Photo Credit: Unsplash / Brigitte Tohm
To All Lovers and Friends……..
Happy Valentine’s Day
And from one human to another,
Happy Love and Support Day
In and For very Single Day and In Every Single Interaction.
In most of us, there’s a certain element of fear of doing something wrong, saying the wrong thing or hurting another person especially if you are an educator, a yoga teacher or a parent, a caregiver, a loving spouse and any decent human being for that matter.
Coming from a place of love and support gives access to freedom to seeing others as “whole and complete” and so you don't go into the interaction, needing to fix instead you have the intention to always leave them in their greatness.
Try this on. When the fear comes up, acknowledge the fear. And know in your heart that you are coming from a place of love and support. This is just an exercise, a practice. Try it for a week, try it for a month.
From my experience, when I come from a place of wanting to fix, it comes out as if I'm making the other person wrong and if you’ve been on the other end of the stick, you (the other person) will automatically react. Like I used to ask my husband to do yoga with me. I got frustrated by his “NO”s and he got frustrated by my persistent nagging, and so I stopped. I asked him out of the pureness of intentions, because I love him and I want him to be the best person he can be, and I thought yoga will be good for him, But then I'm making myself right - which made him wrong, when he is already whole and complete without yoga.
I still ask him once in a while, but thankfully I’m reacting less and responding more and we are all good, and maybe one day he will say yes. :)
It’s not easy. It takes a couple of “words” and acceptance and acknowledgements before it got easier.
Why don’t you try it?
Before you make a request to someone, can you ask yourself: Are you doing it because of love or because you want to fix him or her?
Obviously taking out the trash or massaging your foot is a totally different thing, but it’s when you want to get him/her to do something which is supposedly good for them (you know what I mean) or it is the right way (of course, it’s the right way), can you pause and drop what you know, make your request and let it be?
Try it!
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In the spirit of Valentine’s, I want to share with you a couple of my favourite quotes on LOVE that will hopefully inspire you to be LOVE , to LOVE MORE and to be LOVED.
Because ………….
You are worth it!
Because ………….
You deserve it!!!
🌷🌷🌷
If you love a flower, don’t pick it up. Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love. So if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.
- Osho
“Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever.”
— Leo Buscaglia
“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.” — Eckhart Tolle
Stillness is what creates love. Movement is what creates life. To be still and still moving—this is everything.
— Do Hyun Choe
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” — Maya Angelou
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” — Oprah Winfrey
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“Better to have lost and loved than never to have loved at all.” — Hemingway
Photo Credit: Unsplash / Jenna Jacobs
“You don’t marry someone you can live with – you marry the person who you cannot live without.”
– Unknown
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see in truth that you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”— Kahlil Gibran
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.” — John Lennon
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” — Byron Katie
There is no love without forgiveness and there is no forgiveness without love.
— Bryant H. McGill
”It’s easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things work. All good thigs are difficult to achieve; and bad things are easy to get.” Confucius
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.
”
“No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater…The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that’s the key. It’s like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot.” ―Sarah Dessen
“We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.” — Brene Brown
“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell” — CS Lewis, The Four Loves
Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
— Don Miguel Ruiz
“They say a good love is one that sits you down, gives you a drink of water, and pats you on top of the head. But I say a good love is one that casts you into the wind, sets you ablaze, makes you burn through the skies and ignite the night like a phoenix; the kind that cuts you loose like a wildfire and you can’t stop running simply because you keep on burning everything that you touch! I say that’s a good love; one that burns and flies, and you run with it!”
―C. JoyBell C.
“Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.” ― Paulo Coelho
“The first duty of love is to listen. ”
Photo Credit: Unsplash/Ben White