Probably the chakra you are most familiar with. The centre of love, compassion, and kindness. Don’t forget his includes love for others AND love for yourself, which is why this chakra is also linked with health and healing.
The colour green is associated with this chakra. As you may expect it is located right over your heart and it radiates down to your breastbone and up to your throat. We are halfway through the week which is fitting as it is the middle of the 7 chakras. It connects the higher chakras (the heaven) with the lower chakras (the physical world).
When it’s balanced, you are able to equally feel love for yourself and others. Even when tough things happen, you can still see the compassion and kindness in others. In short you are at peace with yourself and those around you.
When it is overactive, we lose our personal boundaries and start to make unhealthy choices, all in the name of love! You may find yourself always putting the needs of others before your own. It’s important to treat yourself with the same compassion and kindness that you give others.
An underactive chakra can also sadly be very common. Life can send us a lot of heartbreak perhaps to teach us lessons about ourselves and the world around us. It can be hard to not take those lessons personally, we can often find it hard to love again-like building a wall around your heart and not letting anyone in.
IN A NUTSHELL: Physical signs of an Imbalance: fast heart rate, palpitations, circulation issues, heartburn, and interpersonal relationship issues. Emotional signs: Overactive: Irrational decisions in the name of love, disregard for our own health and wellness, being a martyr! Underactive: Lacking empathy, callus, judgemental, loneliness, resentment.
Balancing an overactive heart chakra: Take the love you’ve given to others and focus some of it back on yourself. Try doing one thing every day that’s just for you-take a bath, have a massage, read a book, meditate.
Energizing an underactive heart chakra: We work so hard to build up our walls and defences, and it isn’t always easy to knock them down. It begins with loving yourself. Show appreciation for yourself, give yourself the love that you want others to give to you. Then, spread that compassion to those around you-perhaps offer to help people out- friend or local cause or even volunteer for an organisation or charity.
My top Yoga Pose we can do to stimulate: Anahatasana-Heart melting pose. Surprise surprise! Regular Re-Root yogis know I love this pose. Also called Puppy dog pose for obvious reasons! I love hanging out here and connecting to that beautiful softening exhale. Great if like me you often have a tight chest and shoulders.
Other info on The Heart Chakra:
Calming scents: sandalwood, rose.
Stimulating scents: pine, honeysuckle.
Meridians: heart, Small intestine, heart constrictor.