It’s no mistake that the heart chakra (also known as the fourth chakra) is directly associated with feelings of love, kindness and compassion. Located directly in the middle of the breastbone, one can put their hand over their heart chakra and feel their own heart beating in their chest. As such, this is an important chakra that represents your feelings of love toward others and toward yourself.
To learn more about the heart chakra and the green color energy that is associated with this chakra, continue reading.
What Does the Heart Chakra Represent?
You probably already know that this is the chakra that is responsible for the loving feelings that you experience. However, there is much more to it than that. It’s not that the feeling of love isn’t important. In fact, it is one of the most vital feelings that any person could ever experience. That said, it would be a mistake to think that nothing else can be experienced as a direct result of this chakra. For example, did you know that it is responsible for your overall state of happiness? It is also the energy center that is responsible for how calm you feel at any given moment. If you’re feeling a great deal of serenity in your life or you have a tendency to be calm, it’s probably because your heart chakra is well-balanced.
What if Your Heart Chakra Is Underactive?
If a chakra that is responsible for so many important things in your life is underactive, how is that likely to make you feel? For starters, you’re probably going to have a very difficult time feeling deeper, more meaningful emotions like love or joy. In fact, you’re more likely to become very distant toward others. You may find it difficult, if not impossible, to forge new and meaningful relationships with other people. In extreme cases, you might even find it difficult to maintain relationships that you’ve had for years. Even if you’ve traditionally found yourself to be a normal, happy person that can maintain healthy relationships, an underactive heart chakra can make sticking to those relationships feel like a Herculean task.
Most people who have problems with this particular chakra also find it difficult to feel any genuine level of happiness. Even if something makes you temporarily happy in the moment, it’s not likely to last. Truth be told, you may find it difficult to experience any genuine level of joy at all. It can end up making you feel like you don’t want to be around anybody. As such, you might start to find other things equally difficult. For instance, effective communication can become increasingly challenging as this particular chakra becomes less active. As your heart chakra becomes blocked, you are likely to be around fewer people. You might even make a concerted effort to isolate yourself more often. This in turn can make it much more difficult to effectively communicate your feelings about a particular matter.
In some cases, this can have dire consequences on your relationships, both personal and professional. Perhaps the cruelest twist is that when you have an underactive heart chakra, you also have a tendency not to care that your actions are having a direct and negative impact on your relationships. In that particular moment, all you really want to do is be left alone. It’s almost as if you can’t see past the veil of unhappiness long enough to realize what you are doing to yourself and others. Even worse, the problems aren’t going to go away until you heal your chakra so you can subsequently begin to repair those relationships.
Can the Heart Chakra Be Overactive?
Even though the feelings associated with your heart chakra are extremely important, they have to remain in check. If they don’t, you can find yourself in a situation where you’re so overwhelmed by virtually every emotion under the sun that you can no longer cope. A lot of people who experience these problems end up feeling unnaturally happy one minute and so incredibly sad the next that they no longer know what to do with themselves. Obviously, being on this type of emotional rollercoaster for any length of time whatsoever can do a real number on both your mental and physical health. It’s true that it’s important to experience these emotions, but you don’t need to experience them all at the same time.
The Picture of a Well-Balanced Heart Chakra
What does a person who has a well-balanced heart chakra look like? How does that individual interact with other people? In most cases, the thing that you will notice before anything else is that the individual in question is very open to others. They tend to get on well with other people and they are typically known for getting along with people of all different backgrounds and personality types. They have a great deal of love for others and their kindness and compassion is practically unmatched.
This allows them to have a genuine connection with other people, not something that is only superficial. As such, they tend to have deep interpersonal relationships across the board. A person with a well-balanced heart chakra also has a tendency to trust the people in their lives as opposed to always suspecting that someone is out to get them. In part, it is through their love and compassion that this trust is formed. They have a tendency to focus more on learning to understand another person and loving them for who they are as opposed to pointing out every mistake or imperfection associated with another individual. This in turn gives them the opportunity to focus on healthier emotions instead of wasting their time with turmoil and jealousy. The only time that this is an exception is when the heart chakra becomes too active. In that particular case, some of these feelings do come into play.
Typically, the person with a well-balanced heart chakra is happy more often than not. They tend to find joy in the day-to-day things that they experience in life. It doesn’t take some grand event to make them happy, nor do they have a tendency to go searching for happiness through some type of outside circumstances. They realize that happiness genuinely does come from within and they make the most out of virtually any type of situation they find themselves in as opposed to trying to change their circumstances in order to feel better about themselves.
How Does the Heart Chakra Manifest In a Physical Sense?
There are many physical associations with the heart chakra. Clearly, there are certain things involving the function of the heart that are involved, hence its name. As such, a person who has a heart chakra that is not well-balanced may experience chest pain and heart palpitations. It also affects how well the person is able to breathe because it has a direct impact on the function of the lungs. However, this particular chakra impacts certain physical characteristics that aren’t as obvious, at least at first. For example, it affects how well the thymus gland works. Therefore, a heart chakra that is either overactive or underactive can have a direct impact on that part of your body. It also has a tendency to affect how well your hands function. A heart chakra that isn’t well-balanced can make it more difficult to utilize your fine motor skills. In severe cases, it might even make it more difficult for you to pick up larger objects.
What Color Is Associated With the Heart Chakra?
The color that is most often associated with the heart chakra is green. If you’re new to chakras, you might think that red would be the color associated with something that has a direct impact on the heart. However, it makes much more sense that green is the color associated with your fourth chakra. Green represents life, renewal and calmness. These are all of the things that are directly impacted by your heart chakra. Therefore, it only makes sense that this particular chakra is associated with the color green.
Is that really all there is to it as far as the color is concerned? Of course not. It is believed that each chakra, or energy center, in your body is directly associated with a particular color. This is because the color vibrates with the same energy as the chakra that it is directly connected to. Since all of the energy centers in your body vibrate with their own unique frequency, it is possible to throw some science behind this theory, as each color also resonates with its own unique frequency. In this particular case, both the heart chakra and the color green share the same frequency.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that a chakra which shares the color green is also directly connected with nature. In addition to being open and loving, a person who has a well-balanced heart chakra is likely to enjoy spending a great deal of time in nature. In fact, they have a tendency to connect with nature in a way that other people may not fully understand. For these individuals, the best thing they can do to clear their heads and calm their souls is to spend time in nature. That can be accomplished through hiking or even something as simple as going for a walk. Therefore, it is crucial that people have access to some aspect of nature in order to reconnect and keep their heart chakra well-balanced.
How Do You Heal a Blocked Heart Chakra?
As previously mentioned, a blocked heart chakra can manifest in a number of different physical and emotional ways. If you’ve always been a person who is fairly open to new experiences and you get along with others well but suddenly, you’ve become very rigid and closed off, it may very well be due to a heart chakra that has suddenly become blocked. This is often reinforced by the physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, a tightness in the chest or difficulty breathing, as mentioned before. Of course, anyone who experiences those symptoms should be checked out by a medical professional immediately, as it may be something much more serious than a blocked chakra. It’s important to note that these are the same symptoms associated with a heart attack or other potentially life-threatening problems. If you are experiencing these types of physical symptoms, don’t simply chalk it up to a need to heal your chakras.
If the problem is indeed associated with a blocked heart chakra, what can you do about it? For starters, spend some time in nature. Go for a long walk if that’s all you have time for. If the situation presents itself, spend a few days camping or doing something similar where you can get away from the hustle and bustle of your daily life and spend some time in the calmness and serenity of nature, effectively reconnecting with yourself. This in turn will make it easier to open back up and reconnect with other people.
It also helps if you surround yourself with the color green. You might benefit by bringing in some green plants to your work space or your home. Whenever you’re feeling closed off, allow your gaze to focus on those plants and begin to notice the energy that they are giving off. If you have a garden, you can spend some time relaxing at the end of each day to help you stay both grounded and connected to your own sense of serenity. This in turn will help you remain connected to other individuals.
What About Meditation?
As always, meditation and yoga can both help you open up a blocked heart chakra. They also help keep this and all of your other chakras well-balanced so that they can function normally. In this particular case, you can focus on specific yoga poses that open up the heart. Think about poses like the cobra pose or upward dog. When you’re doing meditation, it might be beneficial for you to think about incorporating some self-loving affirmations along with your meditation. In some cases, it could be equally helpful to imagine yourself walking around in your favorite nature spots.
Remember to create a space for yourself that allows your energy to flow freely when you’re doing both yoga and meditation. This is a space that needs to resonate with you and be free from outside distractions. If possible, create a space that allows you to get away from the telephone and other electronic devices where you won’t be disturbed. You can incorporate some healing music and bring in some plants to further enhance the flow of energy. You might even consider incorporating certain stones into the space itself. Conversely, you can wear stones like rose quartz, amazonite, aventurine or jade. These can help to open up your heart chakra and then keep the energy flowing freely afterwards.
What Else Can You Do to Keep Your Heart Chakra Balanced?
Surprisingly, you can drink tea with specific ingredients that might help open up your heart chakra and then keep it balanced. Rose tea works especially well, as does anything with cacao in it. It also helps to think about the things that you’re grateful for, as this can help you reconnect with your own sense of gratitude and self-love. It might be a good idea to keep a journal regarding the things that bring you joy in life as well as the things that make you feel a sense of gratefulness.
You could even incorporate the concept of writing about people and experiences that make you feel a sense of love. Why does this work? Writing it down forces you to think about it long enough to put it into words and this in turn causes you to focus on those types of positive feelings as opposed to focusing on other things like fear, jealousy or aggression. It can become a daily process for you if you like. The other great thing about journaling is that you can spend as much or as little time doing it each day as you need in order for it to work. Some people journal for five minutes, only writing down a few notes. On the other hand, others spend an hour or more journaling each day. It’s entirely up to you.
Final Thoughts on the Heart Chakra
When it’s all said and done, it’s important to remember that your heart chakra is the energy center that balances both the upper and lower halves of your body, thereby balancing the energy centers that are also associated with those parts of your body. The energy centers in the lower part of your body involve basic needs and staying grounded. The energy centers in the upper part of your body are usually associated with spiritual enlightenment and becoming more aware of the things that can’t always be seen with the naked eye. It is your heart chakra that joins these two aspects of your reality. If it isn’t working properly, everything else can be thrown off in the process. A balanced heart chakra makes it much easier to have good personal relationships and to experience every aspect of life to the fullest. That is precisely why green is the color that is associated with this chakra. It’s also why it is so important that you surround yourself with this color at all times, but especially when you feel like you need to do a little work on your heart chakra.
If you want to learn more about chakra colors, here’s our complete guide on the seven chakras and their meanings.
Jacob is the founder of Color Meanings, a blog about color symbolism and design. He is a world-renowned color expert and a recognized leader in understanding how colors affect human emotion and behavior. 