In this article, I will share signs of heart chakra awakening together with symptoms of such awakening. In this way, I hope to support the opening of the heart to your own magnificence.

Heart Chakra Awakening

So let us begin the adventure into this journey of heart chakra awakening together. Let me begin with a poem that shares with you the experience of heart chakra awakening.

A beautiful poem by Derek Walcott regarding the experience of heart chakra awakening.

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

What is Heart Chakra Awakening?

what is heart chakra awakening

Image by rosehalady0 from Pixabay

Let me begin with my definition of the heart chakra awakening process.

Heart chakra awakening is the conscious awareness of the connection and communion of the personal with the Divine—Tony Cuckson.

Heart chakra awakening is about conscious communion. The heart is the bridge between you as the limited time-bound sense of the personal self and the infinite and eternal sense of the True Self.

The awakening of the heart makes you conscious of this unity. This may be an experience of revelation, or if you are asking, “What are the signs and symptoms of heart chakra awakening?” as a process.

This unity of the personal self and the Universal within you always is but you are the one who blocks it. Heart chakra awakening is the process of unblocking. The mystic poet Rumi says it this way.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ― Rumi

This is essentially the work of unblocking the lower chakra level related to the personality. Let this be your key focus. Then you are fit for the awakening of the heart chakra and you may be blessed to experience the awakening of the higher heart chakra.

The work of awakening the heart chakra is a key stage of the 5 stages of spiritual awakening . It is not about romance with another person. It is about your communion with the Beloved within you that is never separate from you.

You begin to BE IN LOVE. This is in love with existence and in love with the way Creation pours through you. You become a pouring away of blessings.

Heart Awakening Challenges

heart awakening challenges

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

Heart awakening is not soft and fluffy. It requires courage.

The root of the word courage comes from the Latin word ‘cor’ meaning “to enter the heart.” This is not the courage of the action hero/ine but the courage of the one who is willing to be vulnerable and empowered in the service of Love.

As modern mystic and spiritual teacher Andrew Harvey says in Radiant Heart – The Radical Teachings of Jesus and the Christian Mystics heart awakening is not just about following your bliss (Joseph Campbell) but embracing your heartbreak. This is heartbreak at the suffering in the world that manifests in so many ways.

Many of the teachings of the New Age movement invite you to believe that heart awakening is about peace, compassion, Light, and forgiveness. It is about contacting your angels, or spirit guides.

What you will not be told is that it requires you to alchemize the shadow side of your personality. (Lower three chakra alignment).

You must go into the dark in order to bring forth your light. ― Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers: Reclaiming Your Power, Creativity, Brilliance and Dreams

Authentic Heart awakening is difficult. It is the journey along The Road of Trials (Yellow Brick Road) into integrity and realizing the Wizard in Us. (Jean Houston)

There are challenges around the process of heart chakra awakening. It is best that you be at least aware of such challenges.

Rumi points to these challenges when he says that your work is only to remove the blocks. This is the truth of the matter.  No one blocks the communion with the Divine other than you. This is not a judgment. It is a recognition.

Some genuine challenges of heart chakra awakening which are part of the practice of processing blocks include:-

  • Judgment Detox—Moving beyond duality.
  • Be still and Know—Moving into the Silence that Speaks.
  • Give no thought—Giving up Overthinking.
  • Be as a child.—Inner Child Work.

These are all practices that are part of the daily challenge of communion. This is communion as a feeling experience and not as a ritual. Remember, an essential aspect of the spiritual journey is “If you don’t feel it you can’t heal it.”

They have taught us in different ways that the Divine is separate from us and that we have to earn his/her favors. We become beggars after Love.

This is ignorance.

You are never apart from the Divine Love and nor will you ever be apart from Divine Love. The major issue is that you FEEL apart from Divine Love. You have been taught that this is a fact by people who have had no experience of higher heart chakra awakening.

Awakening the heart chakra begins when you turn within and are prepared to enter the unknown. From this place of unknowing and through the open heart in surrender to Love, Creation graces you with the KNOWING of Love.

