A short practice
Breathe slowly into the chest for a few minutes, then name three people you are grateful for and one thing you have not forgiven. Chest-opening stretches and time with people you love are the traditional suggestions.
Chakra 4 · Anahata · Green
Heart chakra
The Heart chakra (Anahata) is the fourth of the seven, at the center of the chest. Its color is green, its element air and its seed sound YAM. It governs love, compassion and connection.
- Sanskrit name
- Anahata chakra 4 of 7
- Seed syllable
- YAM bija mantra
- Lotus petals
- 12 Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa
- Position
- Center of the chest element: air
Woodroffe, The Serpent Power, 1919.
Sanskrit nameAnahata
LocationCenter of the chest
ColorGreen
ElementAir
Seed soundYAM
When it is working. Open without being porous. Able to give and to receive.
When it is not. Guardedness, resentment and keeping people at arm's length.
What is suggested. Saying the affectionate thing out loud instead of assuming it is understood.
18 pages · printable
The 2027 Sky Calendar — free PDF
Every retrograde, eclipse, new and full moon of 2027 to the minute, already converted to your city. A month to a page, ready to print.
Where is the Heart chakra?
Center of the chest — the 4th of seven centers traditionally placed along the spine, from the base to the crown of the head.
Heart (Anahata) is chakra 4 of 7, counted upward from the base of the spine, above Solar Plexus (Manipura) and below Throat (Vishuddha).
The basics
What the Heart chakra is
The Heart chakra sits in the middle of the seven and is read as the bridge between the physical chakras below and the mental ones above. It is about love in the broad sense — compassion, forgiveness, connection, grief — and about the balance between giving and receiving. Tradition reads both the person who cannot let anyone in and the person who gives until they are empty as heart imbalances.
Anahata means "unstruck" or "unhurt" — the sound made without two things striking, in yogic texts the inner sound heard in meditation.
SymbolA lotus with twelve green petals around a six-pointed star made of two overlapping triangles, the shape of the air element and of balance between upper and lower chakras.
In the bodyTraditionally linked to the heart, lungs, chest, arms and hands; modern writers add the thymus gland and the circulation.
Affirmations
- I give and receive love freely.
- I can be open and still keep my boundaries.
- I forgive at my own pace.
Blocked, balanced, overactive
Most guides describe only two states. Modern chakra writing usually adds a third — a chakra can be read as too open as easily as too closed, and the signs look nothing alike.
Blocked
Guardedness, resentment and keeping people at arm's length.
Balanced
Open without being porous. Able to give and to receive.
Overactive
Loving without boundaries, staying in situations out of compassion, giving until depleted.
What is traditionally suggested
Practice
Saying the affectionate thing out loud instead of assuming it is understood.
Movement and yoga
Backbends, chest openers, anything that puts the sternum forward.
Food and color
Leafy greens and green vegetables.
Worth being plain: none of this has been shown to affect anything measurable. What it reliably does is give you a reason to move, eat deliberately and sit still — and those three do have evidence behind them, whatever the framing.
14 stones in our reference
Stones assigned to the Heart chakra
| Stone | Composition | Mohs | Traditionally |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloodstone | Chalcedony (cryptocrystalline quartz) with inclusions of red iron oxide | 6.5–7 | Carried for courage and endurance, particularly by athletes and soldiers |
| Emerald | Beryllium aluminum silicate (Be₃Al₂Si₆O₁₈) colored by chromium or vanadium | 7.5–8 | Linked to loyalty, growth and honest speech |
| Alexandrite | Beryllium aluminum oxide (BeAl₂O₄) — chrysoberyl colored by chromium | 8.5 | Associated with adaptability and holding two truths at once |
| Ruby | Aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) — corundum colored by chromium | 9 | Associated with courage, appetite for life and decisive action |
| Peridot | Magnesium iron silicate ((Mg,Fe)₂SiO₄) — gem-quality olivine | 6.5–7 | Linked to lightness, release of resentment and fresh perspective |
| Spinel | Magnesium aluminum oxide (MgAl₂O₄) | 8 | Associated with renewal and recovering energy after depletion |
| Opal | Hydrated silica (SiO₂·nH₂O) — 3 to 21 percent water by weight | 5.5–6.5 | Linked to imagination, emotional range and creative flow |
| Tourmaline | Complex boron silicate with variable aluminum, iron, magnesium, lithium | 7–7.5 | Associated with protection and grounding, especially the black variety |
| Rose Quartz | Silicon dioxide (SiO₂) with trace titanium, iron or manganese | 7 | The standard stone of self-compassion and open-heartedness |
| Malachite | Copper carbonate hydroxide (Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂) | 3.5–4 | Associated with transformation and refusing to repeat a pattern |
| Jade | Two distinct minerals — nephrite (calcium magnesium silicate) and jadeite (sodium aluminum silicate) | 6–7 | Linked to steadiness, good fortune and long-term thinking |
| Fluorite | Calcium fluoride (CaF₂) | 4 | Associated with concentration, sorting priorities and mental order |
| Aventurine | Quartz with platy mineral inclusions, usually fuchsite mica | 6.5–7 | The stone of opportunity and taking a calculated risk |
| Rhodonite | Manganese inosilicate (MnSiO₃) | 5.5–6.5 | Associated with repair after conflict and forgiving without forgetting |
This list is not written out by hand — it is pulled from the gemstone reference by matching chakra assignment, so it stays consistent with every stone page on the site. Composition and hardness are measurable; the chakra assignment is tradition.
The other six
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Heart Chakra (Anahata): Meaning and How to Balance It.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/chakras/heart/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=Heart Chakra (Anahata): Meaning and How to Balance It |url=https://astrohot.com/chakras/heart/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}