Open Heart

This meditation is a gentle and spacious invitation to rest in the heart as a place of presence, openness, and truth. Beyond the physical heart, we enter the spiritual heart—the field where all human experience is welcomed without resistance.

This practice is not about trying to feel better, but about being more open: to joy and sorrow, ease and vulnerability alike. From this openness, love reveals itself not merely as an emotion, but as a living wisdom capable of holding everything.

Healing unfolds naturally as we discover that an open heart—or even the sincere willingness to open—is the ground from which true transformation arises.

Rosemary Merán: Voice and meditation
Juan Dahik: Music

Transcript

Welcome to this Opening the Heart series.

My name is Rosemary Miran and I am incredibly honored that you've decided to join me on this journey of opening your heart.

For me and so many women I've had the joy of working with,

The path of looking inside and realizing the potential we have to act from an open heart has been a true gift.

So I invite you to give yourself this gift as a woman,

As a mother,

And really simply as anyone who desires personal peace and well-being,

And also peace and well-being for your family,

Your community,

And the world.

Find an uninterrupted time to sit with this series and really tune in and listen to the world that lives within you.

My hope is that you take this as an invitation to attune to your core essence and your womanhood,

And joyfully allow yourself to create and recreate parts of your life from a place of openness and unconditional love.

You are beginning a journey of understanding and accepting how you feel,

Yet also maintaining a compassionate distance from those feelings.

This will allow you to embody your emotions,

But not be controlled by them.

When we do this,

We can embrace so much of this multifaceted life all at once,

And become the women,

Mothers,

Supporters,

And nurturers that this world really needs.

Many women I've guided through this practice have also shared with me that the process of heart opening ended up being the biggest gift they've ever given themselves,

As it helped them to go on to feel more at peace with themselves and their families every day.

So let's begin by understanding what I mean exactly when I say the heart,

And having an open heart.

At the end of this discussion,

I'll share some meditation practices to help you tune into your deep inner heart.

First,

Let's define what we're talking about.

What is the heart?

What is heart opening?

When we talk about the heart today,

And opening the heart,

We're not talking about the physical heart,

But instead the emotional heart and the deep inner heart.

It's the region of the body where many emotions become concentrated,

And are often felt deeply in this part of the body.

Some refer to it as the door to the subconscious,

And some might even refer to it as the soul First,

Let's consider your emotional heart center in part as the inner door or pathway to the subconscious,

Or the subconscious mind.

Learning to open your heart helps you to open the door to the innermost subconscious places within you.

These are the places that we're not completely aware of,

And they store,

In many cases,

Unpleasant memories,

Negative beliefs,

And emotions.

The subconscious is also sometimes referred to as the emotional mind,

And it directs your energies and motivates you to act in certain ways.

It's interesting to consider why the subconscious mind exists in humans.

It's well worth asking ourselves the question,

Why is there a part of us that is not entirely conscious,

Or that is below the surface of our awareness?

Since the subconscious mind is a part of our being where unresolved past issues and emotions are stored,

The journey into heart opening brings with it the possibility to witness these emotions,

Traumas,

Or stored experiences without feeling a need to judge,

Repress,

Or suppress them.

In time,

Some of these emotions may be transformed,

But the most important work of heart opening is learning to simply see all of these parts of our deep inner selves and integrate them with the more conscious parts.

Through integration,

You begin to experience yourself and life as whole and complete,

And by transforming yourself,

This pours out and transforms the world around you and others as well.

To get a little more specific in terms of how you might feel this in your daily life,

Opening the heart really has a lot to do with recognizing these stored traumas or past emotions and experiences without judgment,

Which eventually leads you to feel a pulse of love,

Non-judgment,

And acceptance behind the thoughts,

Behaviors,

And actions that you experience every day.

Now,

This does not mean that your daily reality will be 100% positive all the time,

Because life naturally will always have ups and downs,

But the way you observe,

Understand,

And react to these events will be profoundly changed.

Let's also think about how the heart becomes blocked and closed instead of open,

And how the subconscious mind continues,

Through our lives,

Storing negative beliefs and emotions without us being able to access and heal.

When we are children,

We all have experiences that happen,

Good and bad.

The good and joyful experiences are sometimes remembered fondly,

With memories that bring us warm feelings of our past and connections with family,

Friends,

Places,

Smells,

And taste for example.

