Blocked Heart Chakra: Fixing the Imbalance in Your Chakra System

Have you ever felt a barrier when connecting with others, even if you’re willing to truly open your heart? This could be due to a blocked heart chakra.

In the chakra system, which is rooted in Hinduism and Buddhist thought, each energy center is believed to contribute to your physical, emotional, and spiritual health in unique ways. This esoteric belief system isn’t grounded in science – instead, chakras are seen as spinning wheels of energy, constantly radiating energy outward or drawing it inward.

The heart chakra, which is located in the center of your chest, is often considered to be the bridge between the lower and the upper chakras, representing a sense of connection and harmony. When it’s blocked, you may struggle with giving or receiving love, have trouble forming relationships, or even feel disconnected from your own emotions.

This article will explore the role of the heart chakra within the larger chakra system, including signs of imbalance and actionable steps to strengthen this energy center.

What Is the Heart Chakra?

The heart chakra, known as Anahata in Sanskrit, is the fourth chakra in the body’s energy system, and it’s the center of love, compassion, and emotional connection (1). It’s responsible for helping you build and nurture relationships with others while also promoting a better sense of empathy and kindness.

Positioned at the midpoint of the seven chakras, the heart chakra serves as a bridge that balances the energies of the three lower chakras, which are associated with physical aspects such as physical security and sexuality, with the three upper chakras, which are focused on non-material aspects of being such as intuition and spirituality (1).

Its position as a balancing point gives the heart chakra a unique role in connecting your physical experiences with your higher sense of self. When it’s open and aligned, it can encourage deeper connections with both yourself and others.

Definition of the Heart Chakra

Here are the main things you should know about the heart chakra (3):

• Location: Center of the chest, just above the heart
• Color: Green (which represents connection and peace)
• Element: Air (symbolizing openness and emotional freedom)
• Physical Associations: Heart, lungs, circulatory system, thymus gland
• Primary Qualities: Love, compassion, trust, empathy, forgiveness

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Exploring the Chakra System

The chakra system is an intricate energy network within the body, much like other bodily systems such as the nervous system. In many non-Western cultures, the energetic body, or the subtle body, contains the prana, which is otherwise known as the life force that flows through the body’s energy channels and converges at key energy centers known as chakras (2).

The chakra system is composed of seven main energy centers, or chakras, that are responsible for various aspects of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being (1). These chakras are often described as spinning wheels of energy, either putting positive energy out into the world or absorbing negative energy inward from the environment.

When they are in harmony, the chakras help you maintain balance, energy, and stability in many areas of life. To help you better understand each chakra’s role and purpose, here’s a breakdown of the seven chakras in the body’s energy system (1):

The Root Chakra (Muladhara)

Location: Base of the spine, near the tailbone

Color: Red

Meaning: The root chakra is the foundation of your energy system and is associated with your basic needs, including survival instincts and a sense of security. When this chakra is balanced, it helps bring strength and stability, in addition to grounding you firmly in the present moment, both physically and emotionally.

The Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana)

Location: Below the navel in the pelvic area

Color: Orange

Meaning: The sacral chakra is responsible for your creativity, sexuality, and emotional well-being. When in harmony, it allows you to express yourself freely, embrace your emotions, and feel more confident and connected to your self-worth.

The Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura)

Location: Situated in the upper abdomen, near the diaphragm

Color: Yellow

Meaning: The solar plexus chakra encompasses self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-discipline, and it has effects on the digestive system and adrenal glands (4). When balanced, it allows you to make responsible choices and take actions that align with your overall values.

The Heart Chakra (Anahata)

Location: Center of the chest, right above the heart

Color: Green

Meaning: The heart chakra centers on love, compassion, and connection. Positioned in the middle of the seven chakras, it also can symbolize growth, healing, and harmony. When open, this chakra allows you to nurture relationships, find emotional balance, and give and receive love freely.

The Throat Chakra (Vishuddha)

Location: The throat area

Color: Blue

Meaning: The throat chakra governs communication, self-expression, and authenticity. When balanced, it enables you to express truths openly, listen to others with compassion, and speak from a place of integrity. It also may allow you to have increased calmness and clarity in your interactions.

