Open Your Heart

Often, I hear the words "to be vulnerable, to let others in, to move past our hurt, and to be open to new beginnings." The variations of those words all come back to the notion of opening to one another. In my personal experience, I learned that to open my heart is to unapologetically accept my past and embrace it as part of my journey, lovingly. Opening my heart is entertaining the idea that I am magical, phenomenal, and gifted here to shine my light bright. I started to be brave when I took these concepts from intellectual possibilities to embodied and practiced truths.

I am brave to get behind the camera and film, brave to go after my dream of dancing, daring to live my voice. I say live because often we think of voice as something physical, sound waves, and in reality, our voice is more energetically what lies internally. The voice projects boldness or cracks and trembles from within. The actual vibrations and frequencies manifest one’s voice, thoughts, and feelings of the subjects spoken from and of oneself.

Yes, opening my heart means being so rooted in my understanding of self through grace and love that it quickly welcomes and has space for others. I am not connecting with others to define or validate me. My opening of heart is to share and mirror the love and grace I practice with myself. My convictions are mine, and I do not need your approval. Opening my heart meant that if I decided to share my past, the sexual abuse, the poverty, the chaos I lived through, I wouldn’t consider myself brave enough for that. That has no ruling in who I am; those were simply experiences only allowed to define me if I listened to society’s lies and conditioning. I am brave because I dare to be free, something not commonly taught that goes against this world’s setup.

Heal, grow, and slaying big is why I am brave—only afforded to me when I opened my heart.

--Raquel V.