In the process of working on yourself – through therapies, meditation, dance, movement, various holistic methods, whatever “works” for you – layers are peeled away one by one. We work though some situations 100 times, but each time that same situation reveals new insights, new lessons, and illuminates new perspectives.

For me, this “season” of working on myself is a season of heart opening. I spontaneously adopted this as my theme for exploration. I say spontaneously, but it was inevitable. I realized that there are certain blockages I create for myself, preventing me from fully surrendering to life and opening up to relationships with others.

As it usually happens, everything was aligning in that direction. The workshops I chose had that theme, whether explicitly stated or not. My individual therapies were also moving in that direction. I’m still at the beginning, but some things I’ve become aware of so far are very significant to me. This will be a theme throughout the year because heart opening, for me, is diving deep. Deep in the sense that I already see how much fear, hurt, and sadness I need to dig up to get to my heart. I’ve found answers to questions about when my heart closed, why it closed, and why I choose situations that further deepen the wound.

I want to emphasize how important it is that when we feel that we need something – we react on that instinct. No matter how difficult and scary it may seem, we need to dive into it. What I’ve finally learned is that I don’t have to go headfirst – I can choose gentle, equally effective ways to find answers. I don’t have to solve an issue in a day – I can give myself a time for things to fall into place. I’m excited because I’ve reached the point of giving myself space to heal. I’m also a bit confused because I can’t imagine who I’ll be when I fully open up.

Methods for heart opening are mostly related to exercises that expand the space around the sternum, meditations where we connect with our heart, communicate with it, and exercises of connecting our hearts with others. These exercises are beautiful and gentle. Other methods can include visits to temples, which can be a space where you feel safe and that has good energy. You can even create a temple in your own home. Cocoa and cocoa ceremonies also stimulate heart opening.

My personal belief is that every space, object, food… can be healing for our hearts if we set the intention for it to help us in opening our hearts.

What can happen when your heart is open is that a lot of people want to connect to you, and it’s important to have firm boundaries and an understanding of whom to allow it and how much energy to share.