Is Your Heart Chakra Open to Love?

All relationships are an energy exchange. When you fall in love, your energy suddenly begins vibrating at a much higher rate than normal. That’s why it feels so good. When you spend a lot of time with your beloved or simply think of each other with love, your personal energies begin to mingle and enmesh, allowing you the opportunity to become energetically close and even empathic. But in order to reach a truly deep level of intimacy, in which you both feel highly vulnerable and yet completely safe, your heart chakras needs to be healthy and open.

The heart chakra, or anahata, can be thought of as the control center for compassion, empathy, connection, forgiveness and unconditional love. It is the great bridge or connector. It connects the physical body to the Spirit and in a similar fashion, it connects the lower three body chakras with the upper three spiritual chakras. The heart chakra also plays a major role in connecting us to other people, and it is particularly important when it comes to romantic love where yin and yang energies merge.

When your heart chakra is healthy and open, you are unafraid to give and receive love. You forgive yourself and others easily, you practice self-acceptance, harmony and experience deep compassion. When the heart chakra is out of balance, however, you may feel emotionally unstable, angry, paranoid, unworthy of love, always in self-pity or unforgiving of yourself or others. Physical manifestations of an unhealthy heart chakra may be heart problems, high blood pressure or even a heart attack.

If you feel that your heart chakra is a little off, there are several ways to balance the energies. The first step toward healing is engaging in self love. Treat yourself as you would your own beloved child. For example, if you are allowing another person to continually treat you poorly, imagine that this person was treating your child in this way. How would you feel? Most likely you would feel very protective and remove your child from the situation. Shift this protective energy to yourself. Once you fully love and protect yourself, you are able to project this loving energy onto others.

On a daily basis, gently release any feelings of jealousy or hostility that arise inside you. If a beautiful woman walks into the room, instead of clenching up and fearing that your husband will notice her, send her a silent blessing. Release your fear since fear blocks the giving and receiving of love. In fact, get into the habit of giving a little something to everyone you see. This can be a smile or a compliment or a prayer. Make it a point to forgive others quickly when they hurt you.

As you meditate, focus on the beat of your heart. With each beat, imagine that you are sending out love to others. Yoga is also a fantastic way to help open your heart chakra. There are several poses that do this, including the bridge, cow face, cobra and camel poses. As the heart chakra is associated with the color green, wear green shirts, light green candles or fill your home with live plants.

As you balance the energy of your heart chakra, you should notice more joy radiating from your being. Your love for your partner will feel deeper and less conditional. Your empathy will increase in leaps and bounds — you may even become empathic, feeling your partner’s emotions and physical sensations as if they were your own. This is not voodoo, but simply an energetic exchange fueled by love. In her book The Intuitive Heart of Romance, author Servet Hasan says that “We are all psychic, and it is through the heart chakra that we can access this information.”

Finally, as you and your partner balance your heart chakras — as well as the other chakras (all are important for a healthy relationship) — you will become capable of having more intense communion and deeper intimacy than you have ever known. Arguments will occur less frequently and the whole relationship will flow in energetic harmony.