The traumatic or painful experiences of the past are,

Most often,

Etched into our minds and are the very traumas or memories that trigger the body's survival mechanism.

They are held onto in our heart center,

And they signal us time and time again to protect ourselves in certain situations and tell us that something is unsafe.

The body is incredibly wise and always,

Always strives to preserve itself,

Which is exactly why the fight or flight response kicks in,

In response to painful subconscious memories.

It is the body's way of trying to prevent these experiences from happening again in the future.

What's more,

These painful memories and events go on to create unpleasant and negative emotions,

And each emotion has a negative belief attached to it.

For example,

If you were abused as a child,

You might have a subconscious belief that says,

I am weak.

A never-ending list of beliefs might exist for you,

For example,

I am useless,

I am unlovable,

I am ugly,

I am not important,

I am powerless,

I am a bad person,

And many,

Many more.

Beliefs and emotions,

Both negative or positive,

Self-empowering or self-judging,

Go hand in hand.

If you believe yourself to be lovable,

You're going to feel the corresponding positive emotions attached to that.

And it also works in the other direction.

If you believe yourself to be unlovable or unworthy of love,

You will also feel the corresponding emotions that support that belief.

To get more specific and understand how this so often plays out in our lives,

Let's look at an example of a cycle of beliefs,

Emotions,

And behaviors.

If you believe yourself to be unlovable,

For example,

That makes you feel sad,

And this sadness,

When left unaddressed or guarded in the heart center,

Eventually turns to anger,

Because you can't escape it.

The anger can perpetuate and turn to hatred or rage.

Once this happens,

In many cases,

People try to suppress their feelings with alcohol,

Drugs,

Sex,

Food,

Or any other addiction.

It's the suppression of all of these negative beliefs and emotions we hold onto in our heart center that can also escalate to depression,

Which many spiritual leaders and spiritual psychologists see as blockages in the body's energy flow.

We'll talk more about this cycle,

But the main takeaway I want to instill today is that healing is absolutely possible,

And opening the heart is the prerequisite.

Having an open heart doesn't mean getting rid of those past memories,

Because this isn't possible and really isn't even helpful.

If you simply try to ignore,

Deny,

Or push these feelings of pain,

Anger,

Or sadness out of the heart center,

They usually come back shortly after and in an even more intense manner.

Think,

For example,

If you have a friend or partner that does something that irritates or angers you,

You never say anything or address the situation with them,

And what would happen if you decided to let your anger out?

You might lash out in an angry way or feel more angry if they repeat the behavior.

There is a big difference between letting out the emotions and opening the heart to the emotions and feelings.

The main difference is that learning to open the heart allows you to find and receive answers from a wider,

Higher perspective.

Like Albert Einstein once said,

It lets you solve problems from a different level of awareness.

It's about creating a spacious and loving distance between you and what you find in your heart center.

Because you are not your emotions and you don't need to feel like a slave to those negative past emotions and experiences,

There can be a different way forward.

Again,

You are not doing this work to become nothing more and nothing less than a loving witness to the beliefs and emotions that live deep in your inner heart,

And learning to accept and honor them as just another part of you.

It is through this love that you enter into a relationship of peace with yourself,

Your family and your community.

You stop the cycle of being controlled by emotional ups and downs.

I like to think of it as getting off the rollercoaster of human emotions and gently observing the rollercoaster with an understanding smile.

For me,

Opening to the heart center symbolizes the beginning of a conscious spiritual journey of integration.

And this journey holds no judgment for who we were or who we are now,

Or what we did in our past.

Instead,

It is a journey where you begin imagining life from a new level of awareness.

You shift into your power and into your natural ability to co-create the life you yearn for along with karma,

God,

DNA,

World events and other factors.

Heart opening is connecting with a spacious place that can contain all of life's experiences and is directly connected to your divine nature.

It is a place behind the emotions,

And like I mentioned in the beginning,

Some may call it the soul.

The soul is light,

And most people aren't aware or conscious that the soul exists,

And aren't able to feel its direct impulse,

Largely due to the many layers of heavy and suppressed emotions.

As we do the work of heart opening,

We become more aware of the energy of the soul and our divine being and divine light is able to grow and shine.

Opening the heart also means that we need to truly feel whatever it is we are feeling and allow for all of our current and past emotions to have free expression inside of us.

