Crystals for Heart Chakra: Open Up

I could probably begin every essay on every chakra with “this chakra is the most important chakra to open up.”

It sounds silly when I sit and write it over and over again.

But it really is true. Depending on the issue at hand, this or that chakra will be the most important one to open up.

In this case, I’m going to tell you that the heart chakra is the most important chakra to open up.

Opening up, dropping in, meditating on, and crystals for heart chakra are essential to accepting and offering the unconditional love you need to make real progress in life.

And, as author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins will tell you over and over, “progress equals happiness.”

The Heart Chakra

The heart chakra is the fourth chakra out of the seven, it sits exactly in the middle between your root chakra, which keeps you grounded and present, and your crown chakra, which connects you to the divine.

It is the seat of love, but it is so much more than romantic love, intimate love, and familial love, though it is the seat of those as well.

The heart chakra is the seat of unconditional love the like of which most of us are unfamiliar with, even with our parents and children.

We attach so much to love that we find it difficult to express and receive unconditional love.

Unconditional Love Is Divine Love

Unconditional love says “I love you no matter what. I am here for you no matter what. I accept you as beautiful and worth and divine no matter what.”

That’s hard for humans who have been conditioned almost since birth to attach conditions to love.

Our parents place expectations on us that often come with a threat of withholding love if we do not meet those conditions.

Then we turn around and do that to our children.

We don’t always say it, but we certainly imply it.

We withhold attention, favor, happiness when we are upset with the people we love.

But, as sociologist and speaker Brene Brown says, “we cannot truly connect with another until we connect with ourselves.”

That connection with ourselves is connecting to our divinity. When you love yourself unconditionally, you can then extend that unconditional love to others.

And in order to love yourself unconditionally, you must open your heart chakra.

In other words, failure to love yourself, and by extension others, unconditionally, is the result of a blocked heart chakra.

How to Open Your Heart Chakra

I have included below 10 helpful tips for opening, or balancing, your heart chakra. You can practice them in order, work on mastering them, and then, as is the nature of the human experience, work on them again.

The truth about healing and making progress is that as soon as you feel you have mastered something, you have reached a goal, you have achieved success, you will be challenged to do more work, make more progress, meet yourself in new ways.

The heart chakra is at the root of all of this work, because without an open heart chakra and unconditional love, any work you do toward progress and happiness will be exponentially more challenging.

Make Your Way Up the Ladder

Chakra work requires a continuous and ongoing practice, and as a general rule that if you have not done your chakra work from the ground up, it will be difficult to just focus on your heart chakra.

Before you get to your heart chakra, make sure you pay at least passing attention to the three chakras that come before it: the root, the sacral, and the solar plexus.

Spend one day on each, focusing on cleansing those areas of your life: your grounded-ness and presence, your creativity, and your gut/intuition, respectively.

On the fourth day, pay homage to your other three chakras, and then hone in on your heart.

Meditate

Meditate on your heart chakra. What is holding you back? Why are you feeling unloved? Why are you feeling incapable of loving?

Ask your questions, and then sit in meditation and listen for the answers.

Keep in mind that, as Rebecca Campbell says in her book, Rise Sister Rise, whenever you ask the universe to help you open up, “watch out.” Everything that has been holding you back, all of the blocks and walls you have put up, will show up on full display.

And it will be up to you to knock them down.

Recognize Your Triggers

Those “walls” you put up are directly connected to your triggers. Whenever someone or something threatens your perfectly constructed walls, you are triggered.

When you react from a triggered place, you are blocking your heart chakra.

It is an important step in unblocking your chakra to recognize those triggers as they stand.

Witness Yourself from a Detached Place

Seriously, just recognizing that you are triggered is a huge step. Most people simply react and move on, further blocking the heart chakra and building those walls up taller and more firmly.

Once you’ve recognized your triggers, just sit and witness them. Unconditional love is detached, neutral, not judgmental or shaming.

Work on detaching yourself from your triggers, witnessing them, and, perhaps, exploring how why you are triggered.

Honor Your Triggers

Then, honor them.

Your triggers are in place because of your walls, your blocks, and your walls have kept you safe. For some reason specific to you and your experiences, you needed those walls in place at one point in your life.

Now, if you are seeking to open your heart chakra, it is time to honor your triggers and your walls, thank them for keeping you safe, and let yourself (your ego) know, that you are safe now and ready to move forward with healing.

Imagine the Person You Love Most

Now, you’re halfway there, it is time to love yourself as much, more, than you the person you love most on earth.

Think of the person you imagine yourself doing anything for, now make that person yourself.

And do anything for yourself.

Which means letting your walls down and loving yourself unconditionally.

Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

You may have heard it before, many times, and that’s because it is true: healing is not linear.

You will find great progress, and then you will backslide, feel like a failure, and question everything.

I call this three steps forward, two steps back.

It’s normal. Trust the process toward progress.

Have Patience

Trusting the process means having patience with yourself and your healing journey. Opening your heart chakra, especially after years of walls and blocks, is not easy and it is not immediate.

Have patience with your healing. Sit with yourself. Love yourself through it.

Acknowledge Your Safety

Again and again you will need to remind yourself that you are indeed safe. You do not need walls and protections in place.

Indeed, the great spiritual book A Course in Miracles says “in my defenselessness my safety lies.”

You are safe. You are loved. You are held. The universe is here for you.

You can put down your defenses.

Pray for Guidance

Finally, take refuge in prayer.

You don’t have to believe in the traditional “God.”

God knows, I don’t. (Pun intended.)

But if you are here, seeking witchy spiritual stuff, then you obviously believe in something bigger, wiser, more powerful than yourself.

That something, call it Universe or Spirit, or Source or God, is always communicating with your and always answering your prayers.

Be humble enough to pray for guidance, and then stand back and watch for the answer.

Therein lies the path to an open heart chakra.

Crystals for Heart Chakra

Let these crystals remind you of how powerful your heart chakra is when it is opened, that it is worth it to do all this work, and that you are supremely worth of unconditional love.

Rose Quartz

The love stone and the master of pink crystals, rose quartz is a soft, loving gem that is the crystal of unconditional love. Keep this with you always as you work on opening your heart chakra.

Emerald

The emerald is a deep, bright, green stone full of wisdom and wonder. This stone will teach you to balance your heart chakra and listen to its messages.

Rhodonite

Another pink stone, this time with shades of deep red, rhodonite is the rescue stone that will help you balance your heart to your root chakra. It reminds you that you are safe and stable and ready to love.

Green Jade

The green jade stone is a stone of luck and abundance, reminding you that, even in love, you are worthy of more and more and more.

Clear Quartz

When you are in meditation or in prayer, keep the clear quartz with you for clarity on your blocks and walls. It will help you see to the heart of things. (Yes, pun intended again.)

Happy manifesting!