This is your birth right.

Signs of Heart Chaka Awakening

heart awakening signs

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

There are various signs of the process of heart chakra awakening. The signs I share are those that I have experienced in my life. There will be other signs, but I think these are common to many people.

These signs of awakening the heart include:-

These are the positive aspects of heart chakra awakening.

Awakening Sign of Synchronicity

I remember a time when my life was full of synchronicity. It was so much fun. Synchronicity is a term coined by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. It is defined as a “meaningful coincidence.” The emphasis is on the word “meaningful.”

This is where the universe is directly communicating through you. It is where you are open to communion beyond the personal. Life is happening through you. It is guiding you.

This is a genuine challenge because more often than not the coincidences that arrive are not logical. For most people there is resistance. It might be fun, but the challenge is to honor what is being invited. This might mean change. It might mean radical change.

According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.—Deepak Chopra.

Awakening Sign of Trust

I think the key sign of heart chakra awakening is your relationship to trust. As the heart awakens, your trust moves from dependency on the personality to alignment with the Universe.

This is real university education. You are being versed by the Universe. You are being versed in unity consciousness. You trust that the Higher flows into the lower.

This is not likely to happen without some integration of the first chakra levels related to the personality.  Therefore, I advocate that you concentrate on balancing and aligning the lower of the three chakras.

The higher chakra level energy centers KNOW how to express through you as the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart advises.

We can sum the whole of the spiritual journey up in the word “Trust.” You commit to letting go and letting God, which is the same as saying, “Let go and Let Love.” In this way, you become aligned with Love’s purpose. This is your ultimate security.

Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction—Rumi.

Here is a poem I love that illustrates the importance of trusting the heart to guide you.

West Wind #2

You are young. So you know everything. You leap
into the boat and begin rowing. But listen to me.
Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without
any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.
Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and
your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, and listen to

There is life without love. It is not worth a bent
penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of a
dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile
away and still out of sight, the churn of the water
as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the
sharp rocks – when you hear that unmistakable
pounding – when you feel the mist on your mouth
and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls
plunging and steaming – then row, row for your life
toward it.

― Mary Oliver, West Wind

.

Awakening Sign of Flow

When the heart is awakening, it is also opening. Recognize this in how your life flows. What is flowing is the energy from the higher chakra level into the lower chakra level.

You are opening the bridge (the heart chakra) between you as a human and you as Being. You are now in alignment with the energy of the Universal as it intends you to express through you and as you.

There is more Being and less doing.

There is more experience of Wai Wu. This is action through non-action. You are becoming more of a happening. There is more creativity but you acknowledge that it all graced from Divine connection.

You are a channel of Divine inspiration. As the Master Jesus declares.

I can of my own self do nothing—John 5:30

This is not very flattering to the sense of the personal self which in our Western culture is all about your doing it. The result as you might well learn is that we get ourselves in the do-do.

With the emphasis on “my doing it my way” you miss the magic of non-doing that is the only real way to get what your heart and soul want and are designed to gift.

Awakening Sign of Purpose

When the heart is open (Van Morrison) you will follow the purpose you are created to follow. The spiritual teacher Guy Finley says it this way.

Your purpose is to serve Love’s Purpose—Guy Finley.

The keyword here is the word ‘service.’ This is pouring forth of the gifts it gives you to express. It does not mean you go out and save the world. You will only do this if called to do so.

Your purpose is simply to be a channel for the expression of Love’s glory. You recognize this to be the way to fulfillment and true prosperity. The paradox of prosperity is that you are so fulfilled that you love is to pour yourself away in blessings.

Contrast this experience of prosperity with the idea shared in the new age teaching that is The Law of Attraction. This is where you use the ego in the service of spiritual materialism.

This fulfillment of the heart is beautifully illustrated in the story of The Four Treasures of Ireland. The fourth treasure (4th chakra) is The Cauldron of Plenty. This is the Cauldron that is forever empty and forever full at the same time.