As this is what allows us to heal traumas in relationships and accept past experiences in order to live in connection with the highest version of ourselves.

Acting and living all of the time as our higher self is certainly not always an easy task,

But you can learn to live connected and influenced by your highest self,

Letting it inform your decisions and reactions.

Essentially,

The highest version of yourself or your higher self is the part of you that is unconditionally loving and deeply wise.

A beautiful way to think about heart opening is as a bridge between our higher selves and our embodied physical selves,

Or the bridge between our external and internal realities.

It's where we find and nurture the seat of the evolving soul,

Our evolving soul.

That part inside of us that grows and becomes more conscious throughout life experiences,

Sort of like an abode of the spirit.

Its voice might be very quiet and faint in the beginning of doing this heart opening work as it has been dormant or suppressed by the weight of day to day thoughts and emotions,

But as you do open the heart and slowly begin hearing its call,

The voice becomes increasingly louder until you hear it so loudly that it becomes your very physical voice in a way.

Now,

Take a moment to ask yourself,

What is it like to go through life with a closed heart?

While it can feel a bit different for everybody,

I think of living with a closed heart almost like feeling suffocated.

Your heart is closed so that you protect yourself from getting hurt,

And it might work for this purpose,

But along with that,

You are closed off from feeling,

Just like you might feel if you were suffocating without getting in enough air.

Along with closing your heart to pain,

You are also closed off to happiness,

Love,

And the entire range of human emotion.

So,

While you might not inhale smog or pollution,

You are suffocating due to a lack of oxygen.

You might feel as though you can't connect genuinely with loved ones or make new connections.

You are very often irritable,

Angry,

Or blaming others.

And perhaps you feel guilt for your reactions,

Especially with your children.

Remember,

We don't talk about this painful way of living to cause you more guilt or hurt.

It's an important,

Yet difficult step in recognizing whether you're living with a closed heart.

We've already talked about why this happens,

But what are the consequences of living in this way?

Living life with a closed heart is kind of like being only partially alive and feels like you have walls up between you and your daily life or walls between how you act and who you want to be or who you truly are.

Our true nature is to be at peace.

This doesn't mean happy and joyful 100% of the time,

But it does mean free from suffering.

That is why suffering feels so uncomfortable,

Because it is in the natural human state.

It's also so important to remember that this heart-opening work applies to absolutely everybody.

It doesn't matter how advanced you are on your spiritual path or if spiritual practices are brand new.

All of us,

And this is something that is felt particularly intensely during pregnancy,

Birth,

And mothering young children,

Want to find joy and move away from suffering.

Living with a closed heart makes it nearly impossible to truly connect with the true nature of our children and love them in the way that they need to be loved and that allows them to thrive and flourish.

It is also foundational to understand that opening your heart will mean that you will deeply feel your emotions.

You'll be opening blockages,

Clearing out,

And healing.

On the flip side,

When emotions stay suppressed,

It's easier to pretend that everything is okay when,

In reality,

It is not.

On the contrary,

Pretending everything is okay causes energy to remain stuck inside,

And eventually this can lead to physical conditions and manifestations of stuck emotions,

Like chronic pain and chronic fatigue,

Autoimmune disorders,

Depression,

Anxiety,

And many other physical symptoms.

Traditional Chinese medicine talks a lot about emotions being associated with organs in the body.

For example,

Anger corresponds with the liver,

Fear with the kidneys,

Joy with the heart,

Sadness with the lungs,

And worry with the spleen.

For example,

Symptoms of excessive anger or irritability could be connected with a liver issue,

Either as a symptom or a physical problem with the liver,

Or a contributing cause of liver dysfunction.

Doing the work of opening the heart might feel uncomfortable or even painful at first,

But the long-term results are profound and truly,

Truly life-changing.

My passion for doing this work stems from having gained myself,

And helping others to gain,

The ability to recognize,

Accept,

And heal past traumas,

Deal with difficult memories and emotions,

And act from a place of love,

Peace,

And a sense of loving curiosity as we bear witness to the inner depth of our heart.

The discomfort and even pain felt when opening the heart is the very reason so many people turn to addictions as a way to dull the sadness,

Fear,

Guilt,

And other difficult emotions that exist inside the heart.

Drugs,

Alcohol,

Sex,

Food,

And other substances and addictions are quick fixes for pushing feelings back inside the heart instead of allowing them to come out and healing them.

