This gentle meditation will soothe and open your heart. It will help you acknowledge your own light and see the light in others. Use it to lift any heaviness so that you can be in a space to both give and receive love.

Heart Opening Meditation

Find a comfortable seat. You can either place your hands on your knees or cup them and rest them in your lap. Sit up nice and tall. Close your eyes.

Find your breath. As you go deeper into your breath, start to bring your awareness away from your surroundings; away from any external distraction.

With each breath, bring your awareness further into your body, making your way towards your heart.

Once you're in your heart space, you notice that whenever you inhale a little light inside of it starts to glow. Each time you exhale, the little light pulls back into itself.

Make your inhale slightly bigger and notice that the light starts to shine even brighter, now illuminating your whole heart. On your exhale, the light returns back to the center of your heart.

With each inhale, your breath gets deeper and the light glows brighter. Soon the light starts to fill the rest of your body.

On your exhales, the light from your body pulls back into your heart.

As your inhales increase, the light glows out of your body and begins to light up the room that you're in. Soon, the whole room is full of light. If anyone is nearby, your light is starting to touch them as well.

On your exhale, the light pulls back in, bringing a bit of the light from that other person. It travels through your body, back into the center of your heart.

Continue this. On your inhales, feel your light shining out of you so that it fills the whole room. And on your exhales, bring a little bit of light from others back with you, into the center of your heart.

As you continue this, notice that the light that shines out of you on each inhale is your ability to give love. Each time you exhale and bring the light of others' back in is your ability to receive love.

When you're ready, begin to slowly turn that light down until it returns to its home in the center of your heart.

Place your hands over your heart and recognize that this light is always there with you. You always have the ability to let it shine. And if you're open, you can always see and receive the light that shines from others.

You can enjoy the benefits of this meditation in as little as five minutes, so you can set a little alarm to time it. However, feel free to do this meditation for as long (or short) as you'd like.

What are some other ways that you open your heart to love? Share them with us in the comments!