Self Love, Yoga and Valentine’s Day
Yoga and Valentine’s Day go hand-in-hand! This ancient practice is just as much about loving yourself as it is about loving another. Self love through yoga, however, is not limited to yogic postures and breathing exercises. It also emerges through the joyous melodies of Bhakti Yoga, the selflessness of Karma Yoga and the mindfulness fostered in meditation. It teaches you to honour your body, to be in the present moment, to let go of what doesn’t serve you and to become empowered. Essentially, it is falling in love with yourself.
This Valentine’s Day, show yourself some love: take a long solo drive, start a gratitude journal, treat yourself to a nice home-cooked meal, write yourself a love letter or sing out loud with all your heart! Go even further by performing a truly benevolent act of service. After all, giving without expectation is the surest way to feel happy and in love with life.
While you’re at it, celebrate Yoga and Valentine’s Day with these three incredible postures that are guaranteed to nurture self love in your body, mind and spirit.
1. Virabhadrasana II
The Warrior II Pose is all about feeling strong, confident and empowered. It encourages you to look optimistically into the future and reminds you that you are your own hero. There is a mythological fable behind it, but the moral of the story is to love yourself enough to conquer your inner demons, such as worry, anger, self-doubt and negativity.
2. Ustrasana
A balanced Anahata, or Heart Chakra cultivates unconditional love, spreads kindness and encourages healthy relationships – with both yourself and others. The powerful opening of the heart in the Camel Pose activates this chakra and thus, increases confidence, energizes your spirit, radiates love and keeps you receptive to all the magic that the world has to offer.
3. Apanasana
The Knees-to-Chest Pose might as well be known as a warm self hug! It gently massages the abdomen, releases the muscles of the lower back, calms the mind and stabilizes your energy. Whenever you need to, just relax into this comforting pose, close your eyes, take a deep breath and say to yourself, “I love you.“
Hi Andrea,
I love this article, so inspiring. I am a leadership coach and I talk a lot about believing in yourself, taking care of yourself and all in all loving yourself before we show the same for others. There are so many ways we can do this, and yoga is one of the most powerful ways.
I must admit, I have not done yoga before but my girlfriend does it a lot and I love her for it. I workout and do muay thai, but maybe I need to add yoga in too.
I will share this article with my girlfriend and with some colleagues to help me with my leadership message.
Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work.
All the best,
Tom
You’re welcome Tom! Thank you for spreading the message of self love and taking care of yourself. 🙂
Hi Andrea. The wife and I were getting into our yoga for a while but its really fallen away since we had kids. A nice tip for Valentines Day mind you. Might score me a couple of useful ‘creativity’ brownie points so sounds like a plan. A great way to unwind as well.
It certainly is!
Hi !
very nice article. I am a new Yoga beginner and and was not aware that these postures favored self love.
I strongly believe that self love is very important and it is the base for being a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Furthermore to love anybody we must firstly be already in love with ourselves.
Cheers!
Exactly Arnaud, couldn’t have said it better myself!
Hi Andrea,
Truly inspired, I love the way you related yoga and self love. I feel the longest and most intimate relationship we have is with our own self, so it’s so necessary we are kind to ourselves and feel beautiful for the way we are! Respecting, honoring, and caring for ourselves is something we all need to work on, yoga asanas mentioned in your article are overwhelming.
And I strongly believe give yourself all that love you would give somebody else and unless you love yourself you cannot love any other person.
This is the purest way to feel happy and fall in love with our life.
Great work Andrea!
Cheers!
Lovely words, thank you Samantha!