Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24766715-20140707235615/@comment-5834856-20141008175334

Dan Fox wrote: It remains unknown how exactly Regina performed light magic. If it was her love for Henry, Robin, both, or belief. The creators will probably explain that some time later. Well, Henry and Hood did their best to convince Regina she's able to perfom light magic. Regina started to use light magic right after Hood got hold of her heart removing it from the time travelling spell. At least, that's what I saw. I watched the episode  quite often and I had the feeling that Hood removing the heart from Zelena's sphere of influence was the one thing that gave her enough strength to  finally believe in herself and accomplish the task. More than words could do (back in the hospital, Regina was very doubtful) the fact that someone's actually got her back gave her the push she needed.

Love helped Regina to believe in herself. Love was the trigger and believe the key to stop Zelena.

Actually, quite similiar to breaking the first Dark Curse. Only after realizing she was about to loose a loved one Emma believed that a curse actually existed, no matter how many times someone had tried to convince her using words only.