For the past week or so I’ve been in deep contemplation about radiance and love. I’ve been thinking about what happens when the two come together. Why am I thinking about this now? There are reminders all around us this month that “love is in the air”, and I’ve been feeling an incredible sense of something deeper wanting to come through me and into the world.

The question I’m asking myself is, “Are you ready to take your understanding of LOVE and relationship with LOVING to an entirely new level of grace, fulfillment, energy and allure?” This question naturally arose from a realization I had about the two ways I have historically related to love and the act of loving.

The first was by waiting for someone else to give love to me. Once I received loving from that other person, I felt it was “safe” enough to give my love in return. This is an understandable (though not super effective) way of loving, especially if you’ve been hