Art by Daniel Holeman (click on image to go to his website)
Happy Venus day! We are rounding out April with a few more heart opening exercises that really focus on feeling love in your heart. These happen to be my all time favorite exercises and I do at least one of them just about everyday. They have helped me tremendously on my journey to loving my heart and I hope they will help you in some way too!
Sending love to your cells
Do this when you first wake up
Or when you get in the shower
Or whenever you just need a pick me up ( and can safely visualize)
Imagine that there is an endless supply of love coming from your heart, that with each beat of your heart, love is being generated.
Or if you are struggling, think of someone you love, focus on how much you love them.
Now begin to turn that love toward yourself and send that love to your cells. Start with one area, one organ, however, you like, and begin to grow that love with each beat of your heart until it fills every cell of your body.
Stay in the visualization of love filling each cell for at least 5 minutes.
Try this for a week.
Expanding Love
Think of someone you love, focus on the feeling of love that you have for them for 1-2 min.
Now expand that feeling out to more of your body, make it bigger. Keep expanding it out into more of your body until it covers all of your body.
Now expand it out further to the room or area you are occupying. Keep expanding the love out to the city/state/country/world/solar system/galaxy/universe…. Stay in this expanded place of love for a as long as you can, try at least 5 minutes and then begin to come back to your body.
Exercise for when you are upset with someone you love
Our typical response is to think about why we are upset, why we feel justified in our feelings and our behavior, and why the other person is wrong for their words and behaviors.
But let’s interrupt that pattern for a moment.
What if instead, you got out your journal or notebook and began focusing on what you like and enjoy about that person instead of what you perceive to be “wrong” at that moment.
Write as many pages of what you love, like, enjoy, appreciate and feel grateful for regarding the person you are upset with; any time you start to go back into the story of why you are upset, refocus and find those qualities and so forth that you enjoy or why you are with them in the first place.
Write for at least 10 minutes.
Ok, now think about why you are upset again.
Journal the answer to these questions:
How do you feel about that person and your current situation now?
Has anything changed?
This is not about whether what you or that person said or did was “right”, it is more about opening up your heart. You don’t have to agree with their behavior, but you can have compassion for where they are at right now?