Chapter
10

Heart Chakra (Anahata): Love Is Everything

Do we have to tell you that your fourth chakra is all about love? Of course it is. This is your Heart chakra, the place where loving energy pours out of you to wash over the world and make life better. Your bonds to other human beings; your sense of caring and compassion; your altruism; your urge to give to others; and, just as importantly, your ability to love, cherish, and take care of yourself all start here.

Plus, the Heart chakra is the center chakra, halfway between the three lower, earthier, and more physical chakras and the three higher, more cerebral, and spiritual chakras. The Heart chakra is the fulcrum where you find balance between Earth and Heaven and between body and mind. Love holds it all together and makes you human. In other words, this chakra is a V.I.C. (Very Important Chakra!).

When your Heart chakra is strong, balanced, and open, you know how to love and give to others freely, but you also know how to love and take care of yourself. However, when the Heart chakra is blocked, you might feel cut off from your connection to others. By contrast, an overloaded Heart chakra is linked to giving too much at the expense of your physical and emotional health. Let’s explore the Heart chakra in more depth, so you can get your center of balance back into balance and celebrate what might just be the very best quality of human beings: the ability to love with true healing compassion.

Heart Chakra 101

The fourth chakra, or Heart chakra, also sometimes called the Love or the Air chakra, is called Anahata in the traditional Sanskrit. This word can be translated as “unstruck” or “intact.” Some scholars call the Heart chakra the “place of the unstruck sound” because the heart sings without having to be played. (We feel that’s such a nice way to think about the Heart chakra.)

The fourth chakra is associated with the Air element, perhaps because you breathe from here. This is the realm not only of the heart but of the lungs—the entire cardiovascular system. Life force energy moves in and out from this center of the body. You could think of your fourth chakra as your very own Grand Central Station. The Heart chakra’s symbolic color is green, and the traditional lotus symbol depicting this chakra has 12 petals. The sound associated with this chakra is the seed sound YANG (rhymes with “song”). Chanting this sound helps to activate the Heart chakra.

You can guess where the fourth chakra is located—deep in the center of your chest behind your heart, radiating in and around your heart (the mediastinum), lungs, chest, and even out to your shoulders, down your arms, and into your hands. Your thymus gland and your cardiac nerve plexus are associated with the fourth or Heart chakra. For women, the breasts are also a part of the realm of the Heart chakra.

Balance

At the heart of the Heart chakra is the notion of balance. As we mentioned earlier, the Heart chakra sits squarely between the three lower chakras and the three higher chakras. Your first (Root), second (Sacral), and third (Solar Plexus) chakras have everything to do with the physical body, whereas the fifth (Throat), sixth (Third Eye), and seventh (Crown) chakras are more about intuition, the mind, and the spirit. The Heart chakra helps these two halves of you speak to each other and act—not out of pure physical instinct or completely in-your-head braininess—but with active love and compassion.

Finding balance, strength, and openness in your fourth chakra will transform your life into one of balance, strength, and openheartedness.

Love Fest

Love. It makes the world go around. It’s what the world needs. It’s the answer. Our culture is obsessed with love, and this is obvious by the music we create and play over and over again; by the movies and television shows we watch; by the stories that move us to tears; and even by our entire value system, which champions such notions as marriage, true love, soul mates, love at first sight, and romance.

We have a huge capacity to love—so huge that we extend that love beyond our own species. We love our dogs, our cats, our birds, even our fish. We love our plants. We love the earth and its gardens. We love mountains and starry skies and flowing streams. In other words, we love. And it all comes out of the Heart chakra.

When we lose love or when our hearts are broken, we can literally feel it in our fourth chakras. That feeling of pain, grief, or a shattered heart is very real, even if a doctor can’t pinpoint it with a diagnostic test. If you’ve ever had your heart broken, you know what we mean.

Betsy sees so many people in treatment with fourth chakra heart issues! She believes this is the chakra we shut down most often, as a means of protecting ourselves. Yet what starts out as self-preservation often turns into isolation and disconnection from those relationships that we are wired to need in our lives.

Children who don’t feel loved or who feel their love is rejected by a parent or a sibling often develop blocked Heart chakras. They fear more rejection, so they close down this sensitive chakra and refuse to make themselves vulnerable. Sometimes, children grow up with an opposite reaction: an overloaded Heart chakra so focused on giving to others in an effort to make up for a lack of love and attention in their life that they never learn how to take care of themselves or how to receive love. Consider how your family handled issues of love, compassion, and giving to others, as well as caring for themselves. Are you repeating or reflecting those patterns in your adult life?

Fortunately, the Heart chakra is also an expert healer.

Healing Power

The fourth chakra energy naturally flows not only around your heart and lungs but also down your arms and out the palms of your hands. This means that when this chakra is strong and energized, your hands actually have healing power. This healing might be subtle, but it is very real. Think about how a mother’s loving touch on her child’s wounded knee seems to make everything better. You can even use this natural healing ability on yourself to cycle your own loving energy back through your body. This is one of the best ways to love yourself and make yourself strong, healthy, vibrant, and able to love others well.