The emptiness represents the absence of desire-driven from the personality. (Lower level chakras) The fulness is the pouring forth from the Divine (higher level chakras) that then lights up the personality from within.

This is flow as an experience of integrity.

One of my ways of heart-opening is to listen to songs that remind me of this need for heart-centered communion. I have long been a fan of the singer-songwriter Van Morrison who is from my homeland of Northern Ireland.

Here is a song that reminds me of what is experienced “When Heart is Open.”

Symptoms of Heart Chakra Awakening

heart chakra awakening signs and symptoms

It’s your road. No one can travel it for you – Rumi.

Image by Jose Antonio Alba from Pixabay

By the word ‘symptom’, I am referring to a block.

I am not referring to physical symptoms because I cannot definitely correlate a particular physical symptom with an experience of heart chakra opening.

I have yet to find someone who can. I would be wary of taking advice from anyone who would declare, “Ah that pain in your chest is a sign of heart chakra awakening.”

I think there are far too many variables within the human experience to declare that, for example, (as shown on a YouTube video) that a pain between the shoulder blades is a symptom that your heart chakra is awakening.

There is far clearer evidence as regards heart chakra opening as shared above.

The symptoms I share with you are those that I have experienced.

Pulling Away from Friends and Family

When you experience heart awakening a symptom is that you will pull away from family and friends.

This is a very common symptom. Not that your family or friends are terrible people. It is because you are moving into a different energy dynamic. This is the dynamic of the soul. You are being pulled toward soul friendship.

The Master Jesus says it this way.

If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.- Luke 14:26.

Another Biblical saying is

Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” —Genesis 12:1

This is wisdom teaching. The land you will be shown is not of this world.

Have the courage to leave what you know (your country, your family, and your father’s house). This does not mean you have to do this literally, but you have to do it on a psychological level.

If you stay in your country, with your family and never leave the family home it will be hard to listen to the guidance of your inner KNOWING. You will be too attached to the belief systems of those closest to you.

What these wisdom teachings are asking you is, “Will you value the eternal (heart and soul) over the temporal (family, friends and culture)?”

Note that this is not a permanent leaving. You will return but you will return on your own terms. You will be someone who lives in two worlds rather than one.

Leaving the Group Dynamic

This is a symptom I have experienced frequently. My heart has longed to belong. I found this longing satisfied by being a member of different spiritual groups.

However, there has always come a time when there was a choice of continuing to belong to the group or going my own way.  I have found significant support in groups but in the long run; they become organized and for me, this kills the spirit.

It becomes “Their Way” or “The High Way.” I have always chosen to take the highway.

Therefore, I now follow the teachings of the mystic Joel Goldsmith, writer of The Infinite Way who affirms that organized religion has always killed the spirit of the Divine within the individual.

There may come a time when you have to choose whether you stay within an organized system of religion or spiritual dynamic or you venture forth into the desert of unknowing.

This is when you make the choice to remain a believer or take the adventure into becoming a KNOWER (Higher Heart Chakra revelation).

Giving Up Addiction

A real challenge for me was giving up an addiction to alcohol. This isn’t everyone’s experience. However, most of us are addicted to something and you cannot put such attachment before the longing for the Beloved. (Higher Chakra dynamic).

This giving up the addiction to alcohol was my leaving family, friends, and culture. In Ireland, we have an issue with the cultural addiction to alcohol which we as a culture refuse to recognize.

This is probably one of the best things I have ever done.

Instead of wakening up with a hangover, I now wake up with energy, enthusiasm and a feeling of being blessed. The alcoholism was a search for meaning and belonging.

I wanted to belong to a group where I could readily speak about the love of the Divine but there was nothing available that did not demand that I conform to a specific way of thinking and belief. I was spiritually lonely and I sought solace at the bottom of many bottles of wine.

That was over ten years ago.

