It’s the Season of Love, But Make It Self Love

It’s officially the new year, 2025, and we’re over halfway through January.  For me, this means starting to think about Valentine’s Day.  If you’re asking why I’m talking about Valentine’s Day as a yoga instructor/equestrian lifestyle business woman, just stay with me. It’s important.

The definition of love greatly relies on context so I won’t try to define it beyond the fact that it is something we can feel within ourselves and see in other animals; human and non-human alike.  Often we get caught up in the ways we can care for others to make them love us more or prove our love for them.  

Think about the ways you show up for your family, your significant other, and your children if you have them.  The actions you take show your love, compassion, and commitment to the relationship.  A personal example I’ll share that I think will be relatable for many of you, is planning ahead what I’m cooking for the days my significant other will be over during a meal time.  This isn’t to push gender roles on anyone because I actually do this to make my partner feel more comfortable in a space that isn’t his, but also so we can spend quality time together without scrambling for food when we get hungry, or having to go get something last minute.  

Do you do something similar?

Now think about the ways you show up for the animals in your life.  I would assume many of you own, lease, or care for horses, but I leave this question to be inclusive of any pet you may have.  Actions commonly associated with caring for animals include providing shelter, food, veterinary care, as well as quality time to grow your connection.  Beau, my retired gelding, is fully my responsibility because I no longer care for him under a trainer.  Whether you do ride under a trainer or have your horse in your backyard, think about how thoughtful you are about your horse’s health.  Does he feel lame or off in some way?  Is he keeping enough weight and muscle on him for the training I am asking of him?  When was the last time he got his teeth looked at?  Zelda, my very spunky and energetic German Shepherd mix, is also solely my responsibility and in all honesty she’s the harder child of mine.  I’ve had her for a few months, whereas I’ve had Beau for almost 6 years.  I don’t have to worry about Beau; he knows his role and I can rely on him.  Zelda is still figuring out her role in my little family and I’m still doing a lot of training with her.  Any animal you are actively training or finessing skills with is an animal you deeply love.  Training protects your animal because it teaches them to listen to you and answer when you ask something of them.  I’m in no way saying force your animal to listen to you through fear tactics, what I mean is building a relationship so they trust you enough to listen to you.  This is love because once you have an animal that you can truly rely on, you know they’re your ride or die and they have your back just like you have theirs.  Zelda and I are super close to this point, but she’s got the energy of a rebellious teenager some days.

What tasks or activities are part of your routines with your animals?

I hope these last couple sections were rather easy for you to relate to, but now I’m asking you to do something harder. Think about the ways that you show up for yourself.  This goes beyond self care, but dives deep into the ways you help keep yourself emotionally stable.  Now let me quickly explain what I mean by emotionally stable in this post; acting from a place of calm and awareness instead of letting stress overwhelm you and cause you to act out in ways you don’t mean to.  To keep yourself stable is no easy feat especially when you realize all the people and animals you are showing up for every day.  I have spent so many years trying to figure out how to show up for myself and a huge mountain I had to overcome was the trend of self care that has been pushed on social media.  I have used self care in my posts, but I realized that for me self care meant movement and tuning inwards, not taking a break to watch a movie whenever I get stressed.  Self care is more about being proactive than reactive and once you make this mental shift you can start to show up for yourself.

Therefore, the question I pose to you is this: how can you show up for yourself proactively, just like you take care of those around you, in order to show yourself the love you deserve?

February is quickly approaching and I hope this serves as your reminder to love yourself just as much as you love everyone around you.