Know Your Chakras: Four

We began within our root chakra, slowly building our foundation and seeing the separateness of objects within the material world. We then proceeded to balance our second chakra, the sacral, where we learned to attain spiritual unity with another human being through the healthy, pure expression of our sexuality and emotions as well as the source of change. In the third chakra, the solar, we explored the aspects of owning and balancing our personal power as well as its source of transformation where we take creative action in making our wants and desires reality, which now brings us to the center of our being, the heart chakra.

Chakra Four – Heart – Anahata – (Unstruck)

Element: Air

Function and Purpose: Love, balance, self-acceptance

Obstacle: Grief

Balanced Inner States: Peaceful, loving, self-loving and accepting, empathetic, strong immune system

Imbalanced Inner States: Critical and judgmental of self and others, depression, antisocial, fear of intimacy and relationships, narcissistic

Location: Chest, heart

Color: Green

Home Is Where the Heart Is

The heart chakra is the center point of the entire chakra system. Its task: to integrate all the aspects of our personality through the act of pure love from Source, creating a balanced, fully developed, three-dimensional human being.

This chakra is the center of love. This isn’t the sexual love that is associated with the sacral chakra, which is based upon a passionate and physical connecting with another person but is about having a heart to heart connection from universal love with another human being.

This is the type of love that all the masters throughout history have taught and spoken of in order to guide us to the ultimate reality of the oneness, completeness and connection of all people and all things. This love radiates from deep within our soul, fills every cell of our bodies, and is not dependent on anyone or anything external for its survival and existence. Its mere existence is more than enough. It is the love that is eternal, spanning between all time and space, transcending yet integrating past, present and future. There is no beginning to this love, no ending. It merely is, was, and always shall be and is the energy which creates us, binds us and guides us; it is the entity of true source.

The “Search” for Love

So many of us are “seeking” for love, doing so by reading a myriad of books, going to seminars, therapists, signing up on dating sites and responding to personal ads. This type of love which is so vainly sought in our society has absolutely nothing to do with the true love from Source. This “seeking” comes from our egos in order to make up for that which we feel we have lost or lack: self-worth, validation, boredom or loneliness, which often times become co-dependent; it is a selfish and self-serving act under the guise and postings of “looking for love.”

Love from Source transcends our fragile egos and enters and dwells within the realm of spirit. In order for us to be loved we first must give it from the purest place possible with no hope or expectation of return or reward. Love nourishes itself by freely giving of itself. We come to know love from Source when we empathize with another, offer heartfelt compliments and acknowledgement or the act of nurturing, whether emotional or physical.

Yet, most of us were not raised in an environment where cosmic love was nurtured and allowed to flourish. It is our task to learn to access and develop this love which requires energy on multiple levels, one of which is to have all of our chakras balanced and in working order. This is especially true in forming and maintaining all relationships; intimate relationships in particular.

What are your tips for maintaining a healthy fourth chakra?