You can use your own healing energy to help speed the healing of your aches, pains, strains, sprains, and even your emotional pain, from a bruised ego to a broken heart. Just try this healing meditation:

• Sit comfortably anywhere. Close your eyes. Visualize your Heart chakra as an emerald-green wheel of light spinning around your heart.
• Breathe deeply and imagine the light growing brighter and more vibrant, illuminating your lungs. Imagine the wheel spinning faster. Imagine the chakra getting larger and more brilliant.
• Visualize that green light now, and picture it flowing out from the sides of the fourth chakra, up through your shoulders, flowing down your arms, and out your palms.
• Bring your palms about 2 inches apart and try to feel the energy between them. Continue to visualize that heart energy flowing, like an eternal spring, from out of your Heart chakra, down your arms and out your hands.
• Touch your palms together and feel the healing energy moving in a two-directional circle, from your heart, down each arm, and back up each opposite arm at the same time.
• Now, put your palms onto any part of your body that hurts. Imagine the green light filled with tiny sparks of healing energy, pouring into the spot and knitting and mending everything back together, healing and connecting tissues and strengthening bones and joints, and freeing internal energy to move where it needs to go.
• Stay like this, with your palms on the hurt area, for as long as you like. Repeat several times each day, for as long as you need to send healing Heart chakra energy to that spot.

Your Compassion Center

The fourth chakra is not only about love, but it’s also about other impulses that are born out of love, especially compassion. To live a life of loving kindness and compassion toward others is to live a life with the Heart chakra wide open. Our culture admires people who feel compassion for others and act on that compassion. We act on our compassion in many ways, from formalized expression such as volunteering for a charity, to quieter ways, like being a good listener for a friend, being open to family members who need help, and even feeling compassion for ourselves and our own needs. It’s there in the soothing sound of Sufjan Stevens’s beautiful song “Love Yourself.”

A recent client came to Betsy for treatment because she was dissatisfied with her marriage. She had been married for about three years, and she felt that her husband didn’t communicate his feelings to her enough. She also didn’t feel like he heard her when she was speaking. She feared their relationship was doomed and had already begun to shut herself off emotionally from her husband. Betsy soon learned that this woman came from a supportive and nurturing home where open and loving communication was the norm. Her parents were still married after 35 years and had a very loving relationship. The woman had never seen her parents fight or even be cross with one another.

While it might seem like such an upbringing would be a recipe for a healthy fourth chakra, the problem was that this woman had very specific expectations for her own marriage. When it didn’t look like her parents’ marriage, she assumed something was terribly wrong and her marriage was destined to fail. Through their work together focusing on the fourth chakra, Betsy helped this woman to reopen her heart and see that she and her husband were not her parents. They had to forge their own way through love, rather than turning into a mirror image of the woman’s past. She also realized that she could not compare her 3-year marriage with her parents’ 35-year relationship. The woman expressed great relief. Now she understands that fighting doesn’t have to mean divorce and that in letting go of her colossal expectations, she can embrace what love is for her.

But compassion has a dark side, too. Some people are so open and overloaded in their Heart chakras that compassion for others takes over their lives. They dedicate all their energies to helping others, while completely neglecting their own needs. A balanced fourth chakra can feel compassion for others while also feeling compassion for the self.

Let’s Talk About You

You’ve probably heard the old saying that you can’t love others until you love yourself. That’s not exactly true. You can love others without loving yourself, but it will be a needy, clingy, immature love compared to love that comes from an autonomous and full heart. Your fourth chakra reflects your self-love in the same way it reflects your ability to give love and receive love from others.

You are in a primary relationship with yourself. As you treat others, so you should treat yourself, and vice versa. Do you speak to yourself with the same compassion and care that you use to speak to your loved ones? Most people admit that they are much more cruel, judgmental, and harsher toward themselves. Without self-love, self-care, self-nurturing, and compassion for your own needs and desires, your fourth chakra will never be completely open and vibrantly healthy.

Physically opening your Heart chakra can actually make more room to get Heart chakra energy flowing in a healthier way. It can change the way you stand for love. If you usually slump and hold your shoulders and head forward, you are actually physically sheltering your Heart chakra, as well as constricting your Solar Plexus chakra, the source of your personal power. To get more open, pull your shoulders back, look up, and imagine lifting your heart toward the sky. Yoga back-bending poses like the ones at the end of this chapter are a great way to open the heart, but even a good stretch that expands the chest and pulls your shoulders back can make a difference.

What Goes Out Must Come In

The fourth chakra gets a lot of attention for being all about loving others, but a healthy fourth chakra can also receive love from others. Don’t think of the fourth chakra as a waterfall; instead, think of it as the entire water cycle.

