Opening The Heart Chakra
The heart chakra occupies a central place in the chakra system. Located between the three lower chakras and three upper ones, it is often seen as playing the role of bridge or center of transformation of energies between the physical and the spiritual. As the center of love, the heart chakra helps heal and transform the physical energies into spiritual energies and vice and versa, supporting harmonious integration of all aspects of oneself.
There are many ways to open the heart chakra and restore balance in this energy center. We’ll review a few of them. The most accessible and first step to open your heart chakra is to turn within oneself and work towards self-acceptance. This is based on the principle that in order to love and open to love, one must feel at ease and loving within. The idea is that opening your heart chakra and keeping it open and balanced is supported by becoming more integrated. In order to open the heart chakra we can practice:
Traditional psychotherapeutic or self-development approaches might be helpful in identifying and working with the areas of resistance of blockage affecting the opening of your heart chakra.
Despite its name, the heart chakra is not solely focused on feelings and emotions associated with love. To simplify, the realm of emotions is typically more tightly associated with the second chakra or navel chakra. The heart chakra can be seen as the doorway to other dimensions of one’s experience of reality [Note: Barbara Brennan – Hands of Light], where we can experience more universal feeling of love that are less personalized. Therefore, opening the heart chakra refers to relaxing into a space where love and acceptance expand from individual preoccupation into a larger experience of love. By opening your heart chakra and anchoring yourself in its energy, you are going beyond the preoccupations typically associated with the lower three chakras. Concerns over safety and survival, emotions and sexuality, and the way others see you, social status or power do not disturb you any more. When the heart has been opened, one becomes naturally good to others and oneself. Having an open fourth chakra does not necessarily mean that have to be spiritual or that you’re a saint, but it supports love for all things and unconditional acceptance.
When you open and balance your 4th energy center, you may experience the following heart chakra opening symptoms:
Opening the heart chakra is an essential practice in a number of spiritual traditions. The fourth chakra becomes the mediator for divine love and access to non-dual states where there is only love, where the one who loves and the object of love, the lover and the beloved are one. As a person living in your 4th chakra, you may start to see love in anything and everything, being at peace and centered in your heart no matter the circumstances. You may find yourself effortlessly trusting other and interacting with people in a loving and graceful way.
When properly balanced each of your 7 Chakras work together to create an optimal life. If you are like most of us your energetic ecosystem could use some help. Take this 2-minute chakra test to know which of your chakras may be the weakest.
Lizzy is editor in chief of Chakra Magazine and chakras.info. She is trained in several energy healing modalities including Reiki and Healing Touch. In addition she has spent many years studying ancient traditions such as the chakra system and Tibetan spirituality. She merges this knowledge with her passion for sharing information through journalism. Her mission is to offer accurate, up-to-date, reliable resources about topics that matter to readers with regards to the chakra systems.