Opening the Heart Guided Meditation
January 5, 2010
Many of us long to have a more open heart, to be able to give and receive more freely. We want to experience more love more easily, but it can be so difficult at times. The heart chakra is the gateway to loving connection with others. At the same time, it contains pain from past hurts. This meditation gives you the opportunity to relax into whatever the heart may hold, allowing held emotions to resolve and the loving energy in the heart to be felt.
The meditation takes you through a number of steps. First you relax. Then you connect with your heart, simply being present to whatever you experience. This is followed by visualization to help you expand the energy of the heart and connect with others. As always, be creative with the visualization and use it a way that works for you.
I’ve had many requests for a meditation for compassion and forgiveness. I do think these will come about, but hopefully this meditation will speak to these themes as well. Both compassion and forgiveness require the ability to be present to pain, our own as well as that of others. Both require an open heart.
I hope the meditation serves you well, and would love to hear about your experiences with it. (Listen to it here.)
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[...] Opening the Heart Guided Meditation | Meditation Oasis http://www.meditationoasis.com/2010/01/05/ – view page – cached Many of us long to have a more open heart, to be able to give and receive more freely. We want to experience more love more easily, but it can be so difficult [...]
It would of been nice to have had a link to the pod cast em bedded in the text like you some times do.
Thanks for pointing this out, Gerard. Forgot that detail this time and will take care of it now.
I sat with this meditation last night and thought I would share my experience with you, because it really touched me.
I’ve been going through a difficult time, and I initially felt my heart was cold and unresponsive, as though it had shut down. As I moved through the meditation I began to cry. I was able to give love out but when I visualized receiving it, the tears just were pouring out. When I probed and felt the pain and the love, the tears flowed and flowed though I hardly intended it. I just kept trying to focus on the visualisation.
There’s a lot I don’t understand about the world, and about spirituality, and about meditation, but this really did something to me, and I suspect it was something good. Thank you, Mary and Richard.
Sarah, thank you for sharing this very moving experience. I’m sure this was something good! Sounds like your heart was ready for a profound opening, and with this there can be both the pain and the love. You were able to let that all in.
Just a note. You say you kept trying to focus on the visualization. That’s fine, but let it be a very easy focus. You never need to strain with these meditations to stay focussed on something. A very powerful experience, or even just thoughts, can take our attention away from the focus. That’s alright. Just come back to the focus of the meditation when it’s easy, and in an easy way. It can also happen that the visualization goes on at the same time that other experiences are happening. Both are happening at once.
Best wishes!
Listened to the first meditation, Opening the Heart, this morning. I am just re-learning to meditate. I was quite moved and am grateful. Thank you! Iris
You’re welcome, Iris. Great that you are starting to meditate again!
Thanks so much for all the content you provide. It’s great to be able to have access to such guided meditations free of charge (as well as the music!), as well as having some blog posts to complement that. Your work seems to be really benefiting a lot of people!
You are welcome, Eliot. Our work is so fulfilling, and hearing from people like you keeps us inspired. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Thank you so much for providing these free of charge. Going through so much right now (ending of romantic relationship, having no job, having no luck with job search, running out of money). I’m so happy to have found this site. These help with the stress and overwhelming emotions so much. God bless you. May your generosity be returned to you many-fold!
You are so welcome, Elon. We’re so pleased the meditations are helping and thank you for your kind words. We wish you well with everything!
I felt a significant release with tears when trying this meditation. I split with an ex over four years ago. I still love him dearly and after bumping into him several times over this time, my intuition tells me he still loves me, but obviously we are not meant to be. I haven’t been able to move on at all romantically as I haven’t been able to let go of this past relationship. My heart shut for business to anyone else. I’m really hoping this meditation will eventually help me move on and find love again.
Rachel, this is moving to read. An open heart does mean that we feel hurt and grieve, and we have to grieve a loss to be able to move on. It’s not easy, but so worth it. You might also want to try the Guided Meditation for Grief. We wish you the best.
Dear Mary,
I have been doing your open the heart meditation podcasts very frequently. I would say about 10 times in the last three weeks. But for the last 4 or 5 days I am feeling nauseated. If I am not mistaken this particular meditation is an opening the heart chakra meditation.
On some websites it is said that if we concentrate on only 1 chakra there can be side effects like nausea and amongst other things personality disorders. I was a bit worried so I thought it best to write to you. Am I doing something wrong by just doing one of the meditations.
Joe
Hi Joe, it’s hard to answer a question like this without knowing more about you and what is going on. The nausea could be due to a lot of things. I can say, though, that doing that particular meditation that often could cause you to process things too fast. Why don’t you stop using that meditation for awhile and see if you feel better, then use it less often. Sometimes we’re in a hurry to change or get through something, but we need to pace ourselves and stay balanced and comfortable.