The Breathing Prosperity blog

We all have love on our minds this weekend, as we contemplate Valentine’s Day.

Perhaps you are madly in love, and thinking of romance. Maybe you are single, happy and don’t care a whit about Valentine’s Day. Or, as some of my acquaintances have lamented, perhaps you are someone who is sick of being asked about what you are doing for Valentine’s Day, and you either have no one to share it with or you think it’s just a ‘made-up holiday’ which annoys you…

However you may feel about it, tomorrow is a day that millions of people will be celebrating. You have the power to make it a fabulous day for yourself, no matter your circumstances. That is because LOVE is a powerful force in the Universe, and romance is not the only way love manifests – not by a long shot!

By giving it some thought, you can make tomorrow a great day for yourself and perhaps for some lives you may not have otherwise touched. Here are some questions to help you come up with ideas in your own life:

• Are there people in your life whom you’ve neglected to share your feelings with? It could be parents or friends, or anyone you’ve taken for granted. Create a space for expressing the love you feel for the special people in your life. No man or woman is an island, and we all need to cherish the connections in our lives. Part of that means letting those other people know that we cherish them. A small note, email or gift can go a long way to making another person feel loved, and will pay dividends for both of you down the road.
• Is there a way you can take the focus off of yourself and shine some love on strangers who may really need it? Think about all the lonely older folks locked away in homes for the elderly, or people stuck in hospitals, or kids in shelters, etc.. There are LOTS of people who may feel lonely or desolate – not just today, but every day. Bring a little cheer to a stranger or two by spreading love intentionally, and you will find your own heart begins to glow as well.
• Rescue a pet from a local animal shelter, or even just spend some time visiting some lonely animals. If you are not prepared to make the commitment of having a new pet, there are many shelters and rescue facilities which welcome people who are willing to visit with their resident animals. If you’ve ever had an affectionate cat or dog, you can imagine how lonely these creatures must feel locked up in cages with no one to love them or give them affection. You can brighten their day – and yours – by sharing a few snuggles.
• Show yourself some love and make some headway on your goals by digging into some things on your ‘to-do’ list. NOT the easy one – the hard one you’ve been procrastinating about. Clean the bathroom or closet, sort the junk drawer, do your taxes, go through your clothes and give away some older ones…this type of stuff. In this way, you will begin next Monday by feeling proud and refreshed, a welcome change to the sad and depressed way you might otherwise have started your new week!

One last thought: even if you are alone and desolate this Holiday, there is good news. This is an opportunity to turn the spotlight on your beautiful self, and give yourself some love. The truth is, love is something we emanate from the inside, not something we ‘get’ from other people. If this sounds wrong to you, then you may be in need of a change in perspective. You may enjoy our ‘Free Hugs Video’ post, along with the lessons I learned about getting and giving love, to help with this.

Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you!!!

We did it! Hooray!

You may have seen the ‘free hugs’ videos from around the world…like the ‘Song Around the World’ videos (see our Inspiring Videos page), these touch me deeply each time I watch one. Essentially, these feature footage of people offering free hugs to passersby, and the idea for free hugs campaigns has spread far and wide, inspiring many people to offer hugs to complete strangers in their own cities.

While I always love watching these, it never occurred to me that I could do it. Recently, however, that changed and I felt the urge to do so. I was as surprised as anyone at my suggestion, and I have my friend Alex Wu, whom I met at the recent Steve Pavlina Conscious Growth workshop, to thank for actually taking me seriously, and taking me up on it. Alex the Brave, as I now call him, showed up on the designated day with is own ‘Free Hugs’ sign and his arms outstretched to humanity…in short, he was incredible, and very inspiring. Thanks also go to Alex’s friend Steve, who filmed much of the footage but who was too shy to participate.

I left Steve’s workshop with a stronger sense of our human unity and feeling of connection than I’ve ever felt before, and it spilled out on this day when we were offering hugs to strangers on the streets of Toronto. The entire experience was fantastic, and when I see my own daughter in the footage being such a generous spirit, I’m truly, deeply grateful that we did this.

Without further ado, here is the video – after much editing and playing around with it, I am most pleased and I hope you will enjoy it!

Some lessons I learned more deeply this day include:

• NEVER judge a person by their appearance. We knew this, didn’t we? The sweetest looking little old ladies often didn’t take us up on the offer of a free hug. The burly men we made snap judgements about (‘they won’t want one’) more often than not instantly said yes, and so on. How easy it is to make quick judgements and how unconsciously we do so…it was quite a surprise to me. Alex also shared value with me in the way he held out his arms to everyone, without reservation. Even if he was making judgements in his mind, he certainly didn’t demonstrate any difference in the way he approached passersby: each was unequivocally offered a hug.
• What other people think doesn’t matter, and yet it’s all that matters. For days before this event, I was nervous. I was embarassed and worried about putting myself out there in such a visible way, until I realized that I was way to focused on what others think. With conscious intention, I took the focus out of my head and into my heart, and poured it out to others that day. I conquered my ego-based thoughts – fear of ridicule, rejection, disapproval – by acknowledging and moving past the paradox: it doesn’t matter what other people think (do it anyway, because you want to), and it only matters what others think (do it anyway, because it will bring joy to people and make their day). It turns out we really did make a lot of people’s days, including our own.
• You really do get what you give. We not only gave out tons of love and hugs, but of course we GOT lots too! Each time it was like a jolt of positive energy, and it felt wonderful and made the whole thing very worthwhile. For every few who mumbled something about H1N1 or not needing a hug or wondering what the catch was, there was someone who gave us a fabulous hug, and we all felt amazing – huggers and hugees. So many people told us how great the hugs felt!
• We need more love. You need it, I need it, my city needs it, the world needs it. Many people who have already seen this video have written me saying they were brought to tears by it, and some even said they wished they were there or would like to do something similar in their own cities. If we all so readily recognize in watching this our deep need for connection and kindness, why do we save it for special occasions – weddings, holidays, funerals? What lessons are we teaching our kids when most of the adult human population thinks it’s weird to hug for no reason? Our planet and our species are crying out for love – healing, joyous, empowering, love – and you have it inside you. Share it!
• A crowd follows a trend. We noticed that when one person would hug us, the surrounding people would then hug us also. BE the change you want to see in this world, as Ghandi told us. Be the light, be the beacon, be the example.

Thank you, Universe, for this incredible life I live. Thank you for each moment, each breakthrough, each poignant emotion. I am so grateful. Love to all of you reading this!

xox

Shauna