Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Regardless of whether you are married, partnered, dating or single, I hope you celebrate this day knowing the power of love that is ALWAYS around you! Valentine’s Day is a time when you may acknowledge the many ways by which your love is expressed to those in your life – partners, spouse, children, family members, friends or even with your pet. With the emphasis on Valentine’s Day traditionally commemorating the romantic, familial and personal relationships in your life, perhaps you may forget that the primary relationship that, by far, takes precedence over them all is the sacred relationship you choose to have with your SELF. As you enjoy this Valentine’s Day, I invite you to celebrate and honor the most endearing and sacred relationship you have in your life – the one with YOU!
There is a beautiful metaphor in India that relates just as one can never truly describe the sweet flavor of an orange without tasting it…the same is true with love. One cannot begin to describe in words the joy and sweetness of love without tasting its fruit. Your first step to savoring the succulent and divine fruit of love in all aspects of life is to cultivate the powerful and all-encompassing relationship first with YOU. The Indian spiritual teacher, Paramahansa Yogananda, poetically describes that just as oil is present in every part of the olive, so too does love permeate all aspects of creation. The way in which the universe experiences love is through YOU. Each and every one of you is a sacred aspect of divine creation, and you each carry within yourself the divine spark of love that burns passionately at the core of your being.
Knowing that everyone embodies the divine and sacred flame of the universal love, why is that so many people choose to experience confusion, loneliness, emptiness, drama or apathy in life? Have you wondered why some people choose to close their hearts to the sacred universal love that, like the oil forever present throughout the olive, permeates all aspects of creation? To answer this question, I offer you a quote from the contemporary Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron, who so accurately states in her very eloquent way, "The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we can look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, will we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes."
The key to experience genuinely nurturing relationships and to receive authentic love in your life occurs only when you are able firstly to embody and love unconditionally ALL those aspects within yourself. Only by accepting compassionately without judgment all that you are – your light, your joy, your truth AS WELL as your dark, your vulnerability and your fears will you be able to extend that unconditional love to all areas and to all those in your life.
Even though Valentine’s Day occurs once a year, why just let today be the one day when you celebrate love. LET EVERY DAY, EVERY HOUR, EVERY MOMENT of your life become an ecstatic and conscious celebration of LOVE – not only to others, but to that sacred and most important relationship of all – the one with your Self.
My Valentine’s Day gift to you is for the power of your love and light shine forth brilliantly today and every day. May you always be Living Your Light from a place of abundance, joy and love.
Dr. Jay Kumar