What is Love?

What is love?

During February, as we celebrated Valentine’s Day, I took a minute to think about what love means to me. What does love mean to you? One definition of love is that it is an emotion that keeps people bonded and committed to one another. A bond, a feeling, a connection, a commitment. Is it a feeling between people or is it a feeling of one?

Growing up, I learned to love and respect my parents, siblings, and family. However, as we become adults our experiences change that perspective. Today, I choose to love myself before anyone because If I don’t love myself, how can I love another person? Loving and caring for yourself is not a selfish act as some might think. When growing up, that’s how my mother taught me to love. I felt that at times others had priority over me. As a Mother, I too chose to love my children above myself while they were growing up.

As we grow, we see rewarding love through the acts of giving, sharing, and feeling happiness having done that. No matter who and what we love, it’s a fulfilling feeling. Today, we live in a society that defines love as an act between two or more individuals. During Valentine’s, everywhere you turn there’s an advertisement for giving a present to your loved one—symbols of external love.

I believe that today, more than ever, you should love your number one, your own self! We often make choices that may not benefit our well-being, such as not eating healthily and doing things that cause constant stress. These two reasons, among others, are why the numbers of obesity and anxiety have grown in the past decade.

When we focus on self-love, we avoid being another statistic and improve our overall health little by little. Wellness programs that include coaching goals and collaboration are a great avenue for getting started. Nowadays there are so many online (both live and recorded) classes for you to choose from. With Yoga Love, we focus, on the union of breath and movement. I believe that Yoga is the gateway to self-love because it can bring the feeling of security and oneness. When there’s a need for improvement, resistance often rears its head and we tend to justify it with sustainment talk (reasons or justifications for staying where we are). It is important to listen to your real voice and go with what will really enhance your self-love.

It took me many years to realize that I am an awesome, beautiful, and loving person capable of doing anything I set my mind to. But it also reminds me that loving myself first is doing the best for my number one.

Namaste,

Millie