Heart Chakra:

The fourth chakra, the Heart Chakra directly affects our ability to love.  This chakra is located in the center of the chest, just above the heart, and has to do with our inner joy, and above all, our inner peace and our ability to be compassionate and accept others unconditionally.  The heart chakra acts as a focal, or balancing, point for the other chakras and helps maintain the healthy balance of your chakra system as a whole.

Imbalances in the heart chakra can affect your heart, lungs, and circulatory system, your immune system, and can even lead to cancer.  This kind of imbalance can also lead you to being suffocating or cold and distant in your relationships.  It can lead to jealousy and bitterness, and make you distrustful of those closest to you, leading to arguments and estrangements.  

If your heart chakra is balanced, however, it brings out the compassionate, generous, romantic side of your nature and allows you to accept yourself as you are and adapt to situations and people in a healthy manner.  You’re more loving and happy, more confident and friendly, and you feel much more at peace with yourself and the world.

The color of the heart chakra is green, so wearing gemstones such as jade, emerald, malachite, peridot, aventurine, and moss agate, can help you maintain the balance of your heart chakra.  Burning green candles, wearing green, or just going outside in nature where it’s green can help balance this particular chakra.  The meditation for the heart chakra is best done outside, surrounded by greenery.  If this is not possible, and you want to meditate in front of your altar, use a green altar cloth, or green candles.  Anything green will help you establish the balance within your heart chakra.

Some schools of thought also use pink for the heart chakra, so for that, you can use rose quartz, tourmaline,  or even morganite which is the same family as emerald and aquamarine.  For your meditation, you can blend the green and the pink if you either have roses or have access to roses.  Try having a green salad, or green leafy vegetables, and then take some quiet time in the garden, particularly if you have any kind of pink flowers for the best blend of the two.  

The heart is all about your connection to the world and to other people and your ability to love not only yourself, but other people and the world in general. Protect it.

“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”  Buddha