Today we celebrate Valentine’s Day.

It has become a holiday filled with cards and gifts, flowers, jewelry, boxes of chocolate and romantic dinners.

It has a light a breezy side, and it has a darker side for many.

Holidays of the heart can be filled with joy and playfulness…

and they can be also filled with anxiety, over-spending, over-compensating and wanting to feel loved and cherished.

If you have loved ones that you share the day with, Valentine’s Day may be another wonderful way to show you care about each other. And if you don’t have someone special in your life at the moment, or lost that someone special, you may feel sad or left out of the celebration.

I remember back when I was a little kid in grade school. My mom would buy us packets of Valentine’s cards to give out to our friends. A lovely idea on the surface, yet it became another way to judge yourself. I remember delighting in filling out cards for all my classmates, and barely being able to contain myself as I headed fro school that day. I don’t know which I was more excited about: the joy of giving the cards, or the joy of seeing my classmates faces light up when the opened their cards.

I placed colorful cards on all the desks and sat and waited in anticipation. I was eager to see the reactions and eager to see what Valentine cards I would receive. The most popular kids in the class got piles of cards. And those of us who were not very popular or were considered odd or different in some way, got very few cards. I felt crushed at the time because I think I gave out 30 or more cards and come away with about 5.

It was disempowering and I dropped into judgment and comparison. If only I was _____ (fill in the blank) I would have gotten more cards and kids would like me more.

In those days, I was still looking outside myself for love and acceptance and approval.

The thing is, when you are looking outside yourself for your self-worth, you will always find people and situations to reflect back to you how you are truly feeling about yourself.

Are You Showing Yourself Love?

The only one who can give you the love and acceptance you crave is you. And the more you learn to love yourself, the more love comes back to you and the more love people show you.

To fully receive love you must first give love to yourself. When you aren’t treating yourself with love (or respect, or appreciation), others mirror that treatment back at you. When you don’t love yourself, it is hard for you to see love, accept love, embrace love and receive love. You may experience moments of romantic love, but that isn’t sustainable love.

So what are you doing today to show yourself some love?

This Valentine’s Day… and for the month of February (which vibrates with the 2 energy of Relationships)… create a new practice of showing yourself love each day. (and if you really want to see some amazing results... play with these all year long!)

Exercises to practice and play with every day:

1) Put your hand on your heart and breathe into your heart space and ask one of these questions:

“What would love choose in this situation?”

“What would Love say?”

“What would Love do?”

“How would love show up or behave here?”

“How can I apply more Love to this situation?”

And then trust the answer you receive.

2) Give yourself a hug.

3) Greet yourself in the mirror every morning with a great big “I love You, just the way your are!”

(And if that’s a hard one to say, start with “I am willing to love you just the way you are.”)

4) Send yourself a Valentine card or email. Or send yourself a love letter.

5) Look in the mirror and say “Thank you. I appreciate you!”

6) Find ways to treat yourself with love… every single day!

7) Do something special for yourself!

You are Loved!

You are LOVE!

Happy Valentine's Day... all year long.

Love & Blessings to you!
Karen