There is an old Hindu legend that Shiva and Shakti, the primordial God and Goddess, make love constantly on a mountaintop. Their passion is so intense that it melts the snow, which runs down the mountain and becomes the sacred Ganges River. But the story doesn’t stop there. That river water evaporates in the intense heat, forms clouds, floats over the mountain, and snows down again onto the loving couple, and the cycle begins anew. That’s how your fourth chakra should work: your love flows outward, but it comes back to you, too.

Girl Talk (Boys Allowed)

Gentlemen, you might think you can feel free to skip this section. However, a man also feels a desire to shelter and protect what rises from his breast, the need to fold someone into the warmth and safety of his arms and hold them there, or to let a babe snuggle for a nap small upon his broad chest. Compassion that rises from the breasts lives in both genders, as it should. Yet men know the fourth chakra holds a special significance for women, who carry within their breasts the power to nurture life. So, we’ll indulge in a bit of girl talk. Ladies, let’s talk about The Girls. The Twins. The Two Sisters. That’s right, we mean your breasts.

Yes, the fourth chakra has everything to do with this most female of female body parts. A woman’s breasts literally transmit love to her baby by feeding the most perfect food. But even if you’ve never breastfed a baby, you still understand to the heart of you that your breasts are all about love. Your sense of womanhood wells up from your breasts and is woven into your fourth chakra throughout your life. From the time a girl’s breast buds signal her transition to a young woman, to the time a new mother’s breasts ache and swell with milk, and to the time a grandmother or beloved auntie’s breasts lower and soften to the perfect comforting pillow, a woman’s breasts give constant expression to the compassion she carries within.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention breast cancer, as millions of women (and men) each year are diagnosed with it. Although researchers understand a lot more about how genetics, lifestyle, diet, and hormones may put women at risk, it still is nearly impossible to pinpoint why certain people get it and others do not. From an energetic perspective based upon chakra theory, breast cancer is likely related to an imbalance in the fourth chakra energy. Breasts represent love and nurturing. If disease shows up at the Heart chakra, it could be important to ask yourself how you can better support and nurture your own practice of self-care. Ask yourself what you want and need. When disease comes into our lives, it can help us to understand ourselves more deeply as we seek to restore our balance and to heal.

Your breasts are particularly sensitive to how well you love yourself and how well you receive love. Breasts are, by their very nature, all about giving, so if they don’t receive love in return, you feel it. Love yourself, love your female nature, take care of yourself, and honor yourself for the goddess that you really are. If you do these things, you’ll be taking care of your breasts, too.

When Betsy gave birth to a beautiful baby boy—her second—life was wonderful. Everything was going well until Betsy developed a nasty case of mastitis, which is an infection of the milk ducts in the breast characterized by pain, fever, and flu-like symptoms. Betsy believes that her mastitis was directly linked to an overflowing amount of love, nourishment, and protection that she was giving away, not only to her new infant but to her three-year-old son and to her fledgling yoga studio (her other baby). Betsy was focused so intensely on the needs of others that she was doing absolutely nothing for herself in terms of rest and self-care. Her fourth chakra was so wide open that her body went into emergency alert mode. Voilà—mastitis. Betsy didn’t just get mastitis once; when she didn’t get the message the first time, she got mastitis a second time. When she finally realized she needed to drop some of her less-important responsibilities (such as those at the yoga studio) and began to say “no” to requests from other people, and when she sent her three-year-old to visit his grandma and focused on nothing but feeding her baby, resting, and nourishing herself, she finally got … and stayed … better. Lesson learned.

Heart Chakra Correspondences

Your Heart chakra corresponds with so many aspects of your life because humans live with love so central to their consciousness. Consider the associations in the following chart and consider how your Heart chakra fits into who you are.

Fourth Chakra	Correspondence
Sanskrit name	Anahata (unstruck, intact, dwelling place of the unstruck sound)
Element	Air
Color	Green
Seed sound	YANG
Location	Behind the heart
Associated cultural phrases	“Love makes the world go ’round.” “All you need is love.” “Love is the answer.” “My heart is broken.” “Bleeding heart.”
Associated anatomy	Heart, lungs, shoulders, arms and hands, chest, breasts, thymus gland, cardiac nerve plexus
Associated psychological and life issues	Giving and receiving love, balance, healing, charity, compassion, self-love
Physical issues related to fourth chakra blockage	Heart problems related to blockage (angina, heart disease, heart attack); lung and breathing problems (asthma, shortness of breath, pleurisy, emphysema); pain in the chest, shoulders, or arms; immune system suppression; depression
Psychological issues related to fourth chakra blockage	Withdrawal from intimate relationships, coldness, intolerance, irritability and impatience, being overly critical of others, lack of compassion and empathy for others, chronic relationship failure
Physical issues related to fourth chakra overload	Enlarged heart, low blood pressure, depression, exhaustion, breast problems (breast cancer, mastitis, benign lumps)
Psychological issues related to fourth chakra overload	Constantly putting needs of others above yourself, martyr complex, burnout, codependency in relationships, clinginess, self-neglect, jealousy, chronic relationship failures
Fourth chakra therapy	Deep breathing and breathing exercises Eating lots of fruits and vegetables Backbends Volunteering and charity work (for blockages) Spending more time with animals Spending more time with children Counseling or therapy to help with relationship issues, grief/loss issues, and/or self-esteem and self-care issues

