This Valentine’s Day will go down in history as my favorite to date.
It was absent of flowers and romance but I have never felt more love, connection and alignment on this day in my life.
I mean…when this is your Valentine, how can you complain?
I taught two yoga classes today at Charlotte Yoga. My message was all about the importance of cultivating self-acceptance and self-love on the inside before you go out and authentically love others. In my second class, I read this passage shared by my friend and fellow yoga teacher Amani Murray.
Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself- if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself- it is very difficult to take care of another person. In the Buddhist teaching, it’s clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice.
May you feel love, be love, and experience love each and every day. A love for Love’s sake – without pretense and bullet points, without harshness and criticism, a sharing instead of taking. For whoever told you that you were hard to love, or unworthy of love, or too this or that to love, is afraid that you will find out that indeed, YOU ARE LOVE.
All the feels. <3 I also felt all the feels because the teacher who I credit with making me fall in love with yoga 10 years ago, Suzanne Bergen, took my class tonight. I am so excited to be teaching and working with her again. We teach back-to-back on Thursdays and I really hoped to take her class before I taught as a little Valentine’s Day present to myself, but my babysitter got stuck at school so I missed it.
I used the extra time at home to take my crew for a long walk. On the walk I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and gratitude wash over me. Valentine’s Day tends to be a very partner-focused holiday but this year for me it felt like such a celebration of feeling WHOLE and COMPLETE on my own. I can honestly say that I love my life so much right now. Being Finn’s mom is extremely rewarding, challenging in wonderful ways and so much fun. I am feeling so inspired and in flow when it comes to work. And I have the best close friends that a girl could ask for. Our friendships have truly gone “next level” in the past year or so and we rarely end a conversation or get together without an “I love you.”
The only low part of my Valentine’s Day was having to drive up to Northlake Mall to pick up my MacBook from Apple. My 1.5 year old MacBook decided that it wasn’t going to turn on last week and had to be sent out for repairs. It was an expensive fix but I am hoping that it gets me through a few more years.
There is something about malls that I don’t love. They kind of give me the sads. Anyone else?
Ahh…I didn’t even plan on blogging tonight because Finn and I have an 8a flight to go visit my family in Florida tomorrow morning but I had to pop in and share my day. I haven’t seen my fam since January 1 and in baby time, that’s forever! They are so excited to see Finn. I am definitely a distant second these days but that’s okay. 🙂
That said, it’s 10 p.m. and I need to get to packing! Next time you hear from me, we’ll be beachfront in Florida. Yay.
Tell me about your favorite Valentine’s Day ever.
What did you do for Valentine’s Day this year?
The mall…love it or leave it?
