INSIDE: The heart chakra is the energy center that determines how much love and compassion we experience. Balancing it with heart chakra stones helps us to have healthy relationships with others and ourselves.

The heart chakra is the fourth energy center in the body. It is located in the center of the chest.

It manages all matters of the heart; therefore it has a direct connection to how much love and compassion we experience, as well as the bonds we make with others.

This chakra serves as the bridge between the lower and higher chakras. As such, it controls how well we integrate the earthly and spiritual aspects of our lives. It is associated with the air element and the colors green and pink.

Color - Green & Pink

Element - Air

Main Functions - Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, Acceptance, Gratitude, Connection, Generosity, Kindness, Wholeness

Areas of the Body - Heart, Lungs, Thymus Gland (hormone production and immune regulation), Breasts, Arms, Hands

What You Need to Know About the Heart Chakra

The heart chakra governs every aspect related to love in our lives, from self-love, to familial love, romantic love, and brotherly love. It determines our ability to love and to accept love from others.

Compassion, empathy, forgiveness, and acceptance also come from this energy center; therefore, it determines the depth of our relationships.

The heart chakra facilitates the joy, innocence, and tenderness we have in our lives. The level of connection that we feel to everything and everyone is a result of the health our heart chakra.

What a Balanced Heart Chakra Looks Like

When our heart chakra is properly balanced, we will feel connected to the world around us and will be able to see the beauty in everything.

Our relationships will be healthy and meaningful as we will have compassion and empathy for those we interact with and will be able to make deep bonds with others.

As such, you'll experience harmony, joy, and unconditional love. Generosity, kindness, and respect will come naturally to you, and you'll receive it back from others as well. Forgiveness will be easier for you, as will the ability to give and receive.

A balanced heart chakra provides us with the ability to transcend above the limitations of the ego. We are gifted with heart-based discernment and will not feel the need to judge ourselves or others.

Energy from the heart chakra is the closest thing we can experience to our true nature (the soul that resides inside of us). Love is the ultimate healing force; therefore, the heart chakra is the healing center of the body.

When the heart chakra is healthy, you'll be able to experience peace after grief. You'll feel whole, complete, and unified with the universe.

You'll be able to give and receive affection, and will make heart-based decisions that support you with love and tranquility.

What an Unbalanced Heart Chakra Looks Like

When the heart chakra is unbalanced, we often experience relationship issues that range from jealousy, codependency, fear of intimacy, betrayal or the fear of it, or abusive relationships. 

When our heart chakra is blocked, we can end up being detached, withdrawing from life, and feeling numb and depressed. We might play the victim or become overly defensive.

A person who is always rescuing others or is unable to say no to people is likely to have an overactive heart chakra. On the other end, someone who is unable to forgive, trust, or have empathy for others probably has a blocked heart chakra.

If you are experiencing grief as a result of the loss of a loved one, supporting yourself with heart chakra stones will be important to help you come to a place of inner peace.

Symptoms of a Blocked Heart Chakra

As you can see, an unbalanced heart chakra can greatly affect the level of happiness and connection we have in our lives. 

Here's a concise list of what might occur so that you'll be able to tell when your heart chakra needs rebalancing...

Physical Symptoms

• Physical issues related to the heart
• Respiratory issues
• Poor circulation
• Blood pressure problems
• Breast cancer

Mental & Emotional Symptoms

• Codependence
• Feeling unworthy of love
• Inability to trust
• Manipulation
• Anger, ignorance, and hatred
• Grief
• Jealousy
• Feeling emotionally drained
• Toxic relationships
• Inability to control your emotions
• Unable to find a sense of identity
• Lack of personal boundaries
• Lacking the ability to open up to others and experiences
• Being unable to create a safe and supportive environment for yourself and others
• Lack of self-care practices that nurture your heart
• Being unaccepting of others and yourself
• Antisocialism
• Unable to overcome grief
• Unable to let go or forgive
• Isolation
• Being overly critical or yourself and others

The 12 Best Heart Chakra Stones

Healing stones are one of the most effective tools for optimizing the function of the heart chakra. Here are the best heart chakra stones to do the job...

Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz is the first stone most people think of in relation to the heart chakra because it is known as the Stone of the Heart. It emits a gentle, loving, nurturing, feminine energy that promotes more unconditional love and compassion in our lives.

With this heart chakra stone, we can experience self-acceptance, forgiveness,  and deeper levels of connection, trust, and intimacy. We can soothe our emotions and overcome controlling behavior.

It detoxes fears, resentment, and anger from our lives, and replaces it with love and gratitude. It also promotes a healthy heart and circulatory system.

Green Jade

Green Jade is one of the best heart chakra stones for attracting new love, especially later in life when one would normally lose hope. It also brings trust and fidelity into our existing relationships.

When we tap into the healing properties of Green Jade, it helps to soothe and calm our emotions, bringing us peace through inner strength. It protects us against deception and authoritative abuse and helps us access a strong sense of identity by helping us embrace our authenticity.

Emerald

Emerald is certainly one of the best heart chakra stones because of its ability to promote unconditional love, hope, and compassion. It supports a grateful, trusting heart and provides us with a unifying energy that strengthens friendship and romantic partnerships.

Emerald is a stone of renewal, growth, and abundance, helping us attract prosperity and overcome negative patterns. It emits an energy of cooperation, patience, and tranquility.

It serves to soothe the emotions and settle heartache. Emerald also promotes a healthy heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys.

