Love: An Endless Spectrum of Colors

Love with a Capital L

Love with a capital L—that feeling we all know, sometimes hard to describe, yet present in our everyday lives. It’s that very feeling I want to speak about here. I’ll begin by exploring where love comes from, what it is, how we express it toward ourselves and others, and finally, how we can cultivate it through the practice of yoga.

What is Love? Where does it come from? What is it for?

To me, love is a feeling, a state of mind. It’s different from emotions, which are fleeting. Love, for me, is unconditional. Even when we stop loving someone, that love doesn’t disappear. It still exists—it just changes color.

The love we once felt stays within us—in our memories, our emotions—and that makes it unconditional. The way we feel and express love may evolve, and sometimes the channel of expression itself shifts. Imagine love like all those heart emojis in your phone—same shape, just different colors depending on time, people, and life experiences. Sometimes love breaks, but it is still love.

I believe love is part of us every day. Each day, we encounter things we love, and others we don’t. We meet people we share different kinds of love with: friendly, familial, romantic, collegial, or even personal. Our relationships—with family, friends, or strangers—are all shaped by this invisible thread called love, which connects us all.

I genuinely believe that human beings experience love even before their first breath. I believe we feel love inside our mother’s womb—and maybe even our soul knows this feeling before it enters the body.

I’ve noticed that people who consciously cultivate love—for themselves, for others, in their actions—carry a certain aura. People are either drawn to this invisible light or unsettled by it, because it confronts them with their own shadows. Love brings things to light. It allows us to connect, to understand ourselves, to experience, and to create.

How Do We Cultivate Love?

The love we show as children is often the same love we observed in our parents. Children mimic what they see. But as we grow, we gain the ability to shape it differently—to cultivate it, to transform it, to accept it.

In my case, I’ve often lived in a state of love and hate toward myself without even realizing it. Even when I felt anger, I later understood it was actually a form of love—my inner self showing me that something wasn’t right, pushing me to change or protect myself. Our emotions allow us to experience unconditional love through different colors and expressions.

Self-love is essential in order to be able to share it. Personally, every time I act out of love, I feel more connected to my essence. A loving act can mean leaving, staying, giving, sharing, speaking, staying silent… Every act can be an act of love. The giver and the receiver change depending on the moment. Because yes, everything is an exchange of energy. Even when we do something just for ourselves, that energy is flowing toward the self—and back. Love is communication. Sometimes visible, sometimes not. Loud, quiet, joyful, painful.

I truly believe we cannot love others deeply without first loving ourselves. But self-love also cannot fully exist without the love of others. If we had never received love from someone else, how would we even know what it is?

Today, we want to divide everything, label everything, individualize everything—yet love is union. Union with ourselves, with others. Love isn’t individual, it’s universal. It can be cultivated alone, but it’s always experienced together—in a collective, multidimensional way.

There are many ways to cultivate love. In my own life, I do it daily—by caring for myself, my food, my home. Sometimes it’s by thinking of someone dear to me, whether I express it or not. Love lives in these simple everyday gestures. I also cultivate love through my yoga practice—especially when I share it with others.

Love Through Yoga

When I practice yoga, I’m taking care of myself, of my inner world, knowing it will reflect positively outward. Because when I feel good, I can thrive—and from that place, I can share what I feel in a positive way. Yoga starts with the self, but it goes far beyond.

When I first started practicing yoga, I felt a deep connection to myself… but also to others. That feeling sparked a desire in me to share it—which led me to become a yoga teacher. What I want to share goes far beyond the physical side of yoga. These days, yoga is often reduced to physical movement, but in truth, it’s a way of life—a human, spiritual practice. And by "spiritual", I mean something that elevates the spirit.

In my practice, I cultivate inner peace so I can offer it to the outer world. Through my practice, I reconnect with myself in order to reconnect with others and the world around me. In meditation, I focus on love—so that I can send it back out into the world. My practice is dedicated to others, so they too may know this love, this peace.

The Body, the Heart, the Breath

The physical aspect of yoga helps to cleanse the body. Imagine your body like a soaked towel—yoga postures (asanas) help wring out what has built up: tension, toxins, emotional residue. Meditation brings us back to the feeling of self. (Feel free to check out the interview I did on that topic—and  I will right later on on the six other pillars of yoga.)

However we choose to cultivate love, may we always try to share it. Love is the transparent thread connecting us—to ourselves, to others, to every dimension of existence. Love is in the kind gestures, the strong ones, the simple ones. Love is universal, unconditional, and it never dies.

We live by love, and sometimes, we die by love.
Love always holds the same shape, but it speaks in different colors.

❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 🖤 🤍 🤎 💖 💗 💓 💞 💕 💘 💝 💟 💔 ❣️ ♥️ 🫶 🫰

- namastecharly