LOVE

All of us want to be loved—it is one of our deepest motivations.

To love and be loved makes us feel complete. Being able to love someone unconditionally and to openly receive their deepest love is an empowering emotion. Marriage, partnerships and parenting give us the opportunity to practice our unconditional love. The gratitude from experiencing love in our closest relationships inevitably leads us to be kinder in all our other interactions as well. The compassion inside us starts to flow outwards—towards our friends, community and humanity in general. As a result, the virtuous circle of love continues to grow.

Experiencing deep love not only strengthens us in the present, but also makes us feel confident of the future and come to terms with our past. Love has the strength to dissolve all our emotional wounds. Love brings us together, leads to our birth, nurtures us, provides us with strength for growth and sustains our very existence.

Love is perhaps, the only thing that is unlimited by space and time. Despite the essence of love, we ignore paying attention to love in our daily lives. Repeatedly, we get caught up with our conditioned responses of ego, fear, insecurity and anxiety, and we become removed from our intrinsic ability to love. Our ability to love others is generally limited by our love for ourselves. We first need to love ourselves in order to love and be loved by others. Every time we are unkind to ourselves we show how much or how little we love ourselves. So, first we ought to show love to ourselves and love who we are, then we’ll be able to love others and attract love into our lives.

Our thoughts and actions are sometimes so limiting and yet we have potential to love and be loved beyond our recognition. We fail to recognize that it doesn’t matter what we do, but it is the motivation behind it that makes the difference. Even the smallest of undertakings can spread happiness and joy around us when carried out with love and kindness.

When we look into our inner selves, we connect with our true nature—one that is full of love and happiness. Connecting with our deepest core, we start to notice the reservoir of love inside us that’s been waiting to express itself. Like the soul is never lost, so is our true nature of love. Recognizing this is liberating—it gives us the courage to wrestle with and overcome the limitations in our life. Consciously staying attentive to spreading love and becoming open to receiving it, we feel totally interconnected and whole.

The only moment to love is . . . now. The only time to express our love and the only occasion to make someone feel special is in the present. So, use this day to spread your love, to give someone the gift of love, because when you do that you are actually giving the gift of love to yourself.

Wish you happy Valentine’s Day!