Opening your heart to life leads to deep, fulfilling growth, success, and happiness. But how and why may take some explanation.
Opening Your Heart: The Way to Growth and Happiness
Opening your heart to deep and fulfilling experiences and happiness sounds great. But how do you do it? Why should you?
“There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take one with a heart.”
Lao Tzu
A Closed-Off Heart Is a Coping Mechanism
Being closed off doesn’t inspire feelings of happiness and contentment. Yet, everyone experiences occasional isolation.
- It could be some distressing event that causes us to retreat from others.
- Other times, a recent disappointment leads to self-isolation.
- Failure to achieve a sought-after goal may temporarily close off your heart.
- So can falling ill or learning that someone we care about has suffered a tragedy.
Retreating from others is a common coping mechanism to distress and disappointment. In any event, such experiences can tend to harden our hearts. That is unless we make a concerted effort to get beyond the pain, anger, guilt, shame, jealousy, and disappointment.
Why Opening Your Heart Is Necessary
However, even if you accept that opening your heart is a good idea, it’s not always easy. This is especially true if:
- You’ve never been outgoing.
- It’s difficult for you to strike up a conversation with others.
- Sharing your thoughts is challenging.
- You’ve been alone for a long time.
- Depression, illness, or misfortune persist.
“When we stop judging others and ourselves, our heart begins to open.”
Swami Dhyan Giten
Studies show that angry outbursts are bad for health and can contribute to the onset of a heart attack. Holding in anger isn’t the answer, either. Releasing pent-up emotions more healthily is and can help immeasurably in the desire to open up your heart.
Opening Your Heart: Tips to Get Started
Where should you begin? Here are some painless tips on how to open up your heart.
Let Bygones Be Bygones.
What happened yesterday and the distant past has no place in your life today. Granted, if reparations or amends are necessary, they must be taken care of. But this doesn’t mean you waste time steeped in thoughts of past wrong-doing, misfortune, or failure. Let go of the past. This helps free your heart, allowing it to open just a bit at a time.
Acknowledge a Nasty Thought and Let It Dissipate.
Are you envious of the luxury SUV your friend just got? Does the fact that a neighbor’s dog consistently uses your immaculate front yard as a place to relieve himself tick you off? Do you feel like retaliating with a few choice words at the rude salesperson who can’t understand what you’re trying to say?
Check yourself. Everyone has nasty thoughts now and then. However, they don’t have to stick around. Nor should they. The key to getting past them is acknowledging them for what they are. Then, permit yourself to let them go. They will go away on their own.
Permit Yourself to Feel
Feelings are an essential part of living. Good and bad, you must permit yourself to feel whatever is in your heart. It may be painful to experience the misery or ecstatic to feel the joy. Yet, opening your heart requires the courage to face and feel all your emotions.
Too often, we stuff our emotions down and deny them. That creates a blockage that manifests in a closed-off heart. However, being willing to feel those locked-away emotions is vital in opening your heart.
How to Deal With Intense Feelings
When you open your heart, be prepared to experience intense emotions that crop up unexpectedly. It’s important to remember that suppressed emotions can be scary and overwhelming, but that’s a normal response. Counter the fear by deep breathing to ground and center yourself.
Besides, feeling intense emotions and breathing through them dissipates the powerful energy of those emotions. What remains is a sense of inner spaciousness and peace.
Opening Your Heart Means Being Vulnerable.
The secret to open your heart is embracing what may be challenging, scary, or unknown. Whether it’s a desire to love and be loved, to succeed where the prospect is daunting, or summoning the courage to accept something painful, you must allow yourself to be vulnerable.
Keep Happy Post-It Notes to Remind You of Life’s Joy.
Jot down memorable sayings or quotes you find inspiring and keep them where you can re-read them to help lift your mood. Sign up for a quote of the day to automatically get a few inspiring words daily.
Prayer Helps to Open Your Heart.
For many people, including me, prayer provides both support and guidance. The very act of praying helps to open your heart. Never underestimate the power of prayer. Not only can prayer lead to inner growth, but it also promotes healing.
Try New Experiences.
The excitement of trying something new is a terrific way to reward yourself after opening your heart. Research shows that increasing social interaction with everyday people contributes to greater happiness and satisfaction in daily life. It also helps prepare you for change.
- Be observant and appreciative of great works of art, extraordinary landscapes, vibrant flowers, magnificent structures, and the tremendous energy and power of people doing what they love.
- Build cognitive function by always learning something new. Try guitar, painting, surfing, carpentry, gardening, cooking, chess, scaling cliffs, learning another language.
Opening Your Heart Works
These may seem like simple remedies for a closed-off or judgmental heart. Yet, they do tend to work. Why? Consciously creating activities that boost your mood, spur motivation, and give you time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures prevents becoming bogged down in negativity.