Awakening the Heart Chakra

When Kundalini energy is free to move through your fourth chakra, you’ve accomplished something important: connecting your body and mind in a powerful way. When you awaken your Heart chakra, you are likely to experience strong feelings of love and compassion, both for the people you already know you love and for all living things—people, animals, and the natural world. No, you won’t become some flaky, disconnected, head-in-the-clouds love guru. We promise. But you will become more loving, and be able to both feel and express your loving energy in a more meaningful way. You will be filled with loving kindness, or a compassion for all living things.

Awakening the Heart chakra also means you’ll feel more comfortable being loved, and that’s a big step for some people. And finally, you’ll be better at loving yourself. You might even begin to understand why that is so important.

Anything that physically or metaphorically opens your heart and chest area will help to awaken your Heart chakra. The other key: breathing. Deep breathing and yogic pranayama exercises are essential for Heart chakra activation. Remember, this chakra’s symbolic element is Air, and breath is the aspect of the Air element that you can control.

To get more Heart chakra energy into your environment, emphasize the color green. Wear green, paint your family room green, or put green plants around the house. Just seeing the color can help to awaken the Heart chakra. Also, include more Air elements in your home, such as fans to move air and wind chimes and mobiles to produce sound and movement when the air moves. Open the windows whenever you can to get fresh air moving through your home.

You can also try this exercise for awakening the Heart chakra:

1. Sit on the floor, legs crossed, seat on a pillow or a folded blanket. Feel your pelvic bones and imagine roots anchoring those bones to the Earth. Place your hands slightly behind you, and move your shoulders back to widen or open your chest.
2. Take several long, slow, deep breaths, and then draw your attention to the area just behind your heart. Imagine your fourth chakra as a brilliant, emerald-green circle spinning slowly.
3. Imagine your chakra radiating a green circle of brilliant light that encompasses your entire chest. Feel the warmth melting your heart, so that any hardening falls away and you feel open and radiating with love.
4. Take a deep breath in and in a low, resonating tone, say the word: YANG, holding the “A” sound (pronounced “ah”; the word rhymes with “song”). Imagine the green light filling your entire body with slow, steady pulses, like a heartbeat.
5. Continue to breathe and let the warm waves of love and compassion continue to radiate from your fourth chakra for as long as you like.

Aligning the Heart Chakra

Set your heart right, and all your other chakras above and below will get pulled into alignment as love moves both up and down from this central fourth chakra. To get your Heart chakra properly aligned, try this exercise:

1. Stand in Mountain pose (Tadasana), with your feet about hip-width apart, and arms at your sides.
2. Imagine your fourth chakra just behind your heart, and try to feel it spinning and getting warmer. Imagine your heart softening. Feel your heart beating.
3. Visualize a strong green cord moving straight up out of your Heart chakra, up through the crown of your head into the Air to the Heavens, and filling your entire upper body with healing energy. Now, visualize this strong green cord of healing energy shooting straight down from your heart, down through your third (Solar Plexus), second (Sacral), and first (Root) chakras and down into the Earth. Imagine the entire cord filling your body with healing energy as it beams straight up and straight down.
4. Lift your arms straight up overhead and imagine the green light flowing up and down and radiating to the center of the Earth and all the way to the Heavens. Your Heart chakra should now be aligned.

Blocks in the Heart Chakra

Many people have Heart chakra blocks! We believe many things can cause Heart chakra blockages, from childhood all the way up to what happened to you five minutes ago. However, because this is such an important, central chakra it is essential to keep the heart unblocked. For many people, unblocking the Heart chakra might be a daily priority. When your Heart chakra flows freely after being blocked, your life will change because you will see the entire world—the Universe, and everybody and everything in it—in an entirely new way. You will begin to understand what it means to love, even when love is difficult. You will be filled with loving kindness.

To have an open heart is to fulfill your destiny as a sentient being. When the Heart chakra is blocked, you withdraw from people and from real connection. You may judge others and yourself harshly. You get irritated and you run from intimacy. Maybe you have commitment issues, or even rage issues. You might be lonely, but at least you are autonomous, and strong. Or, at least, that’s what you tell yourself.

But in reality, you are lonely because a blocked Heart chakra is characterized by deep spiritual longing. Not only does a blocked Heart chakra keep you from connecting with other people, but it also blocks the connection between your body and your mind. It might even block your connection with something larger, with Spirit, with God or a Higher Power, or with the power of the Universe.