On top of that,

You add on the reality that our society tends to encourage a fast-paced daily life without emphasis or value placed on self-care and self-reflection.

So addictions become increasingly common to deal with this reality.

Hand-in-hand with the fast pace of our modern-day world is a way of thinking that we need to actively solve every problem that comes up.

We are a culture of doing,

Solving,

And acting.

And heart opening is actually quite counterintuitive to many of us,

And to Western culture in general.

In fact,

Opening the heart is just the opposite of doing or solving.

Instead,

It is an innate wisdom that our bodies already have,

A profound capacity to heal if we simply open and create non-judgmental space for this work to happen.

Similarly to how the body digests our food or heals a wound all on its own without us having to consciously do anything,

The heart also has this same natural capacity to open and heal emotionally.

I like to think about it more as getting ourselves out of the way and learning to soften and simply allow this normal,

Natural,

And beautiful process.

I see it as an unfolding,

As we realize that in order to go deep inside of ourselves,

All that we need to do is say,

YES every single day.

I've heard others refer to this process as witness consciousness,

Which I think is a very helpful way to think about it.

Since you're not so much doing,

You are entering a process of learning to observe your feelings from a higher vantage point.

We so often think that we are our emotions,

And that they control us.

In reality,

We aren't our emotions,

And we're not our minds or our bodies.

Instead,

These are instruments for our true nature to express and fulfill itself.

But the heart center is something bigger than these embodied elements of the self.

I find that we often over-identify with these parts of ourselves that we are totally conscious and aware of,

And tend to exert willpower to try and feel better and heal.

This type of approach to healing usually ends in suppressing emotions and further closing the heart center.

As we try to stop the thoughts,

We deny them or even feel ashamed of them.

The idea of witness consciousness is the path of standing back from your feelings and simply observing them,

Which gives you the perspective to understand them and see them in a healing light,

Without getting attached to them or letting them cause suffering.

You might think of it as if you were standing on a bridge over a pond.

In order to see the water clearly,

You need to let the pond settle,

And then you can observe what's inside from above.

If you jump in and steer the pond further,

The water becomes murky and clouded,

And it's hard to see what's there.

Heart opening work is similar,

As your aim is to see what's there from a distance and give the contents of what you find their room to breathe and simply be seen and observed without labeling,

Judgment or an urge to change them.

This is how you begin to integrate the inner parts of your heart with the rest of your being.

You might also enjoy thinking about heart opening in terms of the heart's layers,

We often get stuck and focused on the outer layers where our feelings and emotions reside,

But don't go any further or deeper.

Opening the heart means diving into the heart cave,

Which is where we hold on to profound beliefs about ourselves,

Like self-image,

Judgments,

Personal identity and past traumas.

In my experience with heart opening work,

Something that has really spoken to me and I've experienced in my own healing journey is what some yogic traditions refer to as a secret,

Sacred heart.

This is a heart that can't be put into words or translated to language.

This is where true healing can take place.

I think of it as a journey into the heart of the mystery and it is one that involves radical and unconditional love,

Acceptance and to a degree,

Selflessness.

Thought and intellect cannot access this chamber of the heart and the way to access it is through surrender and truly letting go.

By softening and surrendering,

You are able to access the layer of your heart behind the human emotional response and some spiritual practitioners would also call this as your psychic being and I also think of it and have experienced it as the evolving soul or innermost heart or even the spiritual heart.

Regardless of what it's called,

This layer of the heart naturally and without conscious thought knows the truth and responds to it even if on a conscious level you are unclear or uncertain.

By opening the heart and by being able to tap into this deeper layer of the heart allows you to witness the majestic beauty and peace behind suffering.

Joy behind pain or a higher and happier spiritual intention behind challenges and adversity.

This is what opening the heart is all about.

To observe the outer layer of your emotions yet surrender to love which is your natural state of being.

It's about evolving from a place of fear and suffering to a place of love and peace.

And once you've experienced and surrendered to this love more and more,

You will naturally extend this to your children,

Family,

Friends,

Community and the world.

Now that we've explored some of the theory behind heart opening,

In the following audios I'm going to offer more concrete practices that can aid you in your heart opening journey.

You can practice these meditations every day or once a week for a period of time that feels right for you or any time that you wish to connect with that deeper sense of yourself.

I hope you enjoy them and find great insight while listening and practicing.