Love is ever present, a constant on the lips, minds, hearts and souls of us all in some shape or form.

It is all pervading, touching everything and everyone at every moment. The spirit of love is our very nature, and we carry it with us in each cell and fiber of our being. Yet we all forget this at times, or disconnect from it, which is the cause of so much suffering and strife.

As we travel along our respective paths through life, all of us ultimately seeking love, happiness, fulfillment, communion and the like, at one point or another most everyone falls into the trap of externalizing the search. We look for someone or something to magically make us feel loved, happy, fulfilled, connected, whole.

But we did not start our life’s journey as anything less than whole. We did not start out as anything less than the complete and perfect embodiment of love, happiness and fulfillment, effortlessly and intrinsically connected to the source, to the one, to the Divine or whatever you’d like to call it.

This is our very nature, so when we honor love outwardly on an occasion such as Valentine’s Day or an anniversary or any other special date on the calendar of our lives, let us also remember to honor love inwardly, on that day and every other, because it is the love within us that makes all other love possible.

Nurturing and expressing your own love is what allows you to then connect to the love in others.

Understanding that you and you alone have the power to create your own happiness and fulfillment is what shifts you into a space of constant contentment because nothing external can take that from you. The people and circumstances of your life can bring many ups and downs, highs and lows, yet you have an anchor to ground you through them all.

That anchor is the love in your heart; the sense of your higher self, that nothing and no one can shake. And when you are that solid and your love is that strong, it empowers you to attract and cultivate relationships and circumstances that feed that love and sense of self in the most positive way, thus perpetuating more of that yummy, juicy goodness all around.

Love yourself first and foremost. Take full and total responsibility for your happiness, fulfillment and the connections your form. Then you will know what it is to have a happy heart.

Love and blessings, friends!

Jessica Avila is the founder of Ocean Om standup paddle yoga, as well as a Sivananda and vinyasa yoga instructor in Fort Lauderdale, FL. For her writing, like yoga, is a practice in spirituality, self-discovery and self-healing. Reach her at [email protected] and visit www.oceanom.com for more on yoga orjessavila.blogspot.com for more on what she has to say.

 

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Editor: Hayley Samuelson.

 

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