The Third-Eye Chakra (Ajna)

Location: Directly between the eyebrows

Color: Indigo

Meaning: The third-eye chakra is tasked with regulating intuition, inner wisdom, and insight. It helps you access your deeper understanding and trust your inner voice. When in balance, it enhances your ability to visualize dreams and connect with your subconscious.

The Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)

Location: At the very top of the head, near the crown area

Color: Violet (or sometimes white)

Meaning: The crown chakra connects you to your higher self, your spirituality, and the universe. It acts as the center of consciousness, allowing you to transcend your ego and find a sense of peace, purpose, and connection to something greater.

Read more: Trauma Release Exercises: 7 Techniques for Healing

Understanding the Work of the Heart Chakra 

The heart chakra, or Anahata in Sanskrit, is at the center of your body’s energy system and guides your capacity for love, compassion, and connection – both with yourself and others (3). This chakra is particularly important for those who are navigating life transitions, helping form meaningful relationships and encouraging self-compassion that helps you build better emotional resilience and stability (5).

What Emotion Is Stored in the Heart Chakra?

The heart chakra is associated with emotions that allow you to connect with others from a place of love, compassion, and acceptance (2). It encourages you to nurture healthy and secure attachment styles in relationships (6), in addition to approaching yourself with the same unconditional love and kindness that you extend to others.

Secure attachment involves having a trusting, positive outlook toward both yourself and others, feeling safe in relationships, being comfortable with intimacy, and being able to comfortably seek support when it is needed (7). This foundation often develops from having stable and responsive relationships in childhood – if this wasn’t a part of your early experiences, it may be a sign that your heart chakra is disrupted and needs balance.

Furthermore, tied to the color green, the heart chakra symbolizes growth, healing, and renewal (2). A balanced heart chakra may provide a greater sense of inner peace and stability, creating a safe space to be vulnerable and to both give and receive love freely.

What Causes Blocked Heart Chakra?

Blockages in the heart chakra can arise from a variety of life events and emotional experiences such as trauma, loss, rejection, or general feelings of distress (8). 

Sometimes, a single painful experience can create an immediate blockage in the energy system. Other times, and more commonly, negative emotions slowly build up over time, which leads to gradual dysfunction in the heart chakra and other energy chakras.

If left unresolved, emotional pain can accumulate and cause tension physically and emotionally, which makes opening the heart chakra even more difficult. Healing techniques such as somatic grounding exercises and body awareness activities may help address this tension and potentially make it easier to open a blocked or disrupted heart chakra

What Are the Symptoms of a Blocked Heart Chakra?

A blocked heart chakra often manifests itself as an inability to connect fully with yourself or others, limiting your capacity to feel, trust, or experience intimacy. People may find it challenging to express their emotions, open up, or accept love from others.

Common blocked heart chakra symptoms include (9):

• Difficulty trusting in relationships
• Fear of rejection or abandonment
• Being overly dependent on others in relationships
• Distant or guarded behavior when vulnerability arises
• Difficulty or discomfort with giving or receiving affection
• Difficulty forgiving past experiences or moving on from past relationships

In addition, blocked heart chakra physical symptoms can include chest tightness, heart palpitations, and muscle tension, all of which are signs of restricted energy flow to this area (9). These symptoms tend to arise in moments of intimacy or vulnerability when the heart chakra instinctively limits energy flow in an attempt to protect itself.

How to Know If Your Heart Chakra Is Blocked?

If you experience any of the symptoms above, this may be a sign that your heart chakra is blocked or unbalanced. This often appears as persistent feelings of insecurity or unease in relationships. Another common indicator is lingering resentment toward others or difficulty forgiving past hurts that continue to cause emotional pain.

Even if you have a desire to release these negative feelings, an imbalanced heart chakra can prevent this and keep you from fully experiencing love and connection. Recognizing these signs is an important first step toward healing and reopening the heart chakra, allowing for more fulfilling relationships with both yourself and others.

How to Open a Blocked Heart Chakra

If you’ve noticed your heart chakra is potentially blocked or unbalanced, don’t worry – there are plenty of practices you can engage in to help open a blocked heart chakra.

