How to Open Your Heart
The Practice of VIEW (Inspired by Joe Hudson)
Opening your heart isn’t about becoming softer.
It’s about becoming truer.
Most people think a closed heart is protection.
But what it really is… is tension. Armoring. Avoidance.
And the cost?
Less love. Less connection. Less life.
The heart doesn’t close because something is wrong with you.
It closes because, at some point, it had to.
So the real question isn’t:
“How do I force my heart open?”
It’s:
“How do I create the safety for it to open naturally?”
That’s where the acronym VIEW comes in.
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### V — Vulnerable
Opening your heart begins with vulnerability.
Not the performative kind.
Not oversharing.
But the quiet, honest admission of what’s actually here.
“I feel scared.”
“I feel alone.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
Vulnerability is not weakness.
It’s the doorway.
Most of us learned early on that being vulnerable wasn’t safe.
So we built identities instead—strong, independent, self-reliant.
But underneath that… is a part of you that just wants to be felt.
To open your heart, you don’t need to become someone new.
You need to stop hiding from what’s already true.
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### I — Interested
Curiosity is more powerful than control.
Instead of trying to fix or escape your feelings, get interested in them.
What is this sensation?
Where do I feel it in my body?
What is it asking for?
Interest creates space.
And space allows the heart to breathe.
Most people don’t open their hearts because they’re too busy resisting their experience.
But what if… instead of pushing it away…
you leaned in?
Not to solve.
Just to understand.
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### E — Empathy
Empathy is the bridge back to yourself.
Can you sit with your experience…
without judgment?
Can you meet your fear, your sadness, your longing…
with the same kindness you would offer a child?
Because that’s often what’s underneath—
a younger part of you that didn’t get what it needed.
Opening your heart isn’t about becoming fearless.
It’s about becoming compassionate toward your fear.
The moment you stop making your feelings a problem…
they begin to soften.
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### W — Welcome
This is the final step.
And the most powerful.
Welcome everything.
Not just the good.
Not just the love.
But the grief, the anger, the uncertainty.
Because the heart doesn’t selectively open.
It opens to all of it.
When you say:
“This too is allowed.”
Something shifts.
The resistance drops.
The armor loosens.
And what was once overwhelming… becomes workable.
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### The Truth About Opening Your Heart
Opening your heart isn’t a one-time event.
It’s a practice.
A moment-to-moment choice.
To be vulnerable instead of guarded.
To be interested instead of avoidant.
To be empathetic instead of critical.
To be welcoming instead of resistant.
And here’s what you’ll discover:
The pain you were avoiding…
was never the real problem.
The real problem… was closing.
Because a closed heart might feel safer—
but it also blocks the very thing you want most:
Love. Connection. Aliveness.
So today, don’t try to force anything open.
Just begin with VIEW.
And watch what happens…
when you finally stop running from yourself.
