Happy Valentines Day!!

I love this holiday, and yet have some judgments around it also.  We joke about it being Hallmark holiday to sell cards, buy chocolates and have a date with your beloved one.  Or if we are single, to have that special date with ourselves.  To honor love for this one day of the year cracks me up!

And yet, like the other holidays we celebrate, it is a bookmark, a time for pause to truly reflect on our hearts, on love, and what we appreciate about each other no matter what kind of relationship we are having.

So on this day of celebrating the heart, I have learned that I have to change my heart first in order to change my head (thoughts).  I can find myself up in my head judging what he did or did not do, what I did or do, as good/bad or right/wrong. I can bring a carryover from yesterday into this day.   I notice the tension that this brings to my body. This is the cue for me that I have left my center (heart).

Research has proven that when we are experience positive/uplifting/renewing emotions, the heart is generating a pattern that sends a signal via the vagus nerve, up to the brain. This pattern allows us to bypass or calm the limbic brain, so we can truly perceive what is in front of us, or in our own mind, differently!

The biggest challenge I have is to remember to do this when I am being triggered.  It is a choice to reset my nervous system so I can perceive this person I love from my highest thoughts and an open heart.

So, when you are sitting in front of the person you choose to spend this Hallmark holiday with(even if this person is you), allow yourself to drop into your heart, breathe deeply and slowly, access a feeling of appreciation. Take a few moments to just sit in this energy. Radiate this energy out to who is in front of you.

This aligns body, mind, emotions and spirit, so that I can truly en-joy this time together, being in the present moment!  Watch the miracle unfold for you on today.