Nourish Limitless Love and Change the World by Healing the Heart Chakra

Over the past year we’ve looked at the chakras as they relate to your wellness in body, mind and spirit – from the grounding of the root chakra in our most basic survival instincts; to the emotions of the sacral chakra, balancing point of individuality and relationship; to the inner fire of the solar plexus chakra, driving our will and identity.

And as we celebrate National Heart Month as well as Valentine’s Day, what better time to look at the heart chakra.

It’s the heart chakra that helps us to see the world as a warm and friendly place…that helps us to reach out and connect with others in friendship, compassion, and altruistic love…that makes it possible for us to meld our awareness with Divine Awareness to achieve inner peace.

The Sanskrit name for the heart chakra is Anahata, meaning “unbeaten” or “unhurt” – and this is its gift. No matter how much pain and sorrow your heart may be carrying, the heart chakra carries an unbreakable connection to a limitless, infinite Love, overflowing with compassion for all beings, including yourself.

But if your heart chakra is wounded and out of balance, whether through early childhood suffering or generational or past-life trauma, you may try to reduce your pain by resorting to coping mechanisms such as co-dependency, envy, or possessiveness over things or people. You may numb out through food, narcotics or other substances, shopping or other addictions; you may be unable to access or express your emotions easily; and you may hold grudges for injuries that you’ve suffered.

All of this is on the psychological/spiritual side. On the physical side, imbalance in the heart chakra may show up as heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, chest pain. Imbalance may also surface as weakness in the immune system or a susceptibility to auto-immune disorders, because the heart chakra is also linked to the thymus gland, which regulates the immune system..

With heart disease the #1 cause of death in the U.S., is it any wonder that our nation also shows the social impact of heart-chakra imbalance? Violence in the streets and homes, sexual abuse, child abuse, massive depression, addictions and co-dependency, acting out rather than sharing emotions…this is taking the individual symptoms to a cultural level.

And if each of us takes the step to balance and heal our heart chakras, we can help to shift this imbalance.

How can we do this? Here are just a few…

Colors and Stones

The colors associated with the heart chakra are soft pink (as you’d see in a rose quartz crystal) and soft green (as you’d see in the semiprecious stones of jade, green aventurine, emerald, and green tourmaline). Imagine these colors glowing gently around your heart, cradling it in warm light and pure love. You may want to invest in one of these stones, if it calls you, and hang it as a pendant over your heart.

Essential oils

The aromas of Rose, Neroli (orange blossom) and Melissa (lemon balm) are particularly healing to the heart chakra. You may want to use one of these in a diffuser or a candle while you work or meditate, or in a bath in the evening. Intentionally use them to make your space warm, nurturing, and safe for your heart to open and blossom.

Heart-Healing Foods

The very foods that can help our hearts nutritionally also help them from the energetic side. For example, dark green leafies such as kale, spinach, chard, collards, and turnip and mustard greens contain Vitamin K, which prevents hardening of the arteries and supports blood flow. Other greens, such as parsley, dill, basil, and thyme, contain nitrates which help to protect the heart. Finally, studies show that green teas can significantly lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

Dr. Deanna Minich in Nature And Health.com states that the “very organization” of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli , cauliflower and brussels sprouts – all very beneficial to the physical heart – “mirrors that of the unfolding spirals of the roselike heart chakra.”

Yoga Poses

As Barbara Kaplan Herring writes in Yoga Journal , the Cobra and Fish poses open up the chest and heart. On a psychological/spiritual level, she adds, backbends help you to develop the trust and surrender that are necessary for you to open your heart.

Invoking Divine Love

You can also help to balance and heal your heart chakra by intentionally invoking the energy of Divine Love in everything you do:

• Making meals with love, and saying a prayer of gratitude before you eat
• Going out walking in nature, or lying in the grass and connecting with the Earth through your heart
• Opening your heart in sharing with others
• Forgiving – Letting go of past hurts, regrets and resentments
• Loving yourself
• Saying affirmations such as “I am Love,” or “I allow love to flow to me and through me”

Meditate to activate the Heart Chakra
Finaly, the HeartMath Institute has released a wealth of information on the heart and its role in the mind-body-spirit levels of our being. I recommend the entire site, and doing the Quick Coherence Meditation can bring remarkable results in rebalancing the heart chakra.

Finally, be sure to connect with a health advisor who honors your full being on all levels, not only the physical symptoms but the causes underlying. Healing most often proceeds from the deepest spiritual levels and moves outwards, and may involve resolving uncomfortable emotions.  You can also schedule a complimentary wellness discovery session to explore what individualized needs you might have on nourishing your heart chakra. Click here to schedule a discovery session.

“The distinguished scientists at the Institute of HeartMath (IHM) and Global Coherence Initiative (GCI) have conducted extensive research on the power of heart intelligence, intuition and the energetic connection between all things. IHM and GCI have explored the intricacies of heart-brain messaging, how emotions affect human biology and the influences of geomagnetic fields and solar activity on our health and daily activities. We invite you to examine the following research”.
Check out this video to learn more about the power of the heart

Please share below how you nourish your heart chakra.