Celebrating Love, Compassion and Kindness

Whether you are celebrating this Valentine’s Day with your loved one, friends, family, your pet or by yourself, Valentine’s Day reminds us to celebrate the gift of Love.

Take this a day to feel grateful to be alive, to fully embrace, love, and appreciate yourself and others.

Let this Valentine’s Day be a reminder to connect with yourself and your needs and to honestly love yourself. The inner love for yourself is a reflection of how you relate to others and empowers you to love others unconditionally. By showing yourself unconditional love and acceptance, you allow others to love, respect and appreciate you and to see you for who you really are.

So let’s start with yourself first: 
Before you get out of bed in the morning, silently state to yourself (while authentically feeling the words and their meaning) the following affirmation:
“I deeply love and accept myself.” Keep repeating until you really feel it and can’t help but start smiling. Do you notice a difference on how you feel now? Good, keep bathing in that feeling and fully enjoy!

Another wonderful way to show yourself some love is a mirror exercise created by Louise Hay. Take any kind of pocket mirror, your cell phone mirror, a full length or your bathroom mirror and look deeply into your own eyes. As you continue to look into your own eyes affirm to yourself “I love you!”, “I really love you!” and then add your name “replace with your name, I love you!”. If you have never done this exercise before it may feel awkward, you may get emotional or feel like running away. I encourage you to stay with it, try it again the next day, and the following day until you feel more comfortable and you feel the authentic feeling of love towards yourself when you do this practice. If this is too much, you may like to try “I am willing to love myself” instead and see how that works for you.

Remember that the relationship to yourself reflects in the relationship to others. 

Now share your love with others:
Now that you are filled with love, share your unconditional love with your loved one, friends, family, your pet or anybody or anything that comes to mind. You may even feel so bold as to share your love, compassion and kindness by performing acts of service for a neighbor, maybe just offering a smile to people that you encounter today, by paying the coffee for the person behind you in line, or by offering your service to people or animals in need. Sharing your love, compassion and kindness with others brings you fulfillment, happiness, joy and plenty of love coming back from those that you are giving to.

If you are so fortunate to spend this Valentine’s Day weekend with your loved one, see if you can deepen your relationship by spending quality time with your partner and to be truly present to him or her. Consciously listen to what they are saying, and look at them as if you were seeing them for the first time. Appreciate the texture and color of their hair, the way their eyes twinkle when they laugh, the dimples that appear on their face when they laugh, the color and depth of their eyes, etc., and then take a moment to tell him or her what you love about them.
When you both feel ready for some activity decide on something together that brings you joy, maybe practice yoga together, take a walk in nature, go for a picnic on the beach, go out for brunch, or anything that will inspire you to fully enjoy each others company and fill you with love and happiness.

Here is another wonderful way to connect on a very deep level: If your partner is up for it, look into each others eyes with all your love for the other person for a minute or longer, enjoy the experience and then share.

Sending your love across the miles
While teaching a heart chakra meditation in my recent Meditation and Pranayama workshop the other day, one of my cherished yoga students and participant in this workshop had the brilliant idea to turn this meditation into a Valentine’s Day meditation. Thanks to her I am sharing this meditation with you to send out your love towards yourself and to all your loved ones that you may not be able to see this Valentine’s Day weekend.

Valentine’s Day Heart Chakra Meditation:
Come to sit either on your mat or the floor cross legged or one a chair. Make sure to place a block or blanket under your buttocks or sit at the edge of the chair to lengthen your spine. Keep lifting up through the crown of your head and soften your shoulders.
Now start rubbing the palms of your hands together to warm and energize them. If you like, set an intention for the energy you are creating. When you feel ready, close your eyes and place the left palm over the heart area on your chest and then put your right palm on top of your left hand. Connect the energy and intention to your heart center and start feeling the radiance and love in your heart.
Imagine that energy filling your whole body and the space around your body. When you feel ready, start sending love to your loved ones (by picturing their faces), or the whole world.

When you are done, sit in silence and just observe yourself for a few breaths and then open your eyes with a soft gaze. Don’t be surprise if the people that you sent love to, will unexpectedly contact you, telling you that they just thought of you.

Welcome this Valentine’s Day to be uniquely and authentically you, to smile, play, love, and laugh. You’re worth it! Enjoy and have a most wonderful and happy Valentine’s Day!