How to Heal Your Heart Chakra

ANAHATA

This article addresses alternative healing methods to heal the heart chakra:

1) CRYSTAL HEALING

For a broken or closed heart, try carrying a pink rose quartz which is famous for being the love crystal. Many believe that keeping rose quartz near you attracts love of all forms into your life. If you have a closed heart, rose quartz can help you to connect with the love you have for yourself again, and extend this to others.

Green crystals such as aventurine, jade, green calcite, green tourmaline and chrysopase are also excellent for balancing the heart chakra. Carry the crystals with you physically near to your heart if you can, e.g. you can carry a rose quartz in your chest shirt pocket, or wear one as a pendant. Alternatively, you can place heart crystals strategically in the home, e.g. underneath your pillow or on your bedside table as you sleep.

2) GREEN-COLOURED FOODS, WARM SOUPS AND VITAMIN C-RICH FOODS

Eating foods that are specifically green in colour is recommended for healing the heart. Examples of green-coloured foods include artichokes, apples, limes, spinach, kale, green bell peppers, broccoli, swiss chard, lettuce, asparagus, leeks and pears. If you can, buy organic for the higher soil (i.e. nutritional) quality. Warm, hearty, rich soups can also help to soothe you emotionally as you recover from heartache or loss. Finally, foods rich in Vitamin C like strawberries, mangoes, kiwis, broccoli, Brussel sprouts and bell peppers can heal the heart chakra.

3) ESSENTIAL OILS

For healing the heart, you can try rose oil, geranium or uplifting citrus oils like bergamot.

4) MEDITATION AND VISUALISATION

To meditate on the heart chakra, imagine each inspiration and exhalation as a green or pink light entering and exiting your body. See this color spreading throughout your entire body as you breathe. Imagine that as you exhale, this beautiful green or pink light is carrying away negativity from your heart, cleansing your heart space and leaving it open and ready for the new!

You can also visualize a powerful green or pink light filling your heart centre, or the wheel of the chakra happily spinning in a sea of green/pink light.

5) REIKI

If you are initiated in reiki, practice self-healing on your heart chakra daily for at least fifteen minutes. It can be extremely effective. If you aren´t a reiki practitioner, try to have at least one session with a reiki healer to experience soothing and healing.

6) SPEND TIME IN NATURE

Spending time in nature takes away anxious energy and naturally raises your vibration. Let the green colour vibration fill you up and heal you. The colour of Anahata is green.

7) GIVING TO OTHERS AND HELPING OTHERS

Acts of kindness and giving to others aids the heart chakra. Try to do at least one kind act a day for somebody else, e.g. giving money to the homeless, smiling at somebody who looks angry or sad, letting someone in a line in front of you, listening to a friend whose had tough day, telling someone how much you appreciate them, or giving someone a random compliment. This will boost dopamine levels in your own brain, and the energy will return to you also as good karma. Also as we are all connected on a universal level, when you look after someone else you are actually also looking after yourself!

8) LOVING THE SELF

As we are all connected, it´s important to love your self so that you can fully love others and so that others can fully love you. You cannot pour from an empty cup and the more full your own cup is, the more it overflows and extends to others. So taking care of yourself and loving yourself is selfless because you´re filling up your own cup and then are able to give more to others, whether it´s money, positivity, happiness or support, etc.

9) SELF-CARE

Similar to self love, actively schedule and make time to nurture and care for your body, mind and spirit. Because we are all in Earth bodies, we need to take physical actions to show our spirits love. Some things you can do is a hot bath, massage, yoga, reiki, exercise, watching your favourite TV show, cooking your favourite meal, playing with your pet, etc. Whatever makes you feel happy, cared for and good!

10) HONOUR AND EMBRACE YOUR EMOTIONS

Journalling out your feelings, talking to a friend or a therapist, crying, screaming or shouting your emotions out into a pillow can all help to release them. Emotions are designed to teach us something so we must learn to listen to what they want to tell us if we want to release them and move on. Recognize, respect, embrace and acknowledge your emotions so you can learn their lesson and move onto happier feelings.

11) FORGIVENESS

Resentments and hurts are forms of negative energy that clog the heart chakra, preventing positive energies from flowing. When you release these negative energies through forgiveness, you are literally freeing up space in your heart space, cleansing it of negative energy in order to make space to attract new loving and positive experiences! Try the famous ancient Hawaiian Ho'oponopono prayer: 'I´m sorry, I forgive you, thank you, I love you' when thinking about the person or experience which has caused you pain. Your subconscious mind will come up with justifications as to why you´re saying this, which will help you to make peace with the situation and let it go!!

12) FINDING GRATITUDE FOR CHALLENGES

It is often challenging experiences in the past that unbalance the heart chakra. Sit down and think about the negative experience that has upset you. Think about some positives that have come out of this situation, no matter how small. Try to get at least 3-5 things that were good that came from this situation! Finding gratitude in life's challenges helps you to heal the heartbreak from them!

13) CHANTING MANTRA

Chant, write or sing the mantra, ‘YAM,’ associated with the heart chakra

14) USE POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS

The more times you repeat an affirmation, the deeper it embeds into your subconscious mind which connects with the Universe, creating outward change. Try to say or write your affirmations daily, if you can, once in the morning and once at night. If you can do them a third time at midday or even repeatedly throughout the day, even better. Some examples are:

'I experience love wherever I go.'

'I now see the beauty and magnificence of my being.'

'Loving relationships fill my life, and I find myself easily expressing love to others.'

'Life loves me.'

'I am at one with the very Power that created me.'

'My heart is joyous, innocent, pure and free.'

'The love I have for myself is unconditional.'

'I love God/Source/Infinite Being.'

'I Love Nature.' 'Love flows into my life and being.'

'I love those around me and I love myself.'

'I have as many friends as I want.'

'I am creating loving, lasting, supportive relationships.'

15) GRATITUDE

Gratitude in general for everything, even life's challenges, connects you directly with Source and makes you feel loved by life. The more gratitude and love you can feel for life, and the more you feel life loves you, the more love will materialize in your life through the forms of actual people. It´s like magic.

16) SPEND AS MUCH TIME AS YOU CAN WITH LOVED ONES AND HEAL YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNIVERSE/GOD/HIGHER POWER, ETC.

The heart chakra is connectedness with others and also with the Higher Power. You may notice that the closer your relationship with the Higher Power, the more close loving fulfilling relationships magically seem to spring up in your life. They are connected. If you don’t have many loved ones around, make an effort to rebuild old meaningful relationships or perhaps more easily, work on your faith and relationship with the Higher Power, as the more you fall in love with life and feel that life loves you, the more loving meaningful connections will show up in your life.