How To Safely Open Your Heart Chakra As An Empath
Learn to give and receive love with a focus on your heart chakra
Alex from the Rock/Shutterstock If you're an empath, this is a real quandary for you: How can you follow your natural impulse to be kind, generous, and caring, without becoming overwhelmed or depleted and without exposing yourself to exploitation?
The answer lies in learning how to open your heart chakra, safely and with balance. When your heart chakra is open, you can live your life in love and compassion.
Here are 5 important steps you need to take to safely open your heart chakra as an empath.
1. Acknowledge the unique gifts of being an empath.
Acknowledge that you already know how to open your heart chakra. You are innately caring, compassionate, and intuitive. Honor these aspects of yourself.
Recognize that your sensitivity is not a weakness. Your deep feeling and caring is a strength. Know that what you have to offer is what the world needs most in these evolutionary times.
You're a natural lightworker. The more you can acknowledge this, the more you’re able to use your special gifts to heal yourself and others.
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2. Identify where you're out of balance.
Next, you want to consider your current relationships and ask yourself where you are out of balance.
You know that overgiving without receiving is a recipe for emotional pain, burnout, and potential exploitation. Even if doing so feels uncomfortable, acknowledge where there is an imbalance.
This is an essential step to being able to open your heart chakra safely.
You might also explore the ways in which you overgive. Time? Attention? Money? Are there other ways that you overgive?
3. Feel the feelings that arise in relation to overgiving.
As you explored relationships that are out of balance, what did you notice?
Perhaps, you felt some sadness and grief, or anger and resentment? Maybe other feelings came to the surface?
Allow yourself to feel whatever you feel. Know that you’re in the process of releasing an old, unhelpful pattern. You can feel your feelings without making anyone wrong.
For example, you can feel angry about overgiving without lashing out at the other person.
Give yourself space just to feel without doing anything else with the feelings. If there’s action to take or an expression to make, allow that to emerge in divine timing.
This is an essential part of the process. You’re clearing a space for you to create a new experience that is balanced and aligned.
4. Practice asking for what you want.
With the intention of creating balance, practice asking for what you want.
You might need to spend some time being curious about what it is you actually want. Many empaths are so accustomed to accommodating others’ wants and needs that they aren’t in touch with their own.
If this is the case for you, take some time. Have fun imagining what would feel good to you as you consider your relationships.
And, when you feel ready, you can begin practicing asking for what you want. Start with people in your life who feel safe.
One important thing to know about this step: it’s not about receiving. This step is all about identifying what you want and taking a step to ask for it.
For many empaths, this step can feel like a stretch! Success here lies in identifying and in asking.
5. Allow yourself to receive.
Sometimes, you overgive because receiving feels dangerous. You somehow feel vulnerable when you're on the receiving end of attention and generosity.
You may be out of practice, and maybe even a little resistant, when it comes to receiving
The good news is that receiving is like a muscle. The more you practice, the stronger you get. Pretty soon, you get into the flow and find joy in it.
So, pay attention when things are offered to you — compliments, caring attention, or a helping hand.
If you notice feelings of fear bubbling to the surface, expand your breathing. Make more space in your heart and lungs, literally, to receive whatever is being offered.
Every time you expand to receive, acknowledge and celebrate yourself. You just opened your heart chakra to you and to the balanced flow of giving and receiving in your life.
The more you practice these steps, the more you open your heart chakra safely, expand your capacity to receive and enjoy the dynamic flow of love in your life.
What is the wisdom of the heart chakra?
Chakra, which is Sanskrit for "wheel," is your energy center.
They are located at vital points along your spine and distribute the flow of life force throughout your body.
You have seven primary chakras — from the root (base of your spine) up to the crown chakra (top of your head). Each chakra carries a specific set of information and capabilities that are essential to your development as a human being.
Your heart chakra (fourth chakra) is located in the center of the chest.
It's the bridge between your inner and outer worlds, teaching you how to balance your inner world of self-love and your outer world of external relationships.
A healthy, open, and balanced heart chakra fosters a harmonious exchange of energy in your relationships. You can both give and receive unconditional love in a way that generates a healthy flow of connection with the other.
As you learn to love yourself, you perceive yourself as worthy of receiving. You relish in the dynamic flow of giving and receiving.
You know that they are two sides of the same coin that foster genuine connection, intimacy, and love.
What do empaths struggle with the heart chakra?
The very nature of an empath is to be kind, compassionate, and intuitive. You feel the emotions and energy of others.
This window into others’ experiences makes you naturally inclined to care for and heal people whenever you can.
The real challenge is your tendency to overgive. You may put others’ needs above your own. You may take on the emotional pain and labor of other people and try to heal it for them.
This overgiving leads to exhaustion, overwhelm, and depletion. And, it may invite people into your life who exploit your generosity.
So, for most empaths, opening the heart chakra safely with energy healing is really about being in balance.
It’s about learning to receive. It’s about being willing to see yourself as worthy of the same generosity you offer so readily to others.
Are you willing to learn how to balance the heart chakra? Do you want to participate fully in a balanced and harmonious flow of energy in your relationships by becoming more receptive?
If your answer is yes, it's time to begin your journey.
Elizabeth Hunter Diamond is a psychic energy healer. She helps sensitive souls bust old barriers, stand in their power, and create lives of passion and purpose. Let her help you today. Contact her for help or send her an email.