The Heart Chakra

heart chakra
  • Sanskrit Name: Anahata
  • Location: The centre of the chest
  • Colour: Green with tinges of pink
  • Element: Air
  • Sense: Touch

The heart chakra governs our ability to both give love and receive it. When this chakra is fully open and healthy we feel loved and nourished, regardless of our relationship status. We are able to tune into that stream of unconditional love that weaves its way through our world. 

Anahata loosely translates from Sanskrit as ‘unstruck, unhurt and unbeaten’. This interesting translation teaches us that in order to let this chakra bloom, we must first heal from the emotional trauma that caused our hearts to become hard and closed. Our whole reality can shift once we see past hurts as gifts that can increase our capacity to feel more love and compassion.

This chakra is almost located in the middle of our 7-major-chakra system, so it’s linked to both the earthy root energy that we pull up from the world beneath us, as well as the heavenly universal energy that we draw down from the unseen realms above us. This mix of energies is essential for a fully awakened and aligned heart chakra. 

Essentially, we need to both be grounded in this world and connected to the unseen in order to access the treasures this chakra offers. This is what some spiritual-seekers call creating ‘heaven on earth’.

The heart chakra is depicted as a twelve-petal lotus leaf. In the centre of the lotus is a symbol called a Shatkona, which symbolises the union of the feminine and the masculine. The petals are imprinted with the 12 seed sounds that are believed to be linked to twelve divine qualities of the heart. These are bliss, peace, harmony, love, understanding, empathy, clarity, purity, unity, compassion, kindness, and forgiveness.

 

Take this short QUIZ to discover if any of your chakras are blocked.