HOW ABOUT opening that heart and really letting the love flow? Your heart is sacred, more than anything you possess in life. It's not just some organ pumping blood to your veins...

IN THE spiritual sense, the heart represents a symbol of love on our planet. When you see a picture of a heart, you associate it with love, relationships, commitment - the image may even remind you of someone or give you a sense of longing or loneliness in that split second. Your heart is a place of love - that's a fact. Yet for some, it's a place of discord and pain. All the time we hear people talk about their broken hearts. Newsflash, lovers! The heart cannot break. The ego, however, most certainly can.

The reason why the heart feels hurt or broken is because it's not being used in a harmonious way. As children, we focused our love on the world and everyone in it with freedon and playfulness. There's that word again - play. Better remember it and imprint it on your minds, because it's your golden ticket to heaven on earth. As children, you loved freely and unconditionally until, at some point or another, someone rejected your love or was not open to it. This made you close down your heart and stop giving as much love.

Over time, you developed a believe that love is something you earn - something that you have to win. Tbus begins the problem.

You go through life jumping through hoops to fulfill other people's dreams, wishes and expectations of you, in hopes of receiving their love. Meanwhile, you make others jump through your own eleborate hoops and require them to fulfill your dreams and expectations. It becomes a vital game of power and control instead of pure, playful love. You create relationships out of contracts consisting of needs and wants, with a huge list of better-do-this and better-not-do-thats. Your heart closes the deal and then the ego takes over.

In actuality, when you get hurt, it's not your heart that is getting hurt - it's your ego. Your ego's list is not being fulfilled and it feels pissed off, used and who knows what else. It's all conditional, mumbo jumbo nonsense. Your heart, just like the organ, has one function: to love. It's not into all these rules and limitations. Who wants to live to be loved instead of living to love? It's time to learn to love freely.

How do we learn to love freely? Simply look at every expectation you have for yourself and other people. What do you expect them to do to receive your love? Figure out what those stipulations are, and then let it go. No more control, just love. Love them even if they can't or don't know how to receive it.

When you see your heart as a never-ending lover, that fills you up. You won't need people in your life to love you. You will have all the love you need right there in the center of your chest, and as long as you use it, it will grow and expand. You will create relationships because you enjoy having fun with the person instead of needing something from them or them from you. The ego will settle and the heart will open and life will feel good. Then. when you see a heart the next time, you will think of you. Live and love, lovers. •

~ Shaman Durek [courtesy of Frontiers Magazine]