So much of our lives are built around love. We grow up and are to fall in love and get married. Poems, books, movies, art … countless numbers devoted to love. It is only fitting that we now come to the heart chakra. The heart chakra is the fourth of the seven chakras and interestingly the one in the middle, the one that is key to balancing all others. The Sanskrit name for the heart chakra is Anahata, which means sound that is made without two things striking or unstruck, which reminds us of our heart beat. Nothing is stuck together but yet there is sound/vibration.

The heart chakra is located in front of the physical heart and deals with love and relationships, toward our self and others. The color of the heart chakra is various shades of green. The heart chakra is stimulated and awakened by all the different colors of green coming up everywhere for spring, green is healing.

The tone for our heart chakra is “aahhh” which also makes the heart feel good. Bashar says we are born from love, love is the most natural thing we can do, in my healing experience I have learned that self-love is what we need and crave most. That feeling of longing and sadness deep in all of us comes from our heart wanting us to love and nurture ourselves. When we love and care for ourselves deeply we see the true divine creator within ourselves, that we are all connected we are all one and we see the divine creator within all beings.

A lot of people talk about coming from a heart space instead of the mind and there are a lot of reasons why this is beneficial. Most of the time we are coming from a mind space, the mind is the thinker it wants to think everything out. But often we can over think which in turn can cause stress or confusion. The heart is the lover, all it wants is to love unconditionally.
When we are coming from our heart space we are more in the now of the moment, we stop stressing and over thinking and it calms our hearts and minds. When we are coming from a heart space we create peace within ourselves and peace in our environment. The Heart Math Institute is devoted to studying the heart. The heart is electromagnetic and receives 10,000 more electrical impulses than our brains which enhances the idea that it is a good reason to listen to and follow our hearts.

When stressed or fearful we tend to go back to our mind space where fear and stress are perpetuated by rampant thought. To bring yourself back into your heart space perform deep breathing. Archetypes you can work with for the heart chakra are Christ, Quan Yin, Amma Chi, Mother Theresa and Mother Mary. Foods that benefit the heart chakra are sprouts and leafy greens that blossom like the opening of our hearts to the abundance of universal love. Essential oils that can open, heal and strengthen the heart chakra are rose and any scent that invokes love and gratitude deep in your heart. The organs the heart chakra governs over are the physical heart, lungs, arms and hands.

A number of crystals can help open, heal and balance the heart and heart chakra, opening us to deeper love for ourselves and others.

• Green aventurine, dissolves lower vibrational thoughts and emotions, healing, harmonizing and comforting for the heart.
• Bloodstone, grounds our heart energy, while clearing out irritability, aggressiveness and impatience, enhancing our inner strengths and courage.
• Chrysoprase, helps us remember we are part of the divine whole, it also helps us to maintain a peaceful nonegotistical inner calm in all situations.
• Emerald, strengthens loyalty, domestic harmony, unconditional love, unity and friendship, it also heals the emotions and opens the heart chakra.
• Jade, enhances nurturing love and helps us remember we are all spiritual beings having a human experience.
• Malachite, clears and activates all of our chakras, it helps us during times of change, strengthens our empathy for others and helps us to release negative experiences or trauma.
• Moldavite, opens, clears and aligns all of our chakras, helps us remember our path on Earth and enhances compassion and empathy.
• Seraphinite, cleanses the heart chakra opening us to love, self-healing and enlightenment, it has a high vibration and connects us in with the angelic realm.
• Even though rose quartz is not green, I use it often with myself and clients, it has a high content of lithium, opens us to self-love and unconditional love for all beings, it radiates and saturates everything with unconditional love, it enhances compassion and love for all beings.
• Green tourmaline opens the heart chakra, dispels fears and transforms lower vibrational energy.
• Pink tourmaline, helps us to love ourselves first so we can love others deeper, knowing it is safe for us to love and it releases destructive feelings and emotions pain, and strengthens unity, tenderness, patience and compassion.
• Watermelon tourmaline activates the heart chakra linking it to our highest self, strengthening patience, instills deep inner peace, friendship, love and tenderness.

The saying you must love yourself first before loving others is so true on multiple levels. When we truly love ourselves we are open to receiving and giving love, and when someone leaves or dies it’s not so hard on us because we are overflowing with so much love for ourselves.

A great meditation you can practice is to pick one of the stones listed for the heart chakra, prepare a quiet meditative space and sit or lay down with the stone on your heart.

• Now feel and visualize a place on Earth you feel a strong connection with, a deep love.
• Allow this feeling the love & gratitude sensations to build up inside your heart, feel your heart & cells vibrating with this love.
• As your heart chakra begins to open and expand, breathe the colors pink and green deep into your heart and heart chakra.
• As you exhale breathe the pink and green love out into your aura filling and saturating your heart.
• Continue to build that feeling of love and gratitude deep in your heart.
• Breathing in the pink and green loving energies into every cell of your being.
• Before leaving the meditation space make sure to tell yourself and body thank you I love you.

Enjoy the feeling of an open and free heart. It is blissful. Have fun.