Many people fall into the habit of systematically keeping their Heart chakras blocked. They learn this pattern when they get their hearts broken and don’t want to feel that pain again. This could have happened as a child or as an adult after profound loss, after a failed relationship, or by getting hurt by anyone for any reason.

But that’s not your destiny. Your Heart chakra knows (and that means you know) that what is easiest is not always what is best. Your heart knows that love is the life force that endures all things. And in the words of Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 116:

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! It is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

That’s the power of love!

Blocked Heart Chakra Health Issues

Fourth chakra health issues have everything to do with your heart, lungs, and chest. When your Heart chakra is blocked, your heart can physically become blocked, resulting in heart disease, clogged arteries, angina (chest pain), heart arrhythmias, and even a heart attack. (Of course, not everyone with heart disease has a blocked Heart chakra. This can be caused by many other environmental and genetic factors.) A blocked Heart chakra can also contribute to blocked breathing passages, asthma, and shallow breathing, as well as to lung pain.

Blocked Heart chakra types can also experience depression because of the loneliness and isolation they maintain. You can see a blocked Heart chakra in someone with a sunken chest or a hunched upper back. Instead of leading with the heart, the body is literally protecting and guarding the Heart chakra by coiling forward. Simply being more consciously aware of your sitting and standing posture and prompting yourself to lift your heart and breathe deeply when you catch yourself guarding can begin a cascading flow of beneficial change to your heart and lungs that enhances your whole experience of life and being alive. That’s the healing power of the Heart chakra!

Blocked Chakra Psychological Issues

When the Heart chakra is blocked, there are multiple psychological implications. Most obviously, people with blocked Heart chakras have problems relating to other people, commitment issues, and relationship problems. The people who are afraid to make relationship commitments in intimate partnerships have blocked Heart chakras, while the people who are overloaded in their Heart chakras may find themselves in dysfunctional codependent relationships where they are so enmeshed with their partner that they lose all sense of individuality and independence.

Heart chakra blockages also reflect a judgmental attitude. These are the people who are so critical of others (and most of all, of themselves) that every fault small or large in someone else becomes an obstacle to a relationship. No one is ever quite perfect enough—although in reality, what people with blocked Heart chakras are actually feeling is that they aren’t perfect enough, or deserving enough, to ever experience enduring love.

When someone breaks your heart, it is very important to nurture your fourth chakra back to health again. Your Heart chakra might need to close down for a while, and that’s fine. Be patient with yourself, and most of all, take care of yourself. When you nurture and attend to your own needs, the love you give to yourself will help coax your Heart chakra open again. Remember, the Heart chakra is the healing chakra. Only when it opens again can you truly experience self-healing.

Healing a Blocked Fourth Chakra

To heal and strengthen a blocked Heart chakra, Betsy encourages her clients to care for themselves. You can’t control how or whether others love you, but you can control how and whether you love yourself. She reminds her clients that the most important relationship one will ever have is the relationship with oneself. This means you better put some effort into this relationship, because it is literally the only relationship you are guaranteed to have up to your dying day. If you are always pulling away from others, look first into your own heart. Are you pulling away from yourself? Heal your fear of self-love first; by doing so, loving others, as well as accepting love from others, will happen automatically. If you don’t know how to do this, a licensed mental health therapist can help you explore your heart’s needs.

The Heart chakra also heals and opens when you practice loving things that are easier to love than human adults. Animals—especially companion animals like dogs and cats, children, even nature can soften and open your heart when it has closed down. If you don’t have pets or children, take some time to volunteer at an animal shelter or a local school. Spend more time outside in direct contact with nature. Walk in the park or hike in a natural area. Tend to a small garden of flowers or vegetables. All these activities can help to fill up your heart so that it opens again.

Also focus on your breath. Anything that gets your breath moving will help to open your heart. Try some of these activities to open a blocked Heart chakra:

• Practice deep breathing and the yoga breathing exercises called pranayama (like the one later in this chapter called Nadi Shodhana).
• Eat green foods like salads, spinach, kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, green beans, artichokes, and sweet peas.
• Reach out to help others in need, through volunteer work or through simple, kindly gestures to strangers.
• Get up in the air. Climb a tree. Ride a Ferris wheel. Hike up a mountain, or just go up on a roof (safely) and take in the view.
• Hug someone who loves you. You don’t have to say a word.
• Spend time with children, preferably outdoors.
• Meditate on your loving feelings for someone. Dedicate your day to someone you love.
• Make a list of all your own good qualities. If you are having trouble, ask someone who loves you to help.
• Exercise, especially anything that increases your breathing, such as brisk walking, running, or dancing.
• Engage in Anusara yoga. This form of yoga literally means “flowing with grace, following your heart.” Anusara is a heart-oriented style of yoga that combines attention to alignment and a life-affirming philosophy. Every Anusara class focuses on a heart-opening theme.
• Recite these mantras:

• I love and nourish myself.
• I deserve love.
• It’s okay to love.
• I will open my heart and allow others to love me.
• The world is a better place because I love.

