Abstract: In some aspects, the present disclosure relates to free-breathing cine imaging of an area of interest of a subject. In one embodiment, a method includes acquiring, during free breathing of the subject, magnetic resonance imaging data corresponding to an area of interest of a subject that comprises the heart, wherein the acquiring comprises applying a pulse sequence with a spiral trajectory. The method also includes performing cardiac self-gating using a self-gating signal extracted from a central region of k-space, and performing respiratory motion correction to compensate for changes in the heart position during respiratory motion, wherein the motion correction comprises rigid or non-rigid registration to determine corrective displacements. The method also includes performing image reconstruction to produce cine images of the area of interest over a plurality of heart-beats.