Happy Valentines Day to all my lovers out there! For this week’s topic, I wanted to follow the theme of love while also creating a safe space during the chaotic state of our current political atmosphere.

During trying times were evil, corruption, and violence are on the rise, it is normal to feel depleted of hope. Within the “bigger” picture of social issues, personal issues can also be a double weight. With so much to carry on our backs, let’s find ways to stretch out the sore muscles.

Contrary to belief, happiness is an active choice and effort. To live in a state of love is a form of fighting against hate. Once you’re happiness and self-love becomes a top priory, the world around you will shift in your favor. With rest, grounding, and personal fulfillment, hope has room to arise once again.

Ways To Find Love Within You

Heart Opening Mediations

One of my personal favorite ways to bring love into my life is through meditation. Grounding and resetting your personal energy can shift it into the high vibration of love. Here is a meditation exercise to help open your heart.

What you’ll need:

• 432 Hz music
• Rose quarts crystal
• A comfortable place to sit (preferably on the ground)

After starting the music, place the crystal over your heart. Now focus on your breathing and try to relax your mind. If you find thoughts coming up, acknowledge them and let them float away, while bringing your attention back to your breath. Once settled into a state where you are sitting in the present moment, imagine you are now breathing in a white light. As you inhale the white light, when you exhale, imagine the light turning green and flowing into your heart. Practice this meditation daily and watch how your inner world becomes lighter, while you attract love in your external world.

Hip Stretches

Hips are known for storing stagnate energy. Past traumas might not only be living rent free in your mind, but they can also be taking up space in your physical body. Through stretching your hips, you can release trauma. Try setting aside ten minutes in your morning to stretch. Within a few months, you will not only have more mobility (maybe even be able to do the splits), but also have release old, stagent energy that no loner serves you.

Stretches for your hip flexures

• Low lunge
• Lizard pose
• Pigeon pose
• Frog pose
• Wide-legged forward fold

Self-Discovery Through Journaling

Journaling is the process of putting your thoughts and feelings into writing where they can no longer take control over your mind. Not only can you release struggles into your notebook, but you can also build up a collection of loving memories within them. I challenge you to not only write about stressful situations, but to highlight ways to grow into a more loving being.

Journal Prompts to Elevate Love in Your Life:

• List off all the things in your life you currently have and express gratitude for them.
• Send love to a person you love, you are neutral towards, and someone you dislike in a letter you will never send.
• Write about your dream life as if you already have it.

Spoil Yourself

Through loving yourself, attracting others who will love you will always follow. Make sure to always spoil yourself first. Learn to be comfortable doing things on your own for you, and only you.

Ways to Spoil Yourself :

• Go out overdressed. Stop caring about what is the norm, and wear whatever you want! Even if you aren’t going out, dress up for yourself.
• Just buy the thing. Make sure to invest in yourself and your happiness. Although it is important to budget, make sure not to restrict yourself from spending money on something that will elevate your happiness.
• Spend time just for you. Whether it’s taking a bath, or exploring a new neighborhood, make sure to have time set away just for yourself. This will help amplify your self-trust, along with your self love.

Whatever you put your energy into, will grow. With the media feeding you constant negativity, it can become consuming. This is a reminder that love lives witin us all, and can become an active choice. Through incorporating self-love into your routine, love with be what consumes you, not hate.