I dare you to take the plunge

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, which is a day we spend opening our hearts to our loved ones. Are you ready this year to open your heart to yourself?
You've all probably heard the expression about putting on your oxygen mask first so that you can help others more effectively during an emergency. Consider the wisdom of that instruction. And then consider the wisdom of opening to your own heart before you can effectively open to others.
One of the reasons that we tend not to want to go into the spaces of the heart is because we think there is pain and grief in the heart. But this is simply not true. All of that stuff is actually in your mind. The heart is a vast open space where there's no differentiation. Pain arises from differentiation—when we don't have what we want, or we have what we don't want. That polarity causes us pain. If there is no polarity, there is no pain and suffering. I would like to suggest that we suffer more when we are just hanging around the outer surface of the heart, not willing to jump in because our mind tells us there is sadness, grief, and pain. The closer we get to the rim, the louder our minds get. When we are willing to go into battle with these projections of the mind, look them straight in the eye and see that they are just paper tigers placed around the heart as "protectors," we will be able to fall into the vast space of the heart and be free of those projections. When you have done this, authentically, a few times (we have all done this “falling in” many times already—perhaps without acknowledgment and understanding of where we have been, but yes, you have been there!) and you see the beauty that is here, you see the unification that is here, you see really that everything is here, you won't need to give somebody a piece of candy to convince them that you see them and you appreciate and love them.
Don't get me wrong, candy is nice, and I am certainly taking donations! But just consider the everlasting gift of opening to your heart space to yourself first, stepping in, and then just leaving the door open so others can come along with you.
Nobody's going to follow you if you aren’t willing to go there yourself.