10 powerful ways to heal your Heart Chakra & emotional blockages

If you feel stuck with a feeling, isolated, bitter or resenting, there is a good chance that your heart chakra (or Anahata-Chakra) might be in some desperate need of healing.

A healthy and balanced heart chakra is key to experience connection (to yourself and the world), to be accepting and forgiving, to feeling open and light-hearted.

There are many reasons your heart chakra may be blocked. Close relationships with a narcissistic person, betrayal, abuse or simply through absorbing unhealthy beliefs about love from society may have caused your heart chakra to be out of balance. Luckily, there are many things you can do to help it heal again.

What is the Heart Chakra?

The heart chakra is located in the middle of your chest, right about the level of your heart. It is also called the Anahata chakra, which is Sanskrit for “un-hurt”. It is often referred to as the most important of all chakras, because it acts as the unifier for the physical and spiritual chakras. In other words, its the bridge between spirit and earth.

The Anahata chakra is the fourth of seven chakras. It connects the lower three chakras (root, sacral and solar plexus) with the three chakras above (throat, third eye and crown). It is associated with air, the colour green and symbolized by a six-pointed star within a 12-petaled flower.

It is the center of love, emotions and connection. It is linked to trust, unconditional love, acceptance, compassion, gratitude and peace. The mantra for this chakra is simply “i love”.

10 Signs of an unbalanced Heart Chakra

There are many indicators to whether or not your heart chakra might be out of balance. You could also detect the blockage through a Chakra-Meditation. If this isn’t for you, I got 10 signs that could indicate that your Anahata might need some healing:

Body issues connected to your cardiovascular system or your breathing (i.e. High blood pressure, asthma, tense chest, fast heartbeat). Please make sure to get yourself physically examined by a doctor If you experience any issues with that, too!
Tendency to codependent relationships (especially If you have issues with setting boundaries).
You find it hard to forgive.
You have trouble experiencing a real connection to anyone. You may even feel disconnected from those closest to you.
You are either really dependent or distant in your romantic relationship. Whatever it is, you are having trouble with this kind of intimacy.
You can’t let go of bitter or angry thoughts and feelings.
You live with a lot of fear. Feeling a sense of trust, not only to others but in life itself, is very hard for you.
You can’t feel pure love in your heart, even when you try to fabricate that feeling (i.e. through meditation).
Your self-worth is dependent on others.
You are very self-critical. Maybe you even view yourself as a martyr or victim.

Can you relate to some of these above? Or maybe, do you have some other indications that are missing from that list?

Is your Heart Chakra deficient or excessive?

Think of a healthy chakra as a perfectly balanced scale. It’s the sweet spot in the middle. If your heart chakra isn’t balanced anymore, it doesn’t equal to it being sick. It indicates an excess or lack, a blockage or an accumulation of energy.

If your heart chakra is:

Deficient: It is energetically numb. You might feel sluggish, inward-oriented, more prone to anxiety, more disconnected.
Excessive: It is energetically manic. You might be more reactive, outward-oriented, more prone to aggression and to dependency on others.

On this note, it’s important to point out that it’s perfectly normal for you heart chakra to be a little deficient or excessive from time to time. After all, we are human beings living a normal, day-to-day life. Our energies get swirled around a lot during our busy days, as we are constantly bombarded with impressions from the outside.

Think of it more as a spectrum on which your energy levels can be placed somewhere. It’s normal to be a little astray from the middle. If unguarded or untended to though, the energy imbalance can rapidly take a huge leap. Big accumulations or blockages are what I’d then consider as unhealthy. You might not even realize them at that time, as our mind and body are great at covering and coping.

10 Heart Chakra Healing Practices

1. Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta-Meditation)

I put this one first, because for me, this was the most powerful way to heal my heart chakra. If you do this Meditation on a regular basis, it will get easier and more accessible. I often cried during this meditation in the beginning of practicing it because a lot of hurt and resentful feelings were released. Now, I sometimes cry out of joy when I am in a deep state of unconditional love.