Green Quartz

Green Quartz is another heart chakra stone that inspires empathy, compassion, and love in its user. It works to increase our acceptance of ourselves and others, and it brings us emotional stability as a result.

This crystal is all about wholeness, balancing our relationships, providing emotional healing, and helping us to open up. It helps to reduce feelings of heartache, loneliness, and abandonment, as well as anger, selfish tendencies, and the need to control.

Green Quartz is also a stone to use for prosperity and a healthy heart.

Unakite Jasper

Unakite Jasper contains both of the heart chakra colors (green and pink); therefore, it is one of the best heart chakra stones for bringing more love, compassion, and kindness into your life.

This is a great stone for emotional balance and it works to uplift us and gently release deep-seated emotional blocks. It assists us with all matters of the heart, and promotes healthy and harmonious relationships.

It is also effective when it comes to business partnerships, especially those that involve family members. This is the stone to use if you want to experience a gentle heart-centered personal strength. It also promotes a healthy heart and lungs.

Hiddenite

Hiddenite is a heart chakra stone that helps us open up our hearts in relationships, which can serve us in so many ways. It can help us attract true love, release past hurts, and create deep bonds with others.

It's a comforting stone that radiates an energy of love, hope, and connection. Hiddenite is also known as a crystal of evolution because it helps us grow. It also comforts us in times of grief and supports the heart and circulatory system.

Green Jasper

Green Jasper is one of the best heart chakra stones to use for sorrow and grief. If brings harmony to the emotions and helps us to attain emotional stability. This stone also brings us empathy, self-control, and perseverance.

Whether you are struggling with obsessiveness, addiction, or anxiety, Green Jasper is here to help. It helps us to access our true selves so that we can be more intimate in our relationships and be more accepting of ourselves and others.

This crystal also supports the chest, lungs, kidneys, speed, liver, and bladder.

Pink Opal

Pink Opal is a calming and soothing crystal that helps us settle emotionally charged relationships and release subconscious pain and trauma. Its gentle energy opens the heart and promotes self-healing for emotional wounds.

This stone brings hope, love, peace, and acceptance. It works to relieve heartache, grief, fear, worry, and sadness. It supports long distance relationships and helps to resolve past life relationship issues.

Rhodonite

Rhodonite is a heart chakra stone that works to heal emotional trauma and empower us to reach our full potential. It promotes forgiveness, compromise, and cooperation. It is a stone for generosity and love.

When we use Rhodonite, we can better align ourselves with universal truth for self-discovery. In that way, it helps us discover our purpose and how to use our unique greatnesses.

This stone has a calming, centered energy that relieves panic, stress, anxiety, resentment, and anger. It helps us put an end to self-destructive behaviors and regain our power after trauma. It also supports circulation and heart health.

Bloodstone

Bloodstone is not only a heart chakra stone, but also a root chakra stone, giving it a unique energy that is both vitalizing and loving. It boosts our personal strength in a way that is gentle and heart-centered.

When we use Bloodstone, we can learn to perceive ourselves in new ways and transform as a result. We can overcome our fears and turn to growth and expansion.

It nourishes us with the ability to understand our emotions, release control, and accept change. Through self-acceptance, we'll embrace new beginnings and move forward to pursue a higher purpose. It also supports immune function.

Lepidolite

Lepidolite is a stone that resonates with all of the chakras, but especially with the heart chakra. It is known as The Peace Stone and it is one of the best crystals for reducing anxiety and improving mood. Its calming and soothing energy brings a peaceful happiness to its user.

Lepidolite will help you invite change into your life as you learn to eliminate self-doubt and fear. It helps us to be whole and complete, without the need to seek happiness outside of ourselves.

When we use this stone, we will find it easier to be still and present; therefore, we can better understand ourselves and endure difficult times. It also helps us to see the beauty in our suffering.

Amazonite

Amazonite is a stone for the heart and throat chakras. It promotes harmony and inspires loving communication in our relationships. It also assists us in putting up healthy boundaries in our relationships.

As a stone of truth, Amazonite supports us in better understanding ourselves and others. We'll feel inspired to discover what makes us tick and to be more accepting of other points of view.

Amazonite also reduces aggression, fear, anger, and worry. It improves our emotional responses, and it tackles loneliness.

Other Heart Chakra Solutions

Aside from heart chakra stones, there are many additional ways to optimize the heart chakra. Some of them include:

• Using essential oils, such as rose, jasmine, lavender, yang yang, geranium, neroli, bergamot, melissa, and neroli
• Self-care practices that soothe the heart
• Heart-opening yoga poses, such as camel, cow face, standing bow, fish pose, cobra, and head to knee forward bend
• Volunteering
• Practicing gratitude, acceptance, and seeing the beauty in things
• Eating green foods
• Meditating on love
• Getting fresh air and being in nature
• Breathing exercises
• Affirmations about love, connection, and balance

The Takeaway

By taking any of these actions to balance your heart chakra, you'll bring more peace into your heart and will experience more meaningful relationships and connections. And the heart chakra stones we've described are one of the most effective ways to do that.  

Read more about all of the chakras:

12 Root Chakra Stones for Stability, Vitality & Grounding 

8 Sacral Chakra Stones for Enjoyment, Creativity & Emotional Balance 

8 Solar Plexus Stones for Transformation & Personal Power

12 Throat Chakra Stones for Expression, Communication & Authenticity 

13 Third Eye Chakra Stones for Intuition, Wisdom & Awakening

10 Crown Chakra Stones for Unity, Enlightenment & Spiritual Connection