How to heal your heart before Valentine's Day

The heart is one of the most vital organs in the human body: It keeps your blood flowing to supply oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes.
On a spiritual level, our heart is our centre; our being. It contains balance, compassion, self-love, unconditional love, and our dreams and desires.
Emotional stress, anger and physical inactivity have an adverse effect on our physical heart and can lead to heart disease and strokes.
Equally if you are unable to forgive and feelings of resentment are foremost in your mind you can damage your spiritual heart. Getting stuck in the past and “if only’s” and “should have’s” can stop this life pump from beating.
When your spiritual heart is broken you are closed to good and bad experiences, you expect the worst, and you are ungrateful and unappreciative. There is always a lingering feeling of not being deserving of the good in life, of comparing yourself and your life to others, of being stuck in the past. The death of a loved one, the end of a relationship or marriage, or having to give up on a life-long dream are all human experiences that can put a strain on your heart.
Healing the heart is an essential part of your overall well-being. When your heart is healthy and balanced, you have compassion for yourself and others, you forgive your past, you accept what is, and you see everything and everyone as a lesson. You make space for new experiences and new people, and you invite abundance in all forms into your life – with open arms. You become curious about life again!
If it is time for you to bring let go of the past and look forward to the future again, here are four gentle yet powerful steps to heal a broken heart:
1. Be honest with yourself
The first step to healing is to admit that your heart hurts, that you harbour grudges, and that you want to punish those people and experiences that had hurt you. Often we are afraid to let past hurts go because we don’t know what will fill the gap. We are so used to living in the past and holding on tight to our feelings surrounding relatives, partners or friends, and events. And even though we know pretty well that it serves no purpose and you cannot change the past, we just cannot seem to let bygones be bygones.

2. Forgive yourself, others and life
Forgiving those that have wronged you will set you free. It will send your life in a completely new direction. It will open you up to receiving.
Forgiveness always starts with yourself. Forgive yourself for allowing certain things, forgive yourself for willingly and knowingly putting yourself in certain situations, forgive yourself for not knowing or doing better at the time.

3. Accept
The next level, deeper level of forgiveness is acceptance. Accept that it is the past. Accept that perhaps it had to happen in order for you to be where you are right now. Accept that if it was meant to be if would have been.

4. Be free
When you are free from past hurts you become a magnet for abundance in all forms. Keep your heart open. Don’t let events and people let you go back to your old hurt and closed self. You have moved on from that. You know that you are responsible for your happiness. Become curious about life and people again. Get into generous mode again: Giving without expecting anything in return. Remember, it will come back. Perhaps not from the same source, but it will come back.