How to do a Metta-Meditation?

Sit down in a meditation seat of your choice (preferably lotus or half-lotus) with your spine straight. Ease into your meditation by doing a few rounds of breathing exercises or by simply focusing on your breath. You can also focus in on your heart chakra, but I found this to be a little difficult when just starting to meditate.

After you have calmed down and feel more centered, you start your Metta-Meditation. Start generating a feeling of compassion and love. You can also visualize this in your heart area. If you want to use a Mudra, you can bring your hands in prayer-position right in front of your chest.

Now, direct this loving-kindness feeling towards yourself. You can repeat in your head sentences like: “May I be healthy. May I be peaceful. May I have a life filled with joy and happiness. May I have the power to accept and forgive. May I be safe. May I feel love towards myself and others.” Repeat this a few rounds and really try to feel it.

After directing this to yourself, you will repeat this process by directing the same feeling and wishes towards others. First, you direct it towards someone you love, then someone neutral, then someone who hurt you, then all of the above and lastly to every living creature on earth.

Take a few minutes of only breathing between the rounds. It may help you to visualize that person sitting in front of you. Also, tell them goodbye afterwards so you won’t hang on it. This practice is about love, but it is also about letting go.

If you start to cry during your meditation, just let it happen. Resisting it is what creates suffering, not the crying itself. Crying per se is a wonderful and powerful release mechanism. Just like laughing, crying is natural and can actually be enjoyed.

2. Soak yourself in nature

Nature is powerful. As the heart chakra is represented with the colour green, so is it’s close connection to nature. I especially recommend to you Forest bathing, which is a term that originates from Japan. Besides it many scientifically proven benefits, I can tell you from my own experience how restoring it is.

My advice for you would be to go into the forest or any kind of mostly untouched nature (your garden could work as well) and just stay there for a few hours. I sometimes take only my yoga matt with me /without doing any actual yoga/ and do absolutely nothing.

I suggest you go alone and to not take your phone with you. I promise you won’t need it. I like it most when I really do nothing for a few hours. I go into nature without any intention and just stay there.

After a while, your thoughts get really quite. You will recognize how much there is actually going on, how the wind plays with the plants, how many birds you can hear and how many animals actually are all around you.

If doing nothing feels weird for you in the beginning, which I totally get, you can of course do some things. You can walk around If you feel like it, you can meditate, you can write, you can do whatever you feel like doing. Just enjoy, be present and don’t go in it with the thought of achieving something.

3. Crystals

Crystals can be used in many different ways. You can carry them around with you, put them on a necklace (which is really nice for heart chakra healing as they are closer to your heart region), put them besides your bed or meditate with them.

Use these Crystals for heart chakra balancing: Rose quartz, green fluorite, rhodonite, jade, malachite and chrysocolla.

I found Rose quartz to be very soothing and replenishing. Malachite for me works great for releasing and letting go.

As for Crystals, here are two things to keep in mind. One would be, that you should do a Crystal cleansing from time to time as energies can get stuck in them. Secondly, using Crystals is not sustainable. I myself have and use a lot of Crystals, as I was not aware of that fact.

As Crystals grew more mainstream, so did the mining become more unethically. Since this would be too much to cover in this article, I can only make you aware of this fact and ask you to do your own research on that matter. Becoming aware of nature and trying to live accordingly is more beneficial to your heart chakra than any Crystal could ever be.

4. Essential oils

I am huge on using essential oils. As for your heart chakra, you can rub them on your wrists or in the center of your chest (make sure you dilute them with some carrier oil beforehand!). You can put them in a diffuser, simply smell them or put a few drops on your pillowcase or yoga mat. Of course, you can also put them in your bathtub.

Use this essential oils for your heart chakra: Ylang Ylang (I love it), rose, lavender, angelica, neroli and marjoram.

