We're on a mission to create 10,667 Open Hearts.
Humans who trust themselves deeply, live as thriving expressions of love, come alive to the magnificence of who they are, and steward their lives in ways that make the world a more beautiful place.
Stories From Our Open Hearts
“I finally feel like I have permission to be myself.”
This work put all those puzzle pieces together. Years and years of therapy suddenly made sense. In therapy, we never talked about the deeper source or how the same activation kept showing up in different ways.
I realized my strong, powerful, controlling exterior was just armor protecting my little wounded girl who never felt seen, heard, or safe.
Learning to see through her eyes has been so helpful. This work has really solidified self-love and self-nurturing for me.
I finally feel like I have permission to be myself.
“My self-worth is not dictated by someone else's response.”
For so long, my emotions seemed unimportant. The story I told myself was that they didn't matter, that being sensitive was the problem, that I just needed to push through.
This work helped me understand something fundamental: my feelings do matter. I am important. I am worthy of having feelings.
My self-worth is not dictated by someone else's response. That realization has been transformative.
I no longer abandon myself to make others comfortable. I no longer silence my needs.
Honoring my emotions isn't weakness. It's the foundation of everything.
“I love life. I love myself. I'm finally free.”
I'd been through a lot in my life. Loss, divorce, toxic relationships, cancer twice.
I told myself I was fine because I had sisters to talk to, but I was still carrying so much I'd never actually processed.
When my kids surprised me with this experience for Mother's Day, they said it was the last piece of my healing. They were right.
Being able to speak what I was ashamed of, what I'd been holding in for years, released something I didn't know was trapped.
I forgave my ex-husband. I confronted my brother and told him I love him no matter what.
I realized that when you hold space for someone in your mind that you won't forgive, you're really hurting yourself.
I was able to forgive myself for things I didn't like about my past.
Now I'm 69 years old and I've never been happier. I love life. I love myself. I'm finally free.
“It's been within me all along.”
I've been living my whole life in fear, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I don't have to live that way anymore. I can create my own reality.
I know where I come from and who I am, and I have so much love to give.
I can trust myself to give it to the right person, and even if things don't work out, I'll be okay.
Because if I can give myself that love, I don't need to go looking for it. It's been within me all along.
I don't need to chase after things or push them away. I can just let it be.
That's an amazing gift: to be present, to take things one day at a time, to stop ruminating about what could go wrong.
Just enjoying each day and being thankful I'm alive. Thankful my daughter is here with me. Practicing gratitude for everything.
“Rejection doesn't change who I am.”
I realized my birth mom and adopted parents actually loved me with their whole heart and chose what they thought was my best opportunity in life.
There was no missing love, even if I felt feelings of rejection.
Through the program those core feelings of being unworthy finally made sense. I'd never understood where they came from before.
Now I can see the path forward into reclaiming self-love and being open to receiving love from others.
I feel confidence in myself to have conversations where I'm not held back by fear of rejection.
Rejection doesn't change who I am. What a wonderful revelation.
“More love than I knew was possible.”
Almost two years since I lost my love, Mike. This journey has been intense. So many dark but necessary feelings: sadness, depression, shame, loneliness.
I didn't know how much I needed to be with myself until my first mapping session. This work taught me the skill of holding all of my feelings.
By teaching my mind, my heart learned to live with grief without creating suffering.
I'm practicing non-judgmental compassion and acceptance of my story, the hardest thing I've ever done.
But I am in awe of my life every day now. More love than I knew was possible.
A Story From Dr. Zach Bush
“One of the more powerful resources that I've ever experienced.”
An intimate conversation with Dr. Zach Bush about his Love Retrieval, what the experience revealed to him, and the impact it has had on his life.
“No matter what life brings, we can handle it together.”
Meeting my inner child was one of the most emotional moments of my life.
I got to make her feel safe and see what we've become together.
The realization hit: apart from everything I've experienced, everyone who crossed our path (family, husband, challenges), we are together for everything.
My inner child and I can face anything.
No matter the circumstances, no matter what life brings, we can handle it together.
Making peace with her feels so nice. I'm finally at peace with my inner child and my past.
“I feel beautiful and whole.”
The chains of my past are breaking. Things that once felt so difficult and negative look completely different now.
Taking steps forward into self-love has shifted the lens of how I see people and circumstances.
I rarely get activated into a stressful state anymore. Instead, I can accept where people are on their journey and energetically send love without disrupting my own peace, something that would have been impossible before.
I need less acceptance from others now. Less FOMO.
I feel beautiful and whole.
It truly is liberating.
“I make decisions for myself. I'm pursuing my dreams.”
Before this work, I was stuck trying to get my mom to love me and abandoning myself in the process.
I spent my whole life living according to everyone else's expectations, never once asking what I wanted.
This work helped me see my mom as a human, not just 'my mom', and have compassion for everyone in my family who passed down these patterns.
Today, my relationship with her is better than it's ever been.
I set boundaries now without rage or resentment.
I make decisions for myself. I'm pursuing my dreams.
I finally know I deserve the things I was told I didn't for so long.
“I'm not destined to repeat the past. I can choose differently.”
I feel like it's actually possible to break the cycle.
That these behaviors can change just by paying attention and naming them is amazing.
This work helped me see my patterns with so much more clarity than I've ever had before.
I have a lot more hope right now than I've ever had, only because there's so much more clarity about the road I've traveled to get here.
That gives me some power.
I'm not destined to repeat the past. I can choose differently.
And that changes everything.
“I feel so much more capable of handling things.”
Through this process, I feel so much more capable of handling things.
Like my container of resilience is so much deeper and wider, able to hold so much more than I used to.
Recently, I found myself wanting to fight for myself instead of fawning over a male client who was being difficult.
That felt so empowering and liberating.
This is serious progress for me because I'm a huge people pleaser.
My normal reaction would be to hide under a rock and shake, then say "Oh, you know, I was wrong" and fawn all over them.
That impulse just didn't happen this time.
It was liberating.
“I say yes to things more than I say no.”
My emotional intelligence evolved. I discovered myself in the pain.
The big aha was realizing that a lot of what I carried wasn't mine to carry, patterns passed down for generations that I didn't even know I was holding.
When I released them, a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.
More people interact with me these days. I'm finding more connection with family, friends, and sometimes even strangers.
I say yes to things more than I say no.
I don't feel like a wounded child anymore.
Gratitude forever.
“I can finally take a deep breath and appreciate the next step.”
I've always been someone who needs everything figured out before I can move forward.
This often left me paralyzed.
This work has taught me that I don't have to have it all figured out.
It's a transition piece, letting go of the old and appreciating the journey.
I can finally take a deep breath and appreciate the next step without needing to see the whole staircase.
“It's an adventure opening up, with opportunities ahead.”
Since Mark's death, I've known I'm capable of making this change in my life.
It's an adventure opening up, with opportunities ahead, and treasuring what we had will always be part of me.
This work taught me that choosing between honoring my grief and embracing my future isn't necessary.
Both can coexist.
The life I'm building isn't a betrayal of what I lost.
It's a continuation of the love that shaped me.
Finally being free to live again feels like coming home.