be a love maker

Today is Valentine’s day, the Love Day, and it’s a great opportunity for all of us to generate sincere warmth, appreciation and recognition for others, and spread our love seeds wherever we go.

When it comes to meaningful loving, there are two main components to it.

First is loving yourself. No matter what juncture of life you’re in, no matter how critical you are of yourself, today, let everything go and just love yourself. Love yourself for the progress you’ve made, for the goodness you’ve shared and for the moments when you have expressed your best self individually and with others. Let go of the pain you have gotten from any past relationships, and be grateful for the lessons you’ve learned and how much you have healed. Love can be a tricky thing and there’s a chance that you may not have gotten it to work for you as you would have liked. But it’s okay. As long as we’re getting better and focusing on loving or learning to love ourselves, we can be helpful and optimistic about our future. We can borrow some love from our future self and feel it now. Today, do something loving for yourself, something that makes you feel good, anything that adds value and fun to your life. Not tomorrow, not the day after, do it today!

The second aspect is loving others. As we open our hearts to love, and start going with its flow, we become better versions of ourselves. We become a ‘love maker’. Real love starts flowing from us to others, and back again. No matter who you meet, ensure that you shower them with compliments or uplifting and encouraging words. As Mary Kay Ash famously remarked, “There are two things more powerful than sex and money… and that is praise and recognition.” People want to feel significant, appreciated and important. We all have this human need for validation, for feeling valued. No matter how much we deny or resist, we’re all hungry for love. Even when people argue, act passive aggressive, participate in gossip or show you the middle finger, they’re basically communicating that they hate feeling inadequate or insignificant. As Kimberly Giles said, “All bad behavior is really a request for love, attention, or validation.” Knowing this can be a game-changer in our relationships and our interactions. It can help us bring more empathy and love, instead of feeling angry or defensive. Instead of fighting others, we start sharing love and warmth with them.

Oprah Winfrey once said, “The three things that humans want most is — to be seen, to be heard and to be understood.” So today, be a love maker wherever you go, whether it be at your local Starbucks, at your work, in public transport or at your yoga studio. Tell people what you like and appreciate about them. And when they do the right things, say the right words, or participate in the right behaviors, express your admiration towards them. Let the people around you feel that they’re being seen, heard and understood.

The more love you make, the more you’ll get in return. It’s nothing short of a miracle.