Valentine's Day Love

"Now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love" 

-The Bible (1 Corinthians 13)

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
- Martin Luther King, Jr

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring."
-Oscar Wilde

Happy Valentine's Day! I have to be honest, i don't hate Valentine's day, but I don't love it either. I'm not a huge fan of the commercialization of it, but I like the idea of intentionally going to those around us, and expressing our love and thanks to them. Of course this should happen more then once a year, though! 

In yesterday's post, I talked about how we cannot truly love and serve another person without loving ourselves first. If we can't love ourself, we have nothing to give to another. Without loving ourself, we will burn out. Although it's difficult to take time for ourselves in the midst of a busy day, it must be intentionally done in order to stay healthy. 

Myers, Sweeney, and Witmer, in their Wheel of Wellness model (do you remember this post on wellness from a few months ago?), set "love" as one of the 5 life tasks. This is how they describe the Love aspect of Wellness: "Concern for the life and growth of that which is loved; having faith that one’s well-being will be respected; reciprocating by respecting the well-being of another (i.e. trust); ability to be intimate, trusting, self-disclosing with another person; ability to receive as well as express affection with a significant other; capacity to experience or convey non-possessive caring that respects the uniqueness of another; presence of enduring, stable intimate relationship(s); recognition that others have concern for one’s growth; physical satisfaction with sexual life/needs for touch are being met." 

My questions for You:

So, how do you think you are doing health wise in the aspect of Love? What do you need to do to increase your levels of wellness in this area? How do you plan on loving yourself today? How do you plan to show love to others around you?

I would also love to know What your plans for Valentine's day are!