In the Thursday evening meditation and relaxation class we explored the big subject of love and in particular we focussed on self love and unconditional love. First of all I asked the group what is love?
As we explored this question the resulting answer was our ability to be accepting, kind and compassionate to ourselves and others. However this also meant that at times we need to put up certain boundaries so that our kindness is not taken advantage of by others. This is where the act of self love is very important. If we constantly give to others and never to ourselves then we feel depleted.
The act of love is quite the opposite. When we give out love it is energising and lights us up from the inside out. Therefore having boundaries and saying no sometimes is necessary in the process of self love and compassion.
Often our love can be conditioned or we may place attachments on our love. For example we may do something kind and ‘loving’ for someone and then we expect them to return the kindness and love. Once again this can be depleting and exhausting therefore working on an open heart where we give without expectation can lead to healthier and happier relationships.
So how can we open up our heart centre and develop unconditional love? Many yoga poses which work on stretching and opening the chest allow blood and energy to flow through the heart centre which is deeply healing. Likewise breathing into the chest centre and allowing air to circulate and flow can help us to release negativity and heaviness which can cause illness, sickness and literally a heavy heart.
Through the power of meditation and relaxation techniques the body and mind can heal at an even deeper level to release old patterns of behaviour which restrict us from love. For example being unable to forgive others or holding a grudge stops us from loving ourselves and instead this negative energy can build up into poor health and feelings of deep unhappiness.
Often if there is an area of our lives which is not progressing as we want or we are suffering from poor health a great question to ask yourself is where am I not loving myself? How can I love myself even more?
Love is one of the many qualities of the soul along with strength, bliss, peace and joy. When our lives are filled with the purity of these qualities it can be healing. Without sounding too cheesy love is the answer and it can heal the body, mind, relationships and the world!
Do you have a healing story about how love? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and I would love to hear from you.
