Physical discomfort whilst opening heart chakra

[blossomingsoull97]

Whilst focusing and meditating on the heart chakra, i started to get a sort of shooting pain/aches in the middle of my chest. And after i felt quite exhausted, my eyesbasically felt like they were closing. My heart is also beating fast. What does this mean?

[Melahin]

Some suggest it means that the energy field of the heart is expanding, thus they call it growing pains.

[ribiq]

I would suggest starting with the lower chakras/lower dantian. Focusing too much on any one chakra can cause imbalance, and that sort of imbalance is more likely to happen if you don't have the lower foundation taken care of first. Generally, if the lower chakras are optimized, then energy can be naturally carried up through the rest of the chakras. It's fine to focus on the heart during meditation or something like that, but if there's too much intentional stimulation of it to the exclusion of the rest of the body, that can be a negative thing. It's a good idea of deal with the entire energy body as a whole rather than just one part of it, and meditation can also be done in a more general way without such a specific focus; then the entire body can become calm and if there was a particular problem, it would rise to the surface. Sometimes emotional/interpersonal/diet-related/etc. issues can cause tension in the area of the heart, so if there are particular issues you're dealing with, they could be having an impact too; there are lots of pieces to put together once you rule out the basic things

It can also be a matter of language, because words like "open" or "closed" don't quite get at what happens with chakras, it's more like vibration/diminished vibration, which is less black and white. This can be a very important distinction because although they're just words, they form the basis of thoughts, which ultimately influence our reality and how we relate to it, especially on an internal/personal level.

And if you're simply sitting and breathing and you have significant chest pain, certainly see a doctor to rule out anything physiological.

[Nitiananda]

Really begin to reveal only the anahata chakra is meaningless. That you have discomfort because you need to cleanse the entire astral body. And it's better to start with the physical body. To be hungry, do kriyu yoga.
Most of the canals and chakras are interconnected. So often anahata is associated with svadistana.
And you have discomfort because the prana that has risen has stuck with you in your accumulated experience of the world of people. And anahata is responsible for human attachments.