Five Ways to Work with Love's Medicine

When Love becomes a skill and a medicine, you can hang out with a close friend and feel deeply nourished and fed when you leave them, like you just got 10 hugs and a bowl of soup from your grandma.

Or you and your Lover can be in a constant state of divine communion, and one glance feels like 1,000 gourmet raw chocolates for your soul.

A solo Love practice means, at a stoplight in the car, you can feel the depths of Love swimming through your body. Try walking into a meeting from that place!

Here’s how to start.

Love and be loved. Identify the five ways you feel most Love(d). I do this with all my clients. Perhaps it’s petting your cat. Or watching your fave film. Meditating. Chanting to Goddess. Get to know the direct path to your heart, if you don’t already, and start feeling the Love vibes often by using those tools.

Connect to humans/animals. The internet doesn’t count unless you are one-on-one on Skype with someone. IRL is the best way to go. Make this a priority. It is the remedy against overeating, loneliness, indulging in bad habits, overworking … I’m talking real connection! Even one solid hug and “Good morning” from a roomie is something.

Let your heart get naked. This is where you get vulnerable. If you can practice this daily, you’ll either deepen your already existing partnerships or tenderize the nest of your heart to get it ready to let love in. Call a new friend and share something intimate. Write a poem and share it online. Ask someone for help. Practice vulnerability and practice receiving some Love. (Like let the guy at Trader Joe’s help you to your car already!)

Feel, feel, feel. Sounds obvious, right? But how often do you feel your feelings in the moment? Practice vocalizing your pain. Frustration. Sadness. As you’re experiencing it. Let yourself feel the depths of your yearning/your rage/your sadness/your joy DAILY.

Daydream. Do a little bit of daydreaming each day. Imagine your lover caressing your neck. Imagine your lover giving you a seductive look across the room at a crowded party. If this sounds cheesy to you, then work on the vulnerability of your heart.

Whether you are in partnership or flying solo, you can play with Love every day. You can become more and more conscious of living in your full beauty and radiance and sexiness, the more and more you release the fear of getting hurt. You can just open. The pain becomes part of your practice, too, and—trust me—you even start to love that!

Find out about upcoming programs with Alexandra Roxo at Kripalu.

This article is excerpted and adapted from a piece that originally appeared on The Numinous website.