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.
Mary, I love your work! I’m grateful for the clarity and compassion that shines through in this meditation. Beautiful. I’ll be sure to send readers and listeners your way!
Thank you for your kind words, Rebecca, so glad you enjoyed the meditation. Just visited your site and love your post about falling in love with yourself. All the best to you.
[...] a lack of love? Open the Heart with this Meditation Stuck in a creative rut? Enhance Your [...]
I enjoy this mediation Opening the Heart Meditation, I was wondering if you can send me a meditation for wellness, I am a breast cancer survivor and now have been told I have bone cancer and cancer of my liver, I would like to meditation for healing my body, is there one available…
thank you for your time
Deborah
Deborah, there are two meditations especially for healing in the podcast. Check out our Listen to Our Podcast page. We wish you well.
I am struggling a lot w/my teenage son. We have a very tempestuous relationship at times. He has a mood disorder and it is like walking on eggshells. Not only do I have to provide more positivity to him but to myself so I can radiate that to him. This kind of meditation is so extremely helpful. I thank you eternally for what you do.
Kris, you are so welcome, and thank you for sharing your experience with us. I’m so glad that meditation is helping you with this difficult situation. Your son is fortunate to have such a compassionate parent.
Thanks for posting this material. I have recently started meditating and find this site very helpful. today I tried this one , Opening heart…
Must tell you , I felt there must be something wrong with me because I couldn’t feel my heart! and slowly I drifted off, I was kinda in a trance state and the words did ring in my ear but didn’ t mean anything to me. It was strange, usually I follow pretty well, can be my heart chacra is totally closed off due to old, unresolved grief, and loss? Thanks so much, Chris
You are welcome, Chris. It’s possible that it is as you say, there could be some reason that you are not connecting with your heart and that could be to avoid pain. You will need to explore this more. It’s also possible that for some reason you slipped into a deep meditative state and that it was a coincidence that it was on this meditation. But it’s more likely the former explanation since you tried and were unable to feel your heart. Almost everyone has some unresolved grief. Be patient with it! You might also try the Breath in the Heart meditation which might make it easier to connect. Keep us posted!
Hi , it’s Chris again (same as last comment). Thanks for the reply. I followed your suggestions and it is getting better. I found out I have been somewhat blocked and it is beginning to flow. I have been practising more and found out many amazing things about meditation. Like, my mind is sharper: like I rembember things more clearly, and for example, I can find things much quicker than I used to, like if I don’t know where I have left my keys or my shoes (yeah I am a bit untidy
, I don’t spend precious minutes looking all over the house for them, this image of where I left them comes right up to my mind, and it is always right. You’ll tell me if this is just coincidence or if it has to do with meditation. In any case, thanks very much! 
Chris, I’m so glad to hear you are able to connect in more with your heart now. We need to be patient with ourselves and our process and clearly you’ve been able to do that. I would say it’s highly like that your mind is more clear due to meditation. Meditation allows us to settle the agitation of the mind. When the mind is more settled, we can access our intuition. Having the image of where you left the keys is a great example of intuition. You are so very welcome, and thank you for you dedication to meditating!
Very beautiful! My heart is fully open and so warm. Your voice is wonderful and soothing. The right speed and nice music in the background! I just love it! Thank you very much!!! This is awesome! I am sure I will return again and again and maybe include this in my regular meditation practise. Love and Light from Germany!
Doreen, thank you for adding your sweet words, and you are welcome! It’s wonderful that you were able to open up in this way. Love and light back to you from here…
Thank you. This was an well guided meditation with just the right kind of visualization cues. It really helped me to find a way into my hart and deal with some pain that’s been floating there for a long time.
Wishing you well as you continue on your journey, Seamus. I’m glad to hear that the meditation helped and you’re very welcome.
Your meditation was where I could find it when I needed it. Through a long story with many off-shoots let me say my heart had a lot of protection put around it over the years. Yoga, a class, and then this are helping me open up again. You want to know what happened during this meditation? Going someplace both far inward and far away so I couldn’t hear your voice for a while, tears. Not just tears, grief that came from a core place. Then these waves of calm, serene. Light. Both in body coming my rom my heart related to weight and brightness. Beauty. Seeing my heart, And randomly an answer to questions. These words don’t capture all that happened, but I want you to know that what you have done is a huge kindness to people you don’t know. Thanks.
Andrea, thank you for sharing this beautiful experience with us. How fortunate that your heart is opening like this! It is inspiring to read this. You are so very welcome!