I’ve been feeling anxious lately. Maybe it’s the state of the world, maybe it’s the state of some of my own projects. Either way, I’m doing what I can, but still I’ve been feeling anxious.

So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I used my morning meditation to turn my attention to love and joy, and then carried that into the world, intending to meet every occurrence with love and joy. I focused on the faces and voices of loved ones as we spoke, remembering how dear they are to me. I picked up litter in the park and didn’t think about the litterers, but about the forest, filled now with spring birdsong. I was grateful that I could offer the park some small service; it brings so much good to my life. What a pleasant morning!

I know the day is young. At some point I will probably get tired or cranky or someone will step on my toes. But still, the experiment has been a reminder that I am always looking through one lens or another, and the lens makes all the difference.

So I’ve been thinking about effort (tapas) which is the third niyama (self-restraint) and the first act of yoga (for those of you finding your way with Patanjali’s sutras). Effort is the spark that begins all transformation. Love may be the point, but I’m looking through it, so that it colors all the work of life — the goals, the challenges, the failures. Effort sets the scene. Without effort and a place to act, my love would be little more than intoxication.

Seeing the world through the lens of love makes me happier and more optimistic.  It makes me kinder. It doesn’t seem to make me less productive or less capable, but if you think you need to be hard and stern to do what you need to do, try an easier experiment: for a week, observe your yoga practice through a lens of love and joy. What does that mean? How does that work? Finally, what are the results?

Thinking about a loving attitude always brings to mind this poem by e.e. cummings.

be of love(a little)
More careful
Than of everything
guard her perhaps only

A trifle less
(merely beyond how very)
closely than
Nothing,remember love by frequent

anguish(imagine
Her least never with most
memory)give entirely each
Forever its freedom

(Dare until a flower,
understanding sizelessly sunlight
Open what thousandth why and
discover laughing)

happy valentine’s day