It’s Valentine’s week, so Love is definitely on the mind. Love sometimes gets a bad rap. It can sound saccharine or even hollow. This week, we’ll explore how the Power of Love can quite literally change the world.
Don’t believe me? Call to mind someone you find it very easy to love. Someone totally uncontroversial for you. Maybe a pet (people are complicated). Do you feel better? Did you just feel a little boost in your mood? You have, literally, changed the world in that moment. If we believe (and I do) that the world is created through our perception of it, moving through life with Love (not naïveté or ignorance) makes your experience of the things around you more positive.
Don’t believe me? Stick around. For this week’s meditations, I rely heavily on the teaching of Sharon Salzerg, whom I first discovered on the Ten Percent Happier podcast and app. If you want a deeper dive into this brand of meditation, I highly encourage checking her out.
Remember, there’s a meditation timer and some peaceful music I like for you here.
Monday : Set Intention
Every week, we begin with how we’d like to show up for ourselves and the people we love, but how can we extend the circle beyond our immediate connections? Make a short list of the people you encounter often whom you don’t really “take in.” The clerk at the grocery store; the other people with dogs in your neighborhood; a maintenance person at your job … how can you reframe your interactions this week to deliberately — intentionally — approach them from a more loving place. It can be as small as making a point to smile and ask how their day is or possibly even letting them know how nice it is to see them every day. This small interactions will put just a little more love in the world. And we certainly need it.
Tuesday : Slow Flow
In this seated sequence, you’ll start of in Hero’s Pose (Virasana) to move gently through a series of twists and an easy backbend. In addition to being a good spinal opener, this sequence is designed to get your hips and heart ready to take on Wild Thing (Camatkarasana) in Friday’s more athletic video. I really love starting my classes with a series like this one because it’s an easy way (with zero wrist pressure) to get everyone moving together with the breath.
Wednesday : Meditation
I first learned about lovingkindness / Metta meditation from the Ten Percent Happier podcast and the teacher Sharon Salzberg. These are Ms. Salzberg’s specific phrases: May you be safe. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease. You can replace these phrases you find more meaningful, but it’s hard to improve on them. That said, when you actually sit to meditate, listen to the phrases that arise. Maybe they’ll suit you better.
Thursday : Mindful Hack
We practice Lovingkindness / Metta meditation in part because it’s positive energy to put into the world. But, I think you’ll see pretty quickly, the person it really affects … is you. Every time you offer kind thoughts to another, you instantly feel that love for yourself. So if no one has said it aloud to you today, please know my sincerest wish for you: May you be safe. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
Friday : Athletic Flow
In this Friday’s Athletic Vinyasa Flow, we take our gentler seated twists and backbends to our feet with a sequence that includes one of my favorites: Wild Thing (Camatkarasana). While technically different from Flip Dog, they’re very close cousins and many instructors use them interchangeably. (In Flip Dog, you’re a bit closer to a wheel pose, whereas the easier Wild Thing is more asymmetrical.) Often, instructors lead yogis to Wild Thing from Down Dog (Adho Much Svanasana), but I like coming it at it from this Plank / Side Plank sequence because the shoulders are a little better aligned, and you have to use the core to make the shape, rather than relying on momentum coming out of Down Dog. All of the 2024 Mindfulness Series can be found, organized by week/theme, at https://dailyflow.yoga/blog
Saturday : Meditation
In this week’s Saturday meditation, we build on the Wednesday prompt to wish health / happiness / safety / ease to someone whom we find it easy to love and shift our attention to someone more difficult. If you’re new to this type of meditation, then I’d encourage you to start “medium” with someone you don’t really know. Maybe someone you run into at work or somebody you’ve seen on TV for whom you don’t care. Call that person to mind. Really try to conjure them. And then repeat whatever lovingkindness phrases feel right to you. I am borrowing from Sharon Salzberg, but you can find phrases more meaningful to you if you wish.
Sunday : Reflection
In the last video of “The Power of Love” week, I quote the teacher Sharon Salzberg herself. “The heartbeat of connection” … what a beautiful turn of phrase! Connection, it implies, is a living breathing HEART BEATING thing, but we have to attune to it. It doesn’t mean we’ll be best friends with (or even like) everyone, but we can find a human connection
Nothing that appears in this blog or on this website is intended to treat or diagnose any disorder, physical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before beginning any exercise program.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Leave a Reply