Will you be my your Valentine?

As February 14th approaches, let’s do something radical and show ourselves some self-love by practicing a loving kindness meditation.

Valentine’s Day started as a holiday to show affection toward a loved one by exchanging gifts, candy, or flowers.  Don’t get me wrong, a box of chocolates is lovely!  But, let’s take the intention deeper.  The goal of a loving kindness meditation is to cultivate compassion for all beings, including yourself.  That is where the radical part comes in…including yourself.  Including yourself in the gifts or sentiments associated with this day. 

My gift to you is a 5 minute loving kindness meditation.  I will first guide you to cultivate a feeling of tenderness and love towards yourself and then to progressively expand that feeling out further, eventually sending that loving kindness to the whole universe. This meditation focuses on creating a feeling of love and compassion, rather than focusing on the breath, and is inspired by Buddhist metta bhavana meditation.  

Find a calm space to listen to this meditation.   Allow yourself to be comfortable and remain curious.  Acknowledge your efforts and be gentle with whatever the outcome is.  Give yourself time to journal or reflect on your experience.

I try my best to honor my teachers and the lineage before us that connects us to this ancient tradition.  Meditation can be practiced to help heal trauma, and my intention is to share this practice as a Clinical Therapist and Certified Yoga Teacher with those ready to try something new on their healing journey. As with anything, please take what serves you, and leave what does not. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Aimee Duax, LSW, CYT