…alcohol in Latin is spiritus” and that the same Latin word is used for “the highest religious experience as well as the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum.” – Carl Gustav Jung

Change of Diet

There is no scientific evidence on my part regarding a change of diet because of heart chakra awakening. However, I feel this is a natural consequence of this process.

I mostly am vegetarian.

I eat as much organic food as possible and grow as much of my own food as possible. This is not because someone has declared that I shouldn’t eat meat. If I lived in Antarctica, it is likely that I wouldn’t survive without it.

If heart chakra awakening expands any dynamic, it is the dynamic of compassion. You become more aware of your responsibility for the care of other sentient beings. You do not support intensive farming on any level.

Not that we should judge you for doing so. Heart awakening will bring about this awareness naturally. You will not need to be intellectually convinced. It will be something your heart guides you to do.

Higher Heart Chakra Awakening

higher heart chakra awakening

Photo by Christopher Beloch on Unsplash

The awakening of the higher heart chakra is an experience of revelation. It is an experience of Grace. You become one who is a KNOWER. You become one who is a mystic. It graces you the KNOWING of the mystery.

The poet Anna Akhmatova says it this way.

The Secret of Secrets is inside me again – Anna Akhmatova

This experience of the higher heart chakra will change your worldview. You now KNOW that you are the union of two worlds.

  • The personal with the Universal.
  • Time with Eternity.
  • Form with the Formless.
  • I am with I AM.

You KNOW that these worlds are not separate. You might for the 1st time truly understand the meaning of the saying.

And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.- John 8:23.

This experience of the higher heart chakra will definitely humble you. You recognize that you truly are a servant of Love’s purpose. This will be your delight.

What to Do Next

heart chakra awakening symptoms

Heart Chakra Awakening Symptoms – Moving Away from Home

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Hopefully, this gives you some idea about the heart chakra awakening signs and symptoms. My advice to you is to concentrate on aligning and balancing the lower level chakras.

These are where the blocks really exist.

They exist in your relationship with your personality. As Rumi says, “Your work is not to seek for Love but remove the blocks to its flow.” The Universe KNOWS how to flow through you.

The problem is that we have educated you to be the doer of your life rather than the flow of your soul. We celebrate action and achievement. However, they are celebrated only in terms of personal achievement.

There is nothing wrong with this until you realize that it won’t bring you genuine happiness and real prosperity. All wisdom teachers invite you to surrender to the will of Divine purpose. Then you are not a house divided against itself.

To align your energy system—Y-E-S –  you need to focus on

Without a commitment to integrating the lower level chakras the challenge of keeping the heart open will be difficult.

It is tough enough, but the rewards are immeasurable.

I leave you with the resource I wrote to invite you into a deeper awareness of heart chakra awakening. This is called Awakening the Heart – 21 Ways to Follow Love’s Message.  I wrote this book in the language of heart awareness through poetry, story, and heart song.

Awakening the Heart – 21 Ways to Follow Love’s Message

The quality of your life depends on one essential ingredient. This is the degree to which you can give and receive love. Every day, in every way, the Message of Love is speaking to you in order to be uniquely and gloriously expressed through you. You are designed to be a unique and radiant expression of Love in form. This is how well informed you are created to become.

In this compelling, beautiful and practical book you are invited to begin from a profound understanding. This is the realization that you are Love and are being informed by the radiance of Love in every moment. When you are in alignment with this essential wisdom, then you become fulfilled. You open the heart to the fullness you are created to be, to expand into, and to pour away in glory for the highest good of all.

Healing the Heart Chakra—21 Ways to Follow Love’s Message shares twenty-one ways to become aware that Love is a state of Being that you are. Healing the Heart Chakra is about who you are at the very center of your Being. Healing the heart chakra is not about finding love but dissolving all the blocks that keep you from your essential nature as Love’s radiant presence expressing its fullness through you.In both profound and practical ways this book shows you ways to open the heart centre through awareness of your everyday life experience. This includes becoming aware of the way in which the Message of Love speaks to you through the songs you sing or listen to or the movies you watch. You are invited to realise peace of mind and be in touch with that which is sensational within you.

