Love & the Psyche

Understand me, I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in other dimensions, and I don’t have time for things that have no soul.

Loving is a human faculty. We love someone for who that person is. We appreciate and feel a kinship and a closeness. Romantic love, on the other hand, is a kind of divine love. We deify the other person. We ask that person, without knowing it, to be the incarnation of God for us.

—Robert A. Johnson, Inner Gold

The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life. They become bitter, critical, or rigid, not because the world is cruel to them, but because they have betrayed their own inner possibilities.

But you cannot flee from yourself. It is with you all the time and demands fulfillment. If you pretend to be blind and dumb to this demand, you feign being blind and deaf to yourself. This way you will never reach the knowledge of the heart ❤️

I can't forget it Though I've tried I know you regret it, love You told me so many times But I still wonder Why You left with her And left me behind

Take your hands off him 'Cause he's the only one that I have ever loved And please don't find her skin When you turn the lights off

I can't erase it From my mind I just replay it, love Think of it all of the time But I don't want to imagine Words you spoke to her that night Naked bodies look like porcelain You both knew I'd be bleeding inside

Did she make your heart beat faster than I could? Did she give you what you hoped for? Oh nights of loveless love, I hope it made you feel good Knowing how much I adored you (You're making me sick, love)

For many, Valentine’s Day is typically focused on romantic love between two people. For me, Valentine’s Day has always been about sharing love with everyone in my circle and celebrating all the love that is present right here, right now – not mourning the absence of another, but embracing the beauty of the now. Single or in relationship, Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year.

Many of my friends, male and female, experience stress, sadness, and longing at this time of year, and while I understand how they might feel this way, to dwell in a depressive state focused on that which seems lacking is ultimately a waste of time and energy. It’s also a way of negating any form of love present in your life right now, including the love you have for yourself.

There are so many opportunities to spread the love on Valentine’s Day, and perhaps this is an important opportunity to demonstrate love and compassion towards yourself. I think most of us realize by now that the basis for long-term real love – true love with another person – begins with self-love.

Every Valentine’s Day, regardless of whether I am single or dating someone, I always buy myself something special. Work within your budget and do something that feels indulgent and blissful. This is about honoring and appreciating yourself. I love to schedule a spa session, indulge in my favorite chocolate delicacies, and buy myself beautiful lingerie–especially when I’m single. Nothing makes me feel more sensual and luxurious than fabulous lingerie even if I’m the only one who gets to appreciate it!

Then, I turn my attention to friends who may be feeling depressed, left out, or lonely. I send valentines to my favorite people and gift my friends and family with a beautiful candle or treat I know they will enjoy. Letting others know they are loved and appreciated, even if it’s simply through a text message, gives them the heartwarming gift of feeling seen.

Whatever you choose, do it with joy and revel in pleasure, which incidentally is the best way to magnetize more love your way. What could be more attractive than a generous, loving person radiating happiness and engaging [heart]fully in all life is offering in this present moment? These are the beautiful people you encounter throughout life who literally glow from the inside out making them irresistible to all.

Become who you are. Do what only you can do. Be the master and the sculptor of yourself.

What could not be expressed is not gone. It doesn’t disappear with time, insight, or understanding. It waits — in the tissues, in the breath, in the nervous system itself — until the conditions for mourning and contact return.

The unlived life does not vanish. It speaks through the body.

It may show up as a tightening in the throat, restlessness in the belly, an empty ache in the heart. It may appear as fatigue, anxiety, shame, or a sense of longing that doesn’t seem to have a clear object. These are not errors or pathologies. They are not signs that something is “wrong.”

They are communications.

When the soul cannot find words, it speaks in symptoms. And rather than treating these signals as enemies to eradicate or problems to fix, what if we approached them as messages — as poems of the soul, encoded in the flesh, asking to be met with patience, tenderness, and presence?

Every symptom has a story. And beneath every story is a longing to return home — to the body, to belonging, to love.

~ MATT LICATA

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.