An open heart means that we can embrace all of life with a sense of wisdom and acceptance. Have you ever felt shut down, shut off, shut out from life? From love? Have you ever held back what you truly felt? When we begin to feel these things, our hearts will start to close off unless we consciously keep them open. When we shut down our hearts, we close ourselves off to the flow of love available to us. Keeping our hearts open to other aspects of our lives is challenging when we close our hearts off to one thing.
How do we know if our hearts are closed? A closed heart impacts the mind. We narrow our focus and begin to see with limited thinking. We become insensitive to injustice around us. The world will begin to look ordinary to us, and we may find ourselves having difficulty expressing gratitude. It is difficult to give and receive love when our hearts feel closed; we may even feel undeserving of love.
Love is the knowledge of the heart, and it is a part of our very being-ness. When we deny it, limit it, ignore it, we separate ourselves from our Divine nature. The ancient Hebrews didn’t have a word for the brain as we know it, and their concept was that our hearts were the center of intelligence within us. Now, current day science teaches that our heart has a brain center.
We can only love others to the extent we love ourselves. If we draw in someone who loves us more than we can receive, we will eventually push that person away. The writer of Ephesians 1:18 states, “Open the eyes of their hearts, and let the light of Your truth flood in…” (The Voice) When our hearts are open, we experience empathy for others, leading to a desire to see justice for all. We are alive to wonder, compassion and gratitude. We smile more, laugh more, and generally enjoy life through new opportunities that lead to new experiences.