Getting your heart broken is never a great experience. So sometimes even after we have done the emotional healing work to get past the pain. We still won’t open up to love. We will keep our hearts locked away, as we think this is the only way to protect ourselves.

The problem being that we miss out on all the great things about love. So instead of shutting down to love, I am going to share with you the heart opening tools that I use to keep my heart open.

Heart Opening Yoga Poses

Some yoga poses allow you to physically allow your heart to be front and center. Instead of closing yourself off by hiding your heart, you use a pose to extend your heart.

While I am not a yoga teacher, I will tell you that there are many poses to choose from. Over the decades of my practice, I have found two poses that are easy, and I like. They are the cobra pose and high lunge.

Here is a heart opening practice from my favorite YouTube teacher!

heart opening yoga pose high lunge

Heart Chakra Music

Music is a great way to change our moods and tune our bodies. Music has vibrations, known as hertz. Different frequencies impact our bodies in different ways. Think about how when you workout different songs can either boost your performance or slow you down.  It can also impact your chakra system. For the heart, a hertz of 639 will help you open it up.

I love to use Sonic Yogi’s music when I am struggling with a chakra. Here is his heart chakra piece that I like.

Ho’oponopono

This is a Hawaiian prayer for forgiveness. The words are: “I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you, I love you.”

They are intended to be used like a mantra where you repeat them over and over. It works for forgiveness on yourself and others. It is very powerful, especially if you do it on a regular basis. My trick is to also imagine the person you are trying to get over while saying this. Imagining that you are directly forgiving them.

ho'oponopono words

Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique)

Tapping uses the meridian system to help you release the past and re-write your beliefs. You can feel emotions leaving your body as you do a series of tapping. I will do this after journaling about a situation I am struggling with. It is a great way to bring closure to any emotional work that you are doing.  My favorite teacher is Brad Yates. Here is one of his videos that I use for opening my heart to love.

Essential Oils

Essential oils are another one of my favorite ways to shift mood. Especially one where I don't need to do much. Just turn on the diffuser or use a roller on my wrist! I will use the essential oils while doing the Ho'oponopono prayer, for a nice added boost.

There are some essential oils that will help your heart open. My favorites are pink grapefruit, rose otto and bergamot. I use the heart chakra loving compassion blend from Plant Therapy.

heart opening essential oils

Heart Mudras

During meditation using a heart chakra mudra is a powerful way to open up the energy. Mudras help direct the energy to where you want it to go.

The one that I use takes your thumb and presses it against the thumb and ring finger. This is officially called the Hridaya Mudra.

heart chakra mudra

Journaling

I love journaling for most everything! It lets you dig in and explore your beliefs and what is blocking you. Then find a solution to begin to fix it.

Using it to understand what your fears around love are, will help you open up your heart. Here are some journal prompts to help you understand why you are blocking your heart.

journaling to heal your heart
  • Am I willing to receive all types of love?
  • Why would I not want love to flow to me? Create a list of all the reasons. Then pick one to start asking why. Try to figure out how it started. So you can heal that situation.
  • Is this true? Sometimes we believe the story we tell ourselves without stopping to ask if it is still true for us.
  • Are they my fears? Too often we pick up others fears and carry them as our own.

How to Put Together A Heart Opening Practice

Now that you have some options to help with opening your heart. Let's explore how to create a practice that works for you.

The goal is to find a combination of practices that allows you to feel safe, forgive others and open to new possibilities. This can take time, especially if you are just getting over a breakup. Or are doing deep healing work on many relationships that have the same theme. You may have to play with different combinations till you find what works for you in the moment.

Remember we are all unique, so you will need to adjust till you find what helps you.

Sample Practice Ideas For Heart Opening

  • Meditate using the Ho'oponopono. Do this with heart opening essential oils.
  • Meditate with heart opening music and the heart mudra.
  • Journal about what you are feeling. Then tap through the emotions you discovered. Allowing you to release what you journaled about.

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Get the resources & Journal Prompts from this page! Includes writing pages for prompts.

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