Celebrated as the month of love, February can be a little sad for those who are without a special someone. Valentine’s Day, with all of its commercial grandeur and hype, doesn’t have to be a let down if you’re alone. No one else but you is required to feel love.
Several thousand years ago, Rumi, a Sufi poet and mystic, penned the beautiful verse, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Love is abundant. You don’t need much to feel it. All you need is an open heart and the remembrance that love is everywhere.
Aside from the many health benefits of yoga, we are also encouraged to be open to the enchantment that lies within when we practice. In other words, yoga helps us to dismantle those barriers that keep us from experiencing love.
The following suggestions will help you realign with love. They are not necessarily for couples, spouses or partners; they are for anyone wanting to rekindle a love affair with life.
Setting Your Intention
Stand in Tadasana (mountain pose). Bring your awareness from your busy brain to the quiet space inside your heart. Imagine your heart is filled with warmth, joy and love. Set your intention to be receptive to the love that lies within you.
Warming Up
Sun salutations are a great way to heat up your body. While your body and breath are in the flow, imagine the sun as a love-giving source of energy. Bow to its magnificence as you exhale and fold forward, and rise up with its heart-healing power as you inhale and raise your arms.
Cooling Down
While in those special restorative poses near the end of your practice, lengthen your exhales just a bit. At the very end of your exhale, imagine all walls, barriers or blocks that keep you from loving every aspect of your life melting around you. Notice your skin tingling with the exhilaration and excitement that being a lover of life can bring.
Soaking It In
Savasana, (corpse pose) is a great time to revisit your intention. Imagine your desires raining down on you, rinsing away rigidity, inflexibility, and any barriers that keep out the honeyed waft of true love.
“There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you?” Rumi.
Also Read:
How Fitness Improves Your Sex Life