Find a Deeper Love this Valentines Day

Cardiff by the Sea, CA, February 01, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Society and greeting card companies have seen to it that you’ll be feeling disheartened on Valentines Day if you don’t have a partner or significant other with whom to celebrate. Yet, we don’t have to be held hostage by commercial interests that may want to limit and define this holiday. A true celebration of love can be so much more than an obligatory sharing of chocolate hearts, champagne, or candlelight dinners, and this celebration of love doesn’t require anything more than the depths and richness of your own sweet heart.

Here are some alternate ways you can celebrate this day of love:

1. Love your life! Spend time enjoying the peacefulness and love of your own company. Take a walk in nature, contemplating your life and all the gratitude you feel for the blessings you have and the challenges you’ve overcome. Light a candle and sit quietly, taking stock of what you love most in your life, and contemplate how to give more goodness to yourself, which will also give you to give more goodness to others. In the words of a hymn by the Agape church in Los Angeles, “I love myself so much that I can love you so much, that you can love you so much, that you can start loving me.” Unlocking the door to our own self-love can also open many other doors for ourselves and others.

2. Love everyone! Go through the day focusing on the feeling in your heart. Imagine that this was your last day on earth and with this exercise, see each person you meet with fresh eyes. Instead of going though your day with usual formalities, look into the eyes of every person you come in contact with, and bring an appreciation of them and their life story into your heart. Look at the supermarket cashier with the eyes of your heart, and buying milk will become an act of divine love.

3. Love anything! Once a man asked the spiritual master Ramakrishna how he could find divine love. Ramakrishna asked the man if there was anything in this world that he had love for, and the man could only think of one thing – he loved his little goat. Ramakrishna told the man that he should love the goat completely and wholeheartedly, because one drop of love can lead us into the depths of the heart, and in that heart, love for one merges into a universal love for all. If you have a pet that you love, then hold your pet and allow the feeling of love to expand. Move your focus from the object of love and onto the feeling of love itself. This is an ancient technique for expanding one drop of love into an ocean.

4. Love the Divine! Whether you consider yourself to be a spiritual or religious person, you can still love God, either as a religious personality or form, or as the supreme formless absolute or nature that creates and sustains all that exists. Devotion is one of the easiest ways to draw grace into your life. Look at this beautiful world, and thank its beautiful creator. Go to a spiritual worship service of your choosing and celebrate this love for God with others. Feel how your heart connects with the universal heart, and from that space, you will also bless others. Love the divine, and become divine – this is one of the great secret alchemies of spiritual life.

Sharon Janis is the owner of Night Lotus Productions, which brings light to the world through creative works, including videos, writing, graphics, music, photography and a popular award-winning website of free multimedia spiritual resources at www.nightlotus.com.

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