An easy way to tune up your Heart chakra is to pay attention to the ways other people express love, not only to you but also to others in their lives. How do other people show love to their partners, to their children, to their friends, and even to their pets? Watch and you might learn something. You can even copy some of their words or gestures to try them on for size. Some people are very good at loving.

Overload in the Heart Chakra

Maybe you don’t have any problem loving others. Maybe your problem is that you love too much. But wait. Is that really possible? Can there be too much love in the world?

The problem with an overloaded Heart chakra is not that you have too much love; it’s that you are out of balance in expressing it. You let your Heart chakra dominate your other chakras, at their expense. A full, open, and loving Heart chakra is a wonderful quality, but if the power of your Solar Plexus chakra (below) and the truth of your Throat chakra (above) atrophy because your Heart chakra is so huge, you can lose a sense of who you are and what is really best for you.

People with overloaded Heart chakras are those people who give and give and give until they burn out or suffer from immune system collapse or heart failure. Can you say martyr complex? A martyr complex is a psychological term referring to someone who suffers on purpose, often in the name of helping or serving someone else, suffering for love, or suffering for a cause, and they do all this suffering at the expense of personal needs or desires. This type of person often becomes resentful because the love they shower on others isn’t returned to them in the way they want or feel they need. These people might be trying desperately to gain the love of others—perhaps because they didn’t receive enough as children—so much so that they go overboard. They often end up in codependent relationships or are clingy and smothering to their partners and/or children.

Overloaded Heart Chakra Health Issues

Physical signs of an overloaded fourth chakra include low blood pressure, an enlarged heart, exhaustion, depression, and self-neglect. Women with overloaded Heart chakras might develop breast problems, such as benign cysts, breast pain, and sometimes even cancer because they keep pouring out love without saving some of that love for themselves. People with overloaded Heart chakras sometimes stand with their chests forward, though not in the overpowering way that overloaded third chakra people lead with their solar plexus. Instead, this kind of chest-forward stance looks more barrel-chested and vulnerable, with the head pulled back, almost as if they are physically offering their hearts out to anyone.

In many relationships, one person gives much more than they receive, and the other person receives much more than they give. Considering that the fourth chakra is the chakra of balance, this is definitely a Heart chakra problem. Consider whether you give more than you get in your relationship or whether you take more than you give. Either way, you aren’t getting everything you could because your relationship is unbalanced. What could you do to shift the power more toward the fulcrum? Ironically, sometimes the best way to get more is actually to give more. Try meditating on that with your Heart chakra open.

Overloaded Heart Chakra Psychological Issues

Overloaded fourth chakras result in big relationship problems because the overloaded Heart chakra person is constantly giving but also constantly clinging, which ultimately pushes a more self-confident person away. Resentment and anger often build in a person with an overloaded fourth chakra because they aren’t getting what they want, but they never express this for fear the other person will leave and they cannot imagine a life without the relationship. So, they stuff the resentment deep down inside themselves, which leads to bigger problems down the line, such as depression. Often, these people get into codependent relationships with those who like this unequal balance of power, so that both people feed into each other’s weak spots. For instance, an overloaded Solar Plexus chakra person might be happy to use his personal power to take from an overloaded Heart chakra person, but that’s not good for either person because it sends both out of balance.

Codependency is a term used in psychology to describe a situation in which someone becomes so preoccupied with giving to and caring for someone else that they neglect themselves. They believe that something or someone outside of themselves will make them fulfilled and happy. To these people, life is only okay if those around them are happy and well, thanks to their actions and care. Codependency is common in families of alcoholics, where the codependent partner believes that if he or she works hard enough to help the alcoholic sober up, the healed family will be free of shame and anger. This only leads to disappointment because alcoholics ultimately sober up only when they decide to sober up, not solely because someone else worked hard to get them there.

Overloaded Heart chakras also tend to be overloaded in one direction only: outward. People in service positions, such as teaching, nursing, counseling, or the clergy, or those attracted to activist causes or charitable organizations, sometimes develop overloaded Heart chakras because they spend so much of their energy focusing outward on the suffering of others. But when it comes to loving themselves, these people often are blocked. When all your heart energy pours out, you leave nothing left to nurture and heal yourself, and that results in a severe internal imbalance that will eventually deplete your energy and even impact the strength of your immune system.

Healing an Overloaded Heart Chakra

One great way to calm and balance an overloaded Heart chakra is to practice pranayama breathing techniques. Try this exercise called Nadi Shodhana for greater internal balance:

1. Sit comfortably and hold your right hand up. Curl your index and middle fingers in. Put your thumb next to your right nostril and your ring finger and little finger by your left nostril.
2. Gently close your left nostril by pressing your ring and little fingers against it as you inhale deeply through your right nostril.
3. After inhaling, pause as you release your left nostril and press your right nostril closed with your thumb. Exhale deeply through your left nostril.
4. Inhale deeply through your left nostril, and then switch nostrils again, closing your left nostril and opening your right. Exhale deeply through your right nostril.
5. Repeat for two to five minutes.