Depending on your personal experiences and emotional tendencies, it may take time and patience to feel your heart chakra fully open. However, with regular practice, you’ll likely find it easier to connect with others, be vulnerable, and have compassion for both yourself and those around you.

Here are three powerful techniques for opening the heart chakra:

Positive Thinking

While it may sound like a cliché, working to improve patterns of positive thinking can have a profound impact on emotional well-being, resilience, and overall physical health (10).

The way you speak to and perceive yourself significantly affects your self-image and capacity for self-love, which is connected directly to the heart chakra. Treating yourself with gentleness, encouragement, and kindness can help create the openness that is needed for a balanced heart chakra, which is associated with healthy and secure relationships (11).

For some people, believing you’re worthy of love and respect can enable you to give and receive that love more freely. However, if you have anxious attachment styles or past trauma, this may sometimes manifest as being overly accommodating or forgiving, often at the expense of your own needs and boundaries (15).

It’s also important to note that positive thinking can be a double-edged sword. While it’s intended to promote emotional growth and balance, it can also be used as a defense mechanism to deny or suppress negative emotions, which can lead to emotional blocks.

True healing of the heart chakra requires acknowledging and embracing the full range of your emotions – both positive and negative – rather than bypassing them with forced optimism. Finding this balance can be easier said than done, so always display kindness and self-compassion, making space for emotional honesty and authenticity in all types of situations.

Meditation

Meditation is another effective tool for balancing the chakras and promoting a better sense of emotional harmony (12). Meditative movement is used to target emotional issues, including distress and worry, and the physical symptoms that often accompany these feelings, such as muscular tension (13).

Meditative movement can offer you a way to be mindfully present in the current moment while fully experiencing your emotions and bodily sensations. By focusing on gentle and intentional movements, often paired with mindfulness and relaxation techniques, you can develop a greater self-awareness of how emotional energy manifests in your body.

In addition, incorporating aspects of positive thinking into your meditative practice can help make it more effective. If this appeals to you, try using heart-centered affirmations such as “I am open to love” or “I forgive past hurts and release what no longer serves me” to directly address the imbalances of the heart chakra.

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Yoga

Yoga is one of the most popular methods for opening the chakras and has been proven to help manage negative emotions and release pent-up tension, both physically and emotionally (14). Certain yoga poses can specifically help open the heart chakra by promoting a greater sense of love, compassion, and acceptance.

Here are some heart-opening yoga poses you can consider trying (3, 16, 17):

• Bhujangasana (cobra pose): Stretches the chest, which encourages openness.
• Dhanurasana (bow pose): Opens the chest and heart area, releasing tension.
• Chakrasana (wheel pose): An advanced pose that energizes the heart space.
• Camatkarasana (wild thing): An intermediate pose that opens the heart and releases stress.

If you’re new to yoga, working with an instructor can help you build a safe, supportive foundation. They can help you choose the right poses for your abilities and goals, while also helping you navigate challenges during the healing process.

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Read more: Trauma Release Therapy: What It Is, Types, and Getting Started

The Blocked Heart Chakra Effects on Other Chakras

Acting as the bridge between your lower and upper chakras, the heart chakra is uniquely positioned to balance the physical and material facets of life with the more intuitive and spiritual aspects.

When the heart chakra is balanced, energy flows smoothly and freely between these channels, which allows you to feel more grounded and open to new perspectives. However, when the heart chakra is blocked, it may disrupt this connection and flow of energy, potentially impacting the function of the other chakras.

Addressing blockages in the heart chakra may sometimes involve revisiting each chakra below it. Starting with the root chakra, you can work your way up to ensure a strong foundation that is aligned with your needs, which makes it easier to approach the emotional healing that is often needed to open the heart chakra.

The Bottom Line

Healing a blocked heart chakra can be a transformative journey that’s truly worth taking. As the center of love and compassion, it enables you to form more meaningful, authentic relationships and treat yourself with unconditioned kindness and compassion.

While the path to a balanced heart chakra can take some time, the results are deeply rewarding. With an open heart chakra, you’ll likely notice greater ease in forming relationships and being vulnerable with both yourself and others.

For more guidance and resources to support your physical and emotional well-being, make sure to check out the BetterMe app.