This is a book that the world desperately needs right now with its emphasis on Love as being the central purpose of creation and how that creative One Life connects and blesses your life when you your heart to giving and receiving Love as the very purpose of your existence.

In whatever way love manifests in your life at this time Healing the Heart Chakra will help you see your journey in a wonderfully heroic way and allow you to live every day with greater joy and fulfillment. The Message of Love will be realized as your very essence and you will radiate your light into the world with power, presence and beauty. You realize that you really are a star in the making. Such is the invitation from Healing the Heart Chakra.

Heart Chakra Awakening Challenge

heart chakra opening challenge

Love is the Ultimate Gift that lies at the heart of Creation – Rabindranath Tagore – Mystic Poet

Having read this information regarding the heart chakra awakening signs and symptoms the question now becomes “What do you intend to do with this information?”

Are you prepared to follow that heart energy? Are you prepared to take the adventure into crossing the bridge into sacred unity and transformation?

Let Awakening the Heart chakra be of REAL importance to you and honour that invitation by making a commitment to alignment with the Will to Love. 

Trust and companion your Greatness and the Greatness designed to be expressed through you.

Cultivate the qualities shared above that will not only light up your life but invite the Light of Love to be more present in the world through you?

This is the greatest gift you can gift to the healing of the world of time and space.

What is the heart chakra question can be summed up in one word, “Trust?”

Begin the journey of authentic faith and allow yourself to trust that the Universe has you back.  Take this magnificent adventure into the Light of your own magnificence.

Heart Chakra Awakening Opportunity

heart chakra opening opportunity

Friend, wake up! Why do you go on sleeping – Kabir – Mystic Poet

Each chakra has a different dynamic.

I wrote the book Awakening the Heart – 21 Ways to Follow Loves Message to share with you the many ways in which you have to explore the opening of the heart chakra.

This book focused on awakening the heart chakra is conversational in nature.

It is written the way in which I speak. I liken it to a conversation that I would have with a friend around an open fire.

The reviews attributed to this book give you some insight into the way that others have found this book to be of benefit to them.

heart chakra book review on amazon

This is the kind of book that I like. It is one that allows you to read a chapter at a time and reflect on its invitation. At the end of each chapter there is what I call “The Invitation.”

This book would be a great support to anyone who made a choice to go on a 21 Day Challenge of Heart Awakening.

heart chakra opening book review

Worldwide Availability

For some reason there is no image at this supplier, but the book cover is shown above.

Available from

Available as Ebook from Smashwords

If you like reading eBooks, then I have made this book that answers the question “What is the heart chakra?” available at Smashwords.

heart chakra book review on smashwords

It is my intention to share with you the 21 Ways to Awaken the Heart over the coming months from September 2021.

I am presently setting up the facility for recording this book, so I plan to make an audio recording of these 21 chapters.

Shared below are the 21 Ways in which this awakening of the heart chakra will unfold over the coming weeks.

Heart Chakra Awakening Journey

heart chakra opening journey

It’s your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. ― Rumi

I began this 21 Day journey of heart chakra awakening with answering the question, “What is the Heart Chakra?”

This will, I hope, inspire you to commit to exploring the heart chakra awakening journey as will be shared as follows.

  1. The Shape.
  2. The Colour
  3. The Animal
  4. The Song
  5. The Poem
  6. The Picture
  7. The Tree
  8. The Story
  9. The Sense
  10. The Affirmation
  11. The Archetype
  12. The Prayer
  13. The Place
  14. The Movie
  15. The Element
  16. The Sign
  17. The Question
  18. The Value
  19. The Challenge
  20. The Yoga
  21. The Step Beyond

I hope that this sharing of the heart chakra symbol has inspired you to take the journey into unifying the masculine and feminine within.

In this way you become truly whole and holy. You become what you are intended to be.  A star in the making.

Tony Cuckson
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