As the Heart chakra, this is obviously going to be centered on a loving type of energy. By a “loving” energy, I mean the love that creates a bond. It’s where we feel compassion and a sense of caring. Having a healthy heart chakra enables you to feel love and give it in return to others, as well as yourself. It may sound corny, but it also provides a sort of healing. Yes, I am actually saying that love energy has the ability to heal. Before you start worrying if I vaccinate my children, I do, hear me out. The mind is super powerful. Thoughts have an energy and power of their own that can influence our physical body. Now, combine that energy with love. Most people have felt an all encompassing love. Whether it was a “stupid kid love” or not, it truly affects your physical body. Heartbreaks are coined that because you can have literal pain in your chest caused by broken love. The power that can stem from a healthy heart chakra’s love and our power of thought can, in my opinion, provide healing for our physical bodies. I’m not saying it can cure anything. I’m suggesting that maybe we don’t have as many small problems going on where our Heart chakra is located. Instead of being tense and sore all the time, maybe we feel REAL relief in our chest and shoulders. Maybe we breathe easier because of how relaxed we are, deep inside. Health is so much more than just textbook diagnoses. It’s everything that can affect our physical body.
For awakening and aligning our Heart chakra, I’ve turned to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chakras by Betsy Rippentrop and Eve Adamson:
AWAKENING THE CHAKRA
- Sit on the floor, legs crossed, seat firmly planted on the floor. Feel your pelvic bones and imagine roots anchoring those bones to the Earth.
- Take several long, slow, deep breaths as you visualize your fourth chakra spinning slowly and glowing bright green, open and healthy around your heart.
- Imagine your chakra radiating an green circle of light that fills your entire abdomen. Feel the light pulse outward from your spine to the front of your body, to your back, and our to each side. Feel it in your chest.
- Take a deep breath in and in a low resonating tone, say the word: Yang.
- Imagine the planet’s energy that ignites your fourth chakra, so that it glows gently as it spins.
- Imagine the warm, green light flowing through your body in cool waves.
ALIGNING THE CHAKRA
- Stand in Mountain pose with your feet hip-width apart and your arms at your sides.
- Imagine the chakra, right behind your heart, spinning and growing warm. Feel your heart softening.
- Picture a beam of green light glowing up to your crown, filling your upper body with light and healing energy. Then, picture the light going from your heart to your Root chakra, filling your lower body with the same light and healing energy.
- Lift your arms up and imagine the light glowing through you to the sky and the center of the earth.
HEALING THE BLOCKED CHAKRA
To heal a blocked Heart chakra, self-care is going to be priority one again. Which is no surprise when you think about it. It’s been an old cliche that you have to love yourself before you can love others. You have to have some amount of self-love in order to feel as if the ones you love deserve your love. It’s confusing, I know, but I stand by this. I have felt the full absence of self-love. I didn’t have it in me to love the ones I “should” love because I was void. When we’re void, we FEEL void. And that’s it. It’s “not right” to subject that to other people. But it can be found. The best way to take care and to love others is to start off loving ourselves. Take the thirty minutes you’d usually spend mindlessly on your phone, and go take a nap. Take a long hot shower/bath. You’re not missing out on anything, so take the time. Go ahead and reach for that “fancy” shirt instead of a t-shirt. It takes just as much time to pull on a nice shirt as it does a plain t-shirt, and the difference can impact your whole day.
HEALING THE OVERLOADED CHAKRA
While back in the Passion chakra, an overload meant you were all about yourself, this time an overloaded Heart chakra has the opposite effect. Here, you give too much of yourself to others. You’re using what little self-love you have to give your love to everyone but yourself. This can lead to depression and exhaustion. The self-care for an overloaded chakra, is simply saying, “No.” It’s not selfish. Take a break from helping others and recharge your batteries. Even just one little “no” can make a large impact in your mood. It may be just declining lunch with a friend so they can vent, but in that “no” you are choosing yourself, and you’re going to feel that difference.
My Wiccan Story 