Loving Bigger: A February Reflection on Universal Love

Happy February Yogis! ! Happy Tuesday! (And happy first day above 30 degrees!)

We made it through a long, dark, cold January, and I think we all deserve a little credit for that.

This time of year always invites reflection. As winter slowly loosens its grip, I have been thinking about how much our relationship to time, growth, and love evolves as we move through life. February is my birthday month, and for most of my life, I struggled with birthdays. I famously cried on my eighteenth birthday because time felt like it was moving too fast — 18?! What?! I won’t even get into 30… but that one was a doozy. But something shifted as I got older. While I “celebrate” birthdays less (no more big themed parties and open bars), I enjoy them so much more.

I think this is because I no longer connect the milestone of a new year to a specific set of expectations, achievements, or ideals. With the wisdom of age I’ve learned to take a wider view — to appreciate the passing of time as part of the human experience, rather than as a measure of my personal “performance.” And that shift has been deeply freeing.

Which brings me to our theme for February at Harlem Yoga Studio: Visva Prema — Universal Love.

Because of Valentine’s Day, February is often associated with romantic love — and then, by extension, familial love, sibling love, friendship love, and so on. All of these are beautiful and meaningful. But they are, by nature, conditional. They require a specific object of affection to be felt.

Visva Prema, or Universal Love, is broader. Softer. It is love for love’s sake — not contingent on the behavior, or response of a recipient. In fact, it doesn’t require a recipient at all.

With Universal Love, we don’t need to form a bond with anyone in particular. Instead, by seeking and appreciating the divine in all living beings, Visva Prema transforms love into action — a path of liberation, for ourselves and for others.

Perhaps counterintuitively, when we remove attachment from love, love actually grows bigger. Wider. More spacious.

So in this month of love, I invite you to:

• Love bigger

• Love broader

• Love with less attachment and more appreciation

  
  

That is my wish for all of us this February — and beyond. 🥰

With love, Erica