“Knowing others is wisdom; knowing yourself is enlightenment” – Lao Tzu

Celebrating Valentine's day can gently remind us that it is within our relationships to others that we can learn much more about ourselves. It is usually not helpful to project every ounce of our energy externally into hoping that another person will fulfill all our emotional needs.

Instead we can enjoy developing loving and intimate relationships with others; so that in nurturing the people we love, we grow and learn personally more and more about our own depths of wisdom, compassion and emotional intelligence.

The more we fill up our own cup of self-nurture, forgiveness, humility, trust and acceptance of our true selves; the greater our capacity to stand powerfully in loving union with other strong, grounded and interdependent, people in our lives – one definition for Soulmates, perhaps.

Enjoy a life affirming, peaceful moment of reflection on your Valentine's day to honour the power of love (for self and others) within your life. You may like to consider the following concepts from the toolkit of positive psychology:

“I accept and love myself as I am, growing & learning & forgiving”

“I accept and love others as they are, honouring the unfolding of their own wise spirit”