The Bridge of Love: Exploring the Heart Chakra

In nearly every session I hold, the heart makes itself known. Sometimes it shows up as a shield, sometimes as a crack just beginning to open, sometimes as a radiant field already flowing. For me too, the heart has been both a place of protection and a place of profound awakening. It is the Soul’s seat in the body—the bridge that teaches us again and again what it means to love, to forgive, and to remember that we are already whole.

The heart center is the seat of love, healing, and compassion. It is also the seat of the Soul in the physical body. For many of us, it’s a center that asks for continual attention, and it can’t fully awaken until the solar plexus is steadied and balanced.

The heart is the gateway for the Soul’s expression in form. It is the crucible where the energies of our life experience are transformed and transmuted. Forgiveness, compassion, and love—for ourselves and for others—live here. Through the heart, we begin to cultivate true self-acceptance, which naturally expands into unconditional acceptance of others.

💠 The Center of Connection and Compassion

In Sanskrit, this center is called

Anahata, meaning “unstruck” or “unhurt.” It refers to a sound so pure and eternal that it remains untouched, no matter what the heart has endured.

The heart bridges the lower chakras (root, sacral, solar plexus) with the higher chakras (throat, ajna, crown, and beyond). It connects our embodied humanity with our divinity. Its element is air, its color is green—expansive, healing, alive.

Where the solar plexus says I will, the heart whispers: I love. I am loved. I am loving.

🌬️ Shields, Wounds, and the Path to Healing

The personality often places shields over the heart to protect it—shields formed from abandonment, betrayal, rejection, guilt, and unworthiness. These patterns are usually rooted in a misunderstanding of the true nature of love. When we feel separate from Source, we search outside ourselves for connection.

Real love is unconditional. It is not earned. It is not scarce. It is an ever-present gift from Source, always available in unlimited measure through the Soul.

When the heart is shielded or out of balance, it may look like:

• Coldness, intolerance, or impatience

• Co-dependency and chronic relationship struggles

• Over-giving, self-martyrdom, or neglect of self-care

• Burnout, jealousy, clinginess, or self-criticism

• Autoimmune challenges, immune deficiency, or nervous system issues

When balanced, the heart radiates presence, kindness, compassion, and gratitude. We begin to receive as freely as we give, and love becomes a steady pulse that grounds our humanity and uplifts our Soul.

🌹 Energetic & Physical Correlations

The heart center is deeply linked with both energetic and physical systems:

• Organs & Systems: Cardiovascular and circulatory systems, immune and lymphatic systems, lungs, and thymus.

• Body Parts: Chest, arms, breasts, and hands—the instruments of nurturance, giving and receiving.

• Energetic Storage: Grief often sits in the lower lobes of the lungs. Left unprocessed, it can manifest as asthma, pneumonia, or chronic chest tightness.

• Thymus Gland: The endocrine association of the heart, vital to immunity and rejuvenation. In esoteric teachings, the thymus is not meant to atrophy but to evolve into a functioning chakra in its own right, anchoring Soul energy into the body.

When the heart is open and flowing, the breath itself becomes a rhythm of renewal. We find ourselves more resilient, more connected, and more able to embody love in motion.

🌍 The Collective Shift to the Heart

Humanity as a whole is shifting from the solar plexus (personal will, individuality, separation) to the heart (love, unity, group consciousness). This is one of the great transitions of our time.

As we open into the heart, we begin to:

• Walk in another’s shoes, seeing through their eyes

• Hold compassion as a unifying force

• Recognize all things as part of ourselves

• Shift from selfish desire to service and inclusion

The heart invites us to live from coherence instead of control.

🌿 Practices to Support the Heart Chakra

• Color Visualization: Envision soft green light radiating from your chest, wrapping around your body and field.

• Thymus Tapping: Gently tap the center of your chest to revitalize your system and stimulate heart energy.

• Seed Sound YAM: Chant or tone this sound to harmonize and clear the heart.

• Practice Receiving: Let someone love you, support you, or compliment you—and allow yourself to take it in.

• Loving kindness: Send compassion first inward, then outward into your relationships and the wider world.

Grieve Gently: Give yourself permission to feel, release, and soften what no longer needs to be carried.

🕊️ A Question to Sit With

Where have I closed my heart in the name of protection? And what would it feel like to open—just a little—again?

Even the smallest crack in the armor lets the light in.

💠 In Closing

The heart chakra is about presence. It is where we remember that love is not something we must earn, nor something we can lose. Love is what we are made of.

If you'd like to go deeper into this center, I recorded a short guided Heart Center exercise to help you soften shields, invite balance, and rest in the spaciousness of love. You can listen here.

💌 In our next post, we’ll rise into the Throat Chakra—the realm of expression, truth, and voice.

If this exploration stirred something within you—an ache, a remembering, a longing—trust that. The heart knows the way.

✨ You might begin by sitting with the simple practice of the Heart Breath.✨ Or you may feel called to receive deeper energetic support.

If you're ready to tend the garden of your own heart, I’d love to invite you into an upcoming group session or a 1:1 Energetic Alchemy Session. These containers are here to help you realign, soften, and reconnect with the steady pulse of your Soul.

You can explore my current offerings here:🔗 leenaoconnor.com

And if you haven’t yet joined the newsletter, I share gentle prompts, soul whispers, and upcoming circle invites once or twice a month. 💌 Subscribe here

With love, always—Leena