When a heart closed up due to pain, loss or guilt, it is a challenge to open it back up for the risk of getting hurt some more. People who suffer from a closed heart are more prone to illness, heart disease and depression.

Many people dwell on the negative things they have done in their lives that have caused them suffering and torment. Forgiveness is a major key to healing an emotionally closed heart but the act of forgiving is more easily said than done. Affirmations can be helpful. By writing or saying, "I forgive myself and my heart is open" will create changes in the subconscious mind. Even if you don't believe it, it still works.

When you suffer from a closed heart, anger and guilt can influence your actions. A lack of self-love is often the reason.

When you feel loved, life is wonderful. You are happy, alive and free. You feel better about yourself and everything around you.

The same thing happens when you give love to someone else. Watch what happens when you compliment someone or say how much you appreciate someone. Notice that the person feels empowered and automatically becomes more loving towards you.

If you want to create a life of love, you have to open your heart and give love. As you do this, you receive love in return. You create a positive attitude and great things happen around you.

Unfortunately, opening your heart and expressing love can be very scary. We are afraid that if we open our heart and express our love, we'll get hurt.

We all have been hurt before and it's no fun. To make sure we don't get hurt again, we put up our walls of protection. We hold ourselves back and we push people away. We create distance and destroy love. Without noticing, we are also pushing away the very love that we want so much.

To see how our walls of protection push away love, notice how you feel when you are around someone whose walls are thick. Notice how uncomfortable you feel. Now notice how you feel when you are around someone who is open, with little or no walls of protection. Young children are like this. Notice how comfortable you feel around this person. Notice how your walls automatically come down and how loving you are in return. As your walls of protection come down, you create love.

We put up our walls of protection to avoid hurt but the hurt we are avoiding isn't outside ourselves, it's inside. So instead of keeping the hurt out, our walls of protection keep the hurt in. Instead of protecting us, our walls push away love, create opposition and bring us more hurt.

The most powerful protection doesn't come from your walls, it comes from your love. When you open your heart and express love, you melt opposition.

Look in the face of someone who is open with little or no walls of protection. What do you see? This type of person is happy and alive. This person has freedom, inner peace and a joy for living.

Love is the essence of who you are. Love is your life force. As you let go of your walls of protection you allow your love to come forth, you create a life that works, a life full of miracles. When you cut it off, you have suffering.

Now look in the face of someone who is very protective and unwilling to be hurt. What do you see? This type of person is rigid and dead. There is a thick crust of hardness, anger and resentment and beyond that, a tremendous amount of fear and suppressed hurt.

Which face would you rather have? Which life would you rather live? To have your life be as great as it can be, be like a young child. Open your heart and be an expression of love.

As we open our hearts, we must be willing to feel our hurt. To do this, we must be willing to be hurt again and again and be willing to feel any hurt that may come along. Feel it willingly like a child, let it come and let it go, just don't run away from it

Remember, the hurt that you are avoiding is nothing more than an emotion. As you allow yourself to feel this emotion, the emotion will eventually run its course and go away.

Look forward to opportunities that allow you to heal more hurt. The more you are willing to be hurt, the less you will be hurt. The more you avoid hurt, the more you will be hurt. The more you open your heart and express your love, the more you make it safe for people around you to do the same.

The world doesn't need changing; the world needs loving. There are seven billion people on our planet and almost all of them are afraid to open their hearts and express their love.

We go through life with our walls up, waiting for others to take the first step and express their love. Then, if we feel safe enough, we will open our hearts and express our love in return. Unfortunately, almost everyone is waiting for someone else to take the first step which few do. As a result, we live in a world where people go around protecting themselves instead of expressing their love.

When your life is about opening your heart and taking the first step, you change the planet. You make it safe for others to open their hearts and express their love. When enough people are willing to open their hearts and express their love, the rest of the world will follow. We will then have a planet that is loving and supportive.

The process begins with you. Open your heart, open your mind and open the door to a more fulfilling life.