Understanding the primary chakras can help deepen your perception of the human experience, but it can also help you grow fully into the person that you want to become. While the chakras can easily help us understand our emotions, a lot of people don’t realize that they can help us develop too.
Keep in mind that each of the chakras is related to a certain stage in human development, and parts of your life will be governed by various chakras. Today, we’re going to explore the parts of your life that full under the purvey of the heart chakra, but before we get into that, let’s go over the heart chakra in slightly broader terms.
What is the Heart Chakra?
The heart chakra is the fourth of the primary chakras, and it is known as Anahata in Sanskrit, which translates to unstruck in English. The heart chakra is based on balance and tranquility, and these qualities will be reflected when we get to how it relates to your development as a person.
Another part of the heart chakra is the ability to make decisions or to follow your heart. While spirituality dictates that each decision should be made with karma in mind, there are some choices where karma doesn’t apply. These decisions are the domain of the heart chakra.
Of course, as you would expect from the name, the heart chakra also governs love, though not only the love that you feel for your spouse, but also for your friends and family. Self-love is another crucial aspect of the heart chakra, and that ties it tightly into its spot in our development cycle.
Beyond that, the heart chakra represents the love that we all feel for life itself, so in a way, it is representative of our whole lifespan.
The color that is most frequently associated with the heart chakra is green, and its symbol is a six-pointed star intermeshed with a peaked circle. You can find the heart chakra in the spine, near the heart, as you would expect.
How the Heart Chakra Relates to Our Development
The heart chakra cycle is mainly centered around the period of our lives ranging from the ages of 22 to 28. When you reach this part of your life, you begin to learn the lessons that are the most crucial for the heart chakra, though perhaps the most pertinent one is learning how to love yourself.
For the majority of our early lives, we often struggle to love ourselves and come to terms with the people that we are. This is one of the main reasons why our teenage years are so tumultuous. By the time we get to the heart chakra cycle, we’re finally starting to understand ourselves.
This relates to why the heart chakra cycle is often the time when we meet the people that we will love the most. To love someone else, you need to love yourself first, as you can’t build a home on an unstable foundation. Every lesson that we learn in the heart chakra cycle is interlinked.
Keep in mind that the heart chakra doesn’t only represent romantic love, as this part of our lives is the one in which we learn to express appreciation for our friends and family as well. While there is no doubt that you loved them before this point, showing that love may have felt a little awkward before this time.
As we mentioned earlier, this is the part of your life when you start to have a greater appreciation for the world and every living creature on it. While this makes you outwardly more appreciative of the things around you, it also helps you find out how you want to affect the world and what you want to change.
This is why a lot of people find their passions for the first time when they’re in the heart chakra cycle. For those who already know what they’re passionate about, they will often delve deeper into the things that they love. This deepened love of the Earth may also be reflected in an urge to spend more time around nature.
Keep in mind that the heart chakra cycle is one that is mainly based around evolution, so you can expect to change from year to year, even within the 22 to 28 age range. This is normal, as it’s a time in your life when you start to develop your opinions and perceptions of the world.
Are There Other Stages of Life Where the Heart Chakra Plays a Role?
Due to it being related to the love of life itself, it makes sense that the heart chakra will play a role throughout our entire life. As long as you feel love for someone or something, the heart chakra is active, though keep in mind that there is one specific part of your life besides your 20s where the heart chakra takes effect.
When you reach the age of four, the root chakra is joined by the heart chakra, and it is known as your heart chakra year. When you reach this age, you start to understand what it means to love your parents and your family. You will also begin to make friends and form bonds with people.
When we’re four years old, we also begin to understand the beauty of the earth and nature, perhaps showing it through affection for animals or other creatures. This is a key moment in our lives, as many people have their first memories around the age of four.
A lot of the childish tendencies that people find annoying around this age can be attributed to an imbalanced heart chakra, like being overbearing or constantly needing attention. However, over time, the balance that is attained will allow us to start forging connections.
Conclusion
As you can see, the heart chakra is one of the most important ones, especially when related to the phases of our development. We hope that this guide has made it simpler for you to understand the effects of this chakra on our growth as people.