I played around with these oils and use a mixture of Ylang Ylang, lavender, rose and angelica. Be aware that some essential oils may be harmful for animals or newborns, so do your research beforehand. And, as always, make sure they come from a sustainable source.

You can also make essential oils yourself. As for rose or lavender, since those plants were easily accessible for me, I made them on my own. It’s actually very easy and works just as well as any essential oil you’d buy.

5. Foods

You are what you eat, is a sentence we all heard from already. These foods are beneficial for your heart chakra: Green apples, Kiwi, Broccoli, Celery, Grapes, Zucchini and Pears.

6. Do Yoga

Yoga is an extremely powerful practice to release any kind of energetic blockages from your body. As is connects your body to movement, your movement to breath, one simple Yoga session sometimes can do wonders for you. Implement some heart-opening poses in your next Yoga session. You can also focus your attention on your heart area during your practice.

Use this poses (asanas) in your Yoga-Session: Cobra, Cat-Cow, Thread the needle, Forward fold, Standing back bend (Hasta Uttanasana), Warrior I, Half-Moon Pose, Peaceful Warrior, Eagle, Fish, Camel and extended child pose.

7. Gratitude

We all know the feeling on how a sincere “Thank you” opens up the heart. It really is like that: Gratitude floods your heart with love. I always visualize it like a flower opening up.

Often times, we really don’t take the time to be grateful. Try it out. Sit down, put your timer on 5 Minutes and only think about what makes you grateful. You will feel an immense shift in yourself afterwards.

You can practice gratitude in many ways. You can meditate on it. You can express it towards another person. You can simply say “Thank you” out loud (and feel it). I have a little notebook next to my bed where I write in 5 things I was grateful for today. It doesn’t take me longer than two minutes, but it does tremendous things for my wellbeing.

8. Forgiveness and Compassion

Being human, it is normal to hurt. You hurt others, others hurt you, you hurt yourself. It really is a normal part of life. But sometimes, we get stuck on it. We can’t seem to let go and to truly forgive oneself or others.

Forgiveness and Compassion are closely linked together. If someone hurt you, you might hold a grudge because you think of it as intentionally evil doing. Even If something was done intentionally, ask yourself: Why? It is because some part of them is hurt themselves. Only people with immense pain and their own baggage hurt others. If someone was completely in peace with themselves, they would not feel the need to hurt another person.

Try to generate a feeling of compassion (towards yourself and others). It will automatically lead to forgiving. In terms of that, there are also some things you could try: Write a letter to that person and burn it. Do a Ho’oponopono – Meditation (this is for forgiving yourself). Say a prayer in which you ask for the strength to release and forgive.

9. Hum “YAM”

You might feel weird at first but give it a try. Sit down, breathe in deeply and on your outbreath, draw out the letters “Yyyyyyyaaaaaaaammmmmm”. You might feel a tingling and vibrating feeling in your chest. Practice a few times as you will get better at it.

“Yam” is said to match the vibrations of your heart chakra. In terms of vibration, you might also try out some binaural beats.

10. Do shadow work

We often store a lot of unreleased feelings with us. We suppress them and put them aside, but that doesn’t make them go away. Instead, we need to embrace even the darkest, most flawed parts of us. Shadow work hurts, as you confront yourself with some rather unpleasant parts of yourself. But to say it in the words of Rumi:

You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.
Rumi

Final Words

There are many ways on how to get your heart chakra balanced again. Sometimes, it may also be as simple as making up with someone. If you don’t believe in energy work, chakras or anything like that, don’t worry. You can simply view it as a metaphor for when some emotional healing is needed.

We will often go through times when our hearts may be closed up. It is a normal part of the fluidity in life. The important part is in recognizing when you get out of balance and actively deciding to do something about that.

Instead of brushing it off or ignoring it, confronting it face-on in a gentle and compassionate manner is the way to go. Healing is always accompanied with pain, but that’s the beauty of it.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Rumi

10 powerful ways to heal your Heart Chakra & emotional blockages