I frequently focus on opening my heart

Opening my heart is probably the best thing I’ve ever done for myself! So when my Reiki and mentoring clients come to me with grief, loss and anger, I work with them to open their hearts. Many of us have closed down our heart to keep from being hurt. Unfortunately, the result of a closed heart is not receiving and in fact feeling more hurt. One of the best ways I have found to open my heart is to concentrate on gratitude and appreciation for life.

So many things in our past have closed our hearts that we have created a world filled with chaos and strife.

Is it any wonder that we close our hearts so as not feel?  Anger, worry, lack of appreciation for the wonders of our world, conditional love (not only for others but especially for ourselves), and lack of general kindness toward ourselves and others. These are all things that close our hearts daily.

What if we could open our hearts back up, allow ourselves to feel – yes, absolutely everything, joy, pain, excitement, depression – acknowledge them, feel them, from the bottom of our toes to the top of our head and especially in our heart. Just that will begin to open our hearts just a little more. Opening my heart is probably the best thing I have ever done for myself.

Can you imagine a world filled with open hearts?

A world filled with joy? With Love (true unconditional love)? Each of us living life doing the things we are passionate about? Listening to Divine inspiration and following our path? Each of us speaking our truth passionately and compassionately? How much healthier and happier would we be if we chose to live our life this way instead of being worried and anxious?

I frequently focus on opening my heart as well as that of my Reiki and mentoring clients as I find many of us have closed down our heart to keep from being hurt.

There was a time in my life that my heart was so closed, I couldn’t find much to be grateful for. In fact, I can remember waking and trying to write in my gratitude journal. The only thing I could find worthy of gratitude is that the sun was shining.
Never mind that I had a beautiful daughter, supportive family and friends. I couldn’t see it. But, the sun was shining, so I wrote that down. Don’t get me wrong here, I was dealing with a lot of big stuff. A husband who drank too much, incest, money worries. Most days, I awakened lethargic and wondering why I didn’t commit suicide. Sometimes, I contemplated how I might do it. Luckily, I had a daughter whose life felt more important than mine and I chose daily not to leave her alone. I began to see a transpersonal psychologist, I began to focus more on those little things I was grateful for. Time went by and I continued to write one or two things every day in my gratitude journal.

Then one day, I awakened full of energy and I began to notice all the beauty surrounding me. The smokey mountains on one side, how the falling leaves danced in the wind, the blazing colors of the sunset. And then soon an appreciation for those people in my life began to show up. Ever so slowly at first. In fact some things took me years to appreciate.

What I didn’t realize at the time is that gratitude was opening my heart a little at a time. Gratitude is one of the principles of Reiki, though I didn’t know it at the time. The thing I really love about the Reiki principles is that they are completely without judgement or obligation. Each one starts with “Just for today…” See the blog on the 5 Reiki Principles.

Watch for stories of self-empowerment as I share my 30+ year healing journey.

If you’ll share yours with me as well, either in private or in the comments below, I’d be excited to acknowledge you, or share below with others if you wish so we can all learn from each other’s lessons. However you wish to share, I hope you will accept my invitation to this private forum of self-empowerment toward a more joyful, passionate and inspired life.