Chakra Focus 4 of 7: The Heart

Color: Green & Pink
Element: Air
Developmental Age: 18-25 years old
Spiritual Strength: Compassion, Forgiveness
Developmental Crisis: Intimacy versus Isolation
from Susan J. Wright's The Chakra's in Shamanic Practice


It took me quite some time to get here. This was a scary place for me, or so I thought.


Before I could take the leap of looking into this tender place, I had to return to the bold & fiery Solar plexus. It was not settling right, not at all, I even had some physical manifestions there that were not so pleasant. There is so much going on in that very large encompassing chakra, there was so much denial on my part about what I needed to face. The Solar Plexus made me look at my "mirrors" or "triggers" in my life; those people who seemingly 'drove me nuts' for no apparent reason. I had to do some deep soul searching which is not always the most fun thing to do. After looking at all these people who triggered a deep rooted negative reaction in me, accepting that these people were a part of me (yikes!) I finally resolved to understanding the common thread of us all. Uncertainty of emotion, which causes confusion, miscommunication, and mis-trust. Being an empathetic person has been a life-long challenge up until recently. I did not know how to turn it off, or even able to tell if it was 'on', I absorbed other people's feelings to quickly and deeply, I simple did not honor my own.


This was something so far removed from my expectations of what my ego wanted to hear, but I heard it and received the message loud and clear. I have since in most ways been able to move on, I am finding self-forgiveness, which in turn makes forgiving others much easier. I have also been much more confident in my own feelings, I have been very vigilant in distinguishing my my own feelings from someone else's, and on a daily basis asking myself, "what do you need today?"

What Do You Need Today? This brings me to the Heart Chakra, which after sweeping clean the Solar Plexus is no longer scary to me, the Heart represents the 'greatest love of all', self love. Some of us are givers to a fault, and I never really viewed myself as such, I thought maybe I did not give enough, that I could do more, and 'should' help more, and be there for other's...well that is a 'nice' thought to have, however, I left someone very important out of the equation; myself.


Maybe it's a Western thing, or my own thing, but I had this idea in my head that love meant sacrifice, surrender, compromise, and making those 'outside' of you happy. Somewhere in my life I was made to believe that, and while I work on where that cute little lie came from, I will for now expel that from my belief system. We seem to think that love is complicated; in reality I think we tend to over complicate the journey.

Love is pretty simple.


Treat yourself like you would treat others, and as you would have them treat you. The Heart is Universal Divine Love, it is where the understanding of One Heart rests, and where true compassion exists.