. As we grow and mature, we may find that some of the things that we have learned about how we love, or expect to be loved, don’t hold truth for us anymore. Letting go of these thoughtforms, behaviors, or relationships can be very difficult because they’ve become cornerstones of our reality and self-identity. These are manifestations based on our old judgements that have now become unhealthy attachments. 

Judgement and Inner Turmoil

Let’s take a look at those basic areas of your life again, and ponder if any of these statements resonate with you:

• Root Chakra: “I love my country but I hate my government.”
• Sacral Chakra: “I love my father but I can’t stand my mother.”
• Solar Plexus Chakra: “I love my work but I hate my workplace.”

The more turmoil is carried in this disparity of emotions, the more you can expect resentfulness to grow and fester within you – and festering does not allow the Heart Chakra to love fully. Healing these judgements and rising above them requires a whole Heart Chakra, Throat Chakra, and Third Eye Chakra healing process, but forgiving yourself for the way you judge yourself and others is where the Heart Chakra journey begins.

An Inside Job

It’s easy to say that the Heart Chakra is about love, and we hear that very often. However, I posit that the true goal of this powerful chakra’s journey is maturation of the ego. We all want to jump right into experiencing true love, but we can’t do that without first learning how to act with compassion and transcend the parent-child communication with the Divine.

This means that we’re going to need to take a cold, hard look at our core motivations and how they relate to our wounded victim programming. Healing victim programming means letting go of:

• Being a victim of circumstance
• Being a victim of the system
• Being a victim of your government
• Being a victim of your culture, race, or ethnicity 
• Being a victim of your family
• Being a victim of other people’s approval
• Being a victim of abuse
• Being a victim of your body
• Being a victim of disease
• Being a victim of lack
• Being a victim of God

This is a sensitive point in which seekers either move forward with their healing, or become triggered and decide to retreat back into their wounding. Raw triggers can come up in the form of knee-jerk reactions, disbelief, sarcasm, and “victim-blame” labeling. We see it every day in social media commenting and unsolicited opinions, advice, or arguments. This is actually part of the spiritual healing journey, and many of us go through it for days, weeks, months, or years. Some even choose to stay in that place of anger and hold onto those narratives for the rest of their lives.

The truth is, everyone has a choice. What I can say from experience is this: Terrible things happen and not everything has an answer or a resolution right away. At some point, we’re going to have to drop it if we wish to move on. So long as we hold on to our victim narratives, we will continue to revel in their energies and see them played out it in different scenarios over and over again.

A Social Epidemic

“Our culture as a whole is evolving toward healing from its emphasis on wounds and victimization. Ours is a ‘fourth chakra culture’ that has not yet moved out of our wound into spiritual adulthood.”

-Carolyn Myss (Anatomy of the Spirit)

Heart Chakra dynamics play out every day in our current cultural context. Anger and dramatic plays of abuse are very easy to observe in our culture, and a quick look through your social media feed or a flip through the average TV programming will confirm that we’re all being served these triggers daily. In observing the constant polarizing conversations of politics, racism, security, and community, the Heart Chakra energy brings up a powerful question: Are we sick of the blaming yet?

Healing the Heart Chakra

What the Heart Chakra affects: Love, devotion, forgiveness, acceptance of self, self-image, self-worth, self-value. The Heart Chakra is our main connection between what is tangible (creation, physical experience) and what is intangible (thought, breath, voice). Through it, we connect to Divine Source and the more open and balanced this connection is, the more aligned to Divine Source we become.

Is my Heart Chakra unbalanced? Pay attention to the heart, circulatory system, lungs, breath, shoulders, diaphragm, breasts, chest, arms, hands, skin. Heart attacks, heart disease, cancer, and lung disease may indicate severe Heart Chakra blockages related to experiences of grief, sadness, envy, ego, isolation, or rejection, to name a few. 

How do I balance my Heart Chakra? True healing is an inside job, and it requires a conscious decision on your part. As you learn how to detach from judgement of others and judgement of self, you move towards becoming an observer and the energy of forgiveness begins to shine through. This is how the heart space becomes liberated and free to love and embrace life. 

When this chakra is aligned and balanced, love and compassion flows freely – both in terms of giving it out and getting it back without expectation. This is a master lesson in vulnerability.