The Fourth Chakra – Anahata Heart Chakra

Table of Contents

The fourth Chakra – The Heart Chakra – Anahata

The Heart Chakra represents the element air.

The Anahata Chakra is aptly named as it is located in the region of the heart muslce. This chakra is associated with love and compassion. In the 4th chakra, “love” is not meant to be exclusively sexual or romantic relationships. Rather, the love held in the fourth chakra is broad and all-encompassing: the love of a child, a sibling, a parent, a friend, a pet, a stranger, and even the love of humanity.

The Heart Chakra is the center of the body. It’s the place where the lower chakras (body) meet the higher chakras (mind). The element air is associated with this chakra. If you remember, the third chakra represents fire, passion, will. However without air, a fire will burn out. In the same way, without heart, you cannot have true will power. Take the saying, “put your heart into it.” Without this passion supplied by the heart chakra, true transformation is difficult.

The element air also represents breath, or prana. The air we breathe comes in through the lungs near the fourth chakra. This air is essential for life as the breath brings oxygen to our cells via the lungs. The heart muscle then pumps the blood throughout the body- thus giving and sustaining life.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd chakra have been chakras of the self. The 4th chakra is the chakra of relationships. In this chakra, we begin to expand out into the world – giving and receiving between other humans and sentient beings. Without other beings, our lives would be empty, dull, and worthless. What if we were the last person and animal on earth? What would there be left to live for? It is love that keeps us here and keeps us going. Love of our family, our children, our pets, our friends and our significant others.

It is important to remember that keeping this chakra open requires a balance of both giving and receiving. In order for love to flow openly and freely, we must maintain a good balance in our relationships. Each person must feel as though they are both giving and receiving in close to equal amounts. Once one person in a relationship begins to feel as though they a receiving less than they are giving, the flow of love becomes restricted.

Giving and receiving can be in the form of many things: attention, money, time, chores, gifts, power, sex, communication, affection etc… What is important for one person may not be important for another person. The point here is not what stays in balance, but that some kind of balance is maintained.

And just as important as it is to give, it’s important to allow yourself to receive. In order to give love fully, we must allow ourselves to receive love fully. These are the keys to keeping the fourth chakra opened and balanced.

This chakra is associated with the color green. The color green has the fourth longest wavelength (520 nm) and forth slowest frequency (570THz) in the visual color spectrum.

You can also refer to our posts on first, second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh chakra for a detailed understanding of the seven chakras.

Heart Chakra

The symbol for the Heart Chakra is a green twelve petal lotus flower.Within this flower lies a six-pointed star consisting of both a downward and an upward triangle. The upward and downward triangle represent the union of the feminine and masculine forms. It also represents the heart chakra because it is the place in the body where the lower and upper chakras meet. This six pointed star, formed by the upper and lower chakras, also represents the 6 chakras and their integration in the forth chakra.

Blocks in the Heart Chakra

Because the Heart Chakra is the center of the being, blocks in this center can throw our entire system out of alignment.

Blocks in this chakra can cause emotional detachment, inability to love or show affection or self hatred and loathing.

The 4th chakra is associated with the emerald

In order to open this chakra you must allow yourself to love and show compassion towards others. There is a never-ending supply of love in the universe, it must only be tapped. Open yourself up to love by first giving your love to others. Only by giving your love can you receive love in return.

This is not only true of other people, but true of yourself also. You must treat yourself with love, patience, compassion and kindness in order to keep this chakra open and balanced.