Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, an opportunity for us to truly reconnect with the real meaning of this day. It is about LOVE, sharing and giving.

Rather than just focusing on what fancy gift we can give to our loved one, or how elaborately we can celebrate the day, let us focus on what we can actually give of ourselves.

Even if we are single, it is time to give more of ourselves to others. To me, it’s really not about us anymore – it is about others and what we can do for others.

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. ~ Oscar Wilde

On Valentine’s Day in the past, I have written extensively about this day and here is a selection of my best posts from the past:-

1. Valentine’s Day – My Top 10 Relationship Articles of All Time

2. The Ultimate 40 posts for Valentine’s Day

3. Valentine’s Day – Enjoy Life as a Single Person

I invite you to visit these 3 posts and book mark them for future reference.

There’s enough in these 3 posts to get you enlightened about love and relationships!

Speaking of enlightenment, last weekend I had an amazing experiential weekend with Sadhguru when I took part in his Inner Engineering course.

Sadhguru is the nearest thing to an “enlightened” being I have met in my life – and my abiding memory is what a fun and joyous being he is!

His Inner Engineering training is a technology for well-being derived from the ancient science of yoga. An authentic program for self-empowerment and personal growth, the Inner Engineering course opens up the possibility of living life to your fullest human potential – a potential modern physicists and psychologists say is almost unlimited.

The key learning for me from the whole weekend was how we can all become more joyous, calmer and happier beings.

And from that space of inner joy and contentment, we can begin to accept responsibility for everything in our world, and take as much action as we can to make it happen for us all.

One of the things Sadhguru said was that the greatest gift we can give our children is to be joyous ourselves and live joyfully. Our children would then also grow up as joyous, caring beings.

It all starts with knowing ourselves and loving who we are and accepting where we are at.

As India’s top blogger Zeenat Merchant-Syal says:-

“Self-love is at the very core of well-being joy, self-empowerment, and your ability to create and enjoy the kind of life you want. You cannot enjoy happiness if you are not at peace with yourself. Your relationship with yourself is the most important one you’ll ever have.”

Love is all that Matters – book FREE on Amazon

To help you get started on your journey to more self-love, I am delighted to tell you that my new Kindle book “Love is all That Matters” (Amazon USA / Amazon UK) is especially free for Valentine’s Day and the next two days (Friday 15th Feb and Saturday 16th Feb).

Here are the links again for the book on Amazon:-

If you are in a country not served by Amazon.Com, then simply search on your local Amazon website under my name “Arvind Devalia” and then choose “Love is all that Matters”.

Even if you don’t have an actual Kindle device, you can still read my Kindle book on most smart phone and tablets – you just have to download the relevant Kindle app from Amazon.

This book is a clarion call to bring more love into the world through simple yet powerful daily rituals. So please get your copy today and bring more love into your life.

There are 9 chapters in this book and each short chapter concludes with a daily exercise – carry out these simple exercises and watch in wonder as your life magically transforms into a life filled with love, kindness and understanding.

Finally, for today’s Valentine’s post, I would like to share two special stories which bring home the true meaning of love, sharing and caring and bringing more joy into your life.

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A Dog’s Purpose: from a 6 year old

This story was sent to me by a friend recently and it’s one of those stories that go around the net. You never know how true the story is but this is one of the best ever and you do not have to be a dog lover to appreciate it.

The story is narrated by a veterinarian:-

“Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer.

I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure
as they felt that Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him.

Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.

Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion.

We sat together for a while after Belker’s Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try and live.

He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?”
The Six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

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My second story, by Ruth McDonald, is about self-less giving which I shared a while ago but it’s worth sharing again on Valentine’s Day.

“The Valentine” 

He was a shy little boy, not very popular with the other children in Grade One. As Valentine’s Day approached, his mother was delighted when he asked her one evening to sit down and write the names of all the children in his class so that he could make a Valentines for each.

Slowly he remembered each name aloud, and his mother recorded them on a piece of paper. He worried endlessly for fear he would forget someone.

Armed with a book of Valentines to cut out, with scissors and crayons and paste, he plodded his conscientious way down the list. When each one was finished, his mother printed the name on a piece of paper and watched him laboriously copy it. As the pile of finished Valentines grew, so did his satisfaction.

About this time, his mother began to worry whether the other children would make Valentines for him. He hurried home so fast each afternoon to get on with his task, that it seemed likely the other children playing along the street would forget his existence altogether.

How absolutely horrible if he went off to the party armed with 37 tokens of love- and no one had remembered him!

She wondered if there was some way she could sneak a Valentine among those he was making so that he would be sure of receiving at least a few. But he watched his hoard so jealously, and counted them over so lovingly, that there was no chance to slip in an extra. She assumed a mother’s most normal role, that of patient waiting.

The day of the Valentines box had finally arrived, and she watched him trudge off down the snowy street, a box of heart-shaped cookies in one hand, a shopping bag clutched in the other with 37 neat tokens of his labour. She watched him with a burning heart. “Please God”, she prayed, “Let him get at least a few!”

All afternoon her hands were busy here and there, but her heart was at the school. At half-past three she took her knitting and sat with studied coincidence in a chair that gave a full view of the street.

Finally, he appeared, alone. Her heart sank. Up to the street he came, turning every once in a while to back up a few steps into the wind. She strained her eyes to see his face. At that distance it was just a rosy blur.

It was not until he turned in at the walk that she saw it—the one lone Valentine clutched in his little red mitt. Only one. After all his work. And from the teacher probably. The knitting blurred before her eyes.

If only you could stand between your child and life! She laid down her work and walked to meet him at the door.

“What rosy cheeks! She said. “Here, let me untie your scarf. “Were the cookies good?”

He turned toward her a face shining with happiness and complete fulfilment. “Do you know what? He said. “I didn’t forget one. Not a single one!”

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So on this Valentine’s Day:-

What selfless loving will YOU do?

How selflessly will you give?

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Finally, please remember to download my Kindle book – “Love is all that Matters”

(Amazon USA / Amazon UK)

And if you enjoyed the book or if you found it useful, I’d be very grateful if you’d post a positive review on Amazon.

Your support really does matter and it truly does make a difference – I do read all your reviews so I can get your feedback.

Images courtesy of olliethebastard, Mark Gstohl