Following are some other good strategies for healing an overloaded Heart chakra:

• Engage in self-care activities. Self-care is anything you do solely for yourself that brings you joy, happiness, and balance. Treat yourself to a massage, get a pedicure, take a walk outside in nature, or sign up for that class you’ve been wanting to take. Do something you (not anyone else) want to do.
• Yoga poses that rein in your heart and relax and balance you can help. Try Child’s pose (described later in this chapter) and Tree pose (see Chapter 7).
• Meditate for at least 5 minutes every day, working up to 15 or 20 minutes. Sit comfortably, relax, and watch your thoughts and emotions, rather than letting them carry you away. With practice, you will begin to see that you are not your thoughts; you are not your emotions. Your thoughts and emotions are only a small part of who you are. Let your mind relax and expand as you discover and explore your true beautiful nature.
• Use mudras during meditation. These powerful specific hand positions are designed to take the energy coming down your arm into your hand and reroute it back up so it stays inside your body and becomes more concentrated. Mudras affect the internal energy of the body in specific ways. They are used in several ancient Eastern traditions, including yoga and Buddhism. To reroute prana back into the body for greater healing, try prana mudra—a mudra that joins the index and little fingertips with the thumb. Stretch out all your fingers, and then bend your thumb and your ring and little fingers so that the tips all touch. Leave your index and middle finger extended. Do this with both hands, and rest your hands, palms facing up, on your knees while sitting on the ground or while lying down. Breathe deeply.

Yoga Poses to Balance the Heart Chakra

The best yoga poses for healing both blocked and overloaded Heart chakras are those poses that help encourage building a bridge that creates balance. For blocked Heart chakras, work on backbends that open the chest. For overloaded Heart chakras, work on poses that draw heart energy within. In all these poses, use your breath to fill your lungs and draw life force prana to activate the Heart chakra and draw balance between the three lower and three upper chakras. Remember the Heart chakra’s element is Air.

Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha)

This pose opens the heart and lungs while maintaining safe, solid contact grounded upon the Earth.

1. Lie on your back on the floor with your arms at your sides, your knees bent, and your feet on the floor. Move your heels as close to your body as you can while keeping your feet pointing straight out.
2. Inhale and soften your body as you expand your heart center, literally relaxing your chest and letting it release to widen and soften. Exhale and lift your hips up. Walk your shoulders side to side so that your shoulder blades lengthen and move more into connection with your back body, as your chest and heart begin to lift.
3. Clasp your hands underneath your hips, and lift your hips a little higher as you focus on opening your chest. Try to keep your chin relaxed and slightly away from your chest. Keep your gaze looking up. Avoid turning your head side to side. Breathe deeply.
4. Hold the position for about 30 seconds, then slowly unclasp your hands and exhale as you come down.

Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

You first learned yoga’s Cobra pose when learning about Kundalini serpent power (see Chapter 5). You learned that Cobra pose is summoned to begin activation of coiled Kundalini energy by gathering strength in the first chakra, or Root chakra. Using Cobra to activate the fourth chakra, or Heart chakra is to invite Kundalini energy to rise up from the Root chakra through the Sacral and Solar Plexus chakras to shine in an energized Heart chakra. This heart opener is designed to mimic the shape of the cobra. As you do this pose, think about how an open heart doesn’t have to mean a vulnerable heart. Opening your heart takes the strength and courage of the Cobra. Imagine the movement of the uncoiled Kundalini as an energy bridge of prana activation linking the lower chakras to the Heart chakra.

1. Lie on your stomach with your palms on either side of your upper chest. Keep your legs together and press the tops of your thighs, shins, and feet into the floor.
2. Inhale, relax and soften your body and mind. Exhale and push yourself up with your arms to raise your shoulders, head, and chest up off the floor. Curl into a baby backbend. Flex the muscles in your arms as if you were going to drag your hands back toward your hips. At the same time, push your chest forward. Imagine your Heart chakra’s healing power flowing from your Root chakra through your Sacral chakra, to your Solar Plexus chakra, and out through your Heart chakra. Hold the open pose for about 30 seconds.
3. Exhale and come down slowly, resting for about 30 seconds with your forehead on the floor. Feel Heart chakra energy entering the Earth through the palms of your hands.

Child’s Pose (Balasana)

This easy, nurturing pose is perfect for calming an overanxious heart and for restoring yourself when you are depleted from too much giving. Child’s pose is a beneficial asana for shielding the Heart chakra in a healthful way, avoiding the destructive posture of guarding. Think of this pose as a great way to nurture your own inner child. Let Child’s pose care for you in the same way you would comfort any young one in need of healing support.

1. Sit on your heels with your big toes touching, and widen your knees to the outside edge of your mat.
2. Exhale and bend forward to the floor. Extend your arms straight out and reach your hands, walking them out on the floor in front of you until you achieve a comfortable lengthening. Rest your forehead on the floor.
3. Relax in this position until you feel better.

Astrology for the Awakened Heart Chakra

Now, we’re going to look more closely at the astrological correspondences for the fourth chakra, or Heart chakra. In Chapter 4, you learned:

• The planetary ruler of the Heart chakra is Venus 6.
• The signs for the Heart chakra are Taurus R and Libra O.

Planetary Ruler	Sign(s) Ruled
Venus 6	Taurus R, Libra O

Knowing the energy of astrology’s planets and signs that correspond to the Heart chakra helps you understand how to bring awakened fourth chakra compassion to life. Yoga uses Boat pose (Setu Bandha), Cobra pose (Bhujangasana), and Child’s pose (Balasana) to open the torso, improve breathing, and relax anxiety held in your body during stressful times, allowing you the opportunity to recognize and nurture a heart full of compassion. Astrology gives that spinning compassion a meaning and a purpose in your life. To understand how chakra energy is at work in your astrological birth chart, see Appendix A, where we’ll look at the chakras in Michelle Obama’s chart. Transiting planetary energy in the Heavens also affects astrological cycles and the way we feel and experience them here on Earth.

How Venus 6 Awakens the Heart Chakra

Venus 6 is one of astrology’s personal planets. Venus 6 is the natural ruler of Taurus R and the second house of possessions, values, resources, self-esteem, self-worth, and earning potential. Venus 6 also is the natural ruler of Libra O and the seventh house of personal partnerships, friendships, marriage, sharing and cooperation. As a personal (also an inner) planet, Venus 6 governs personal expression and core identity, your inner being.

Venus 6 is the planet of love, art and creativity, and the appreciation of beautiful things. Venus also governs the social graces, balance and harmony. As the planet of value, Venus represents your possessions, your gifts, and even your money. Venus nurtures compassion in the Heart chakra, spinning toward a harmonic balance of yin and yang energy at the center of your being (and supported by the power of the Solar Plexus chakra below). In a balanced Heart chakra, Venus understands the value of give and take in intimate relationships, and the need for it. A strong Venus looks past the superficial to redeem the pure essence of the beloved, and is willing to invest precious time and resources to find or create beauty.

How Taurus R Awakens the Heart Chakra

Taurus R with its yin, Earth element energy is ruled by the sensuous, physical Venus 6. Taurus’s quiet, industrious effort to make things grow suits Heart chakra’s energy harmoniously. Whether creating a home or family, a garden, a friendship, or an investment portfolio, Taurus devotes all the senses in full-bodied service of building value. The Heart chakra welcomes down-to-earth Taurus’s settled homebody, happy to shelter in place with a good book or a knitting project, hide away in the studio to paint or sculpt, plant a savory kitchen garden, or increase home value with a DIY project. With Taurus’s influence, awakened Kundalini energy is channeled from the Solar Plexus chakra to spin with dependable warmth, grounded by inner serenity.

How Libra O Awakens the Heart Chakra

Libra O with its yang, Air element energy is ruled by harmonious, balanced Venus 6. Libra’s diplomatic charm and active mind suits Heart chakra balance energetically. Always weighing the strength of opposites, Libra looks for the most durable partnerships and embraces them wholeheartedly. The Heart chakra seeks idealistic Libra’s appreciation of art and beauty, along with its judicious eye for harmonious equilibrium. With Libra’s influence, awakened Kundalini energy is channeled from the Solar Plexus chakra to spin by encouraging a union of body and mind that creates stability, unity, and inner peace.

Heart Chakra Rising

Down-to-earth dependable Taurus R/Venus 6 balances the reconciler of opposites Libra O/Venus 6 to draw Kundalini energy from the powerful Solar Plexus chakra in search of the compassionate Heart chakra. As the natural ruler of both Taurus R and Libra O, Venus’s 6 dual nature of Earth and Air, yin and yang, seeks at its best a pure alliance that allows true compassion to fill the Heart chakra. Without the partnership of both zodiac signs, the Heart chakra risks becoming either too openhearted or too closed hearted.

Once you’ve reached the perfect union of physical earthbound Taurus and fair-minded thoughtful Libra, the Heart chakra will activate. Filled with the clear light of love, the Heart chakra spins with a compassion whose source resides below in the power of the Solar Plexus chakra. Of the seven healing chakras, the fourth, or Heart chakra, spins balanced between the three lower chakras of the body’s passions and the three upper chakras of the blissful mind. The Heart chakra itself is the balance of peace. The life force rises up from the Heart chakra’s compassion to meet your voice in the fifth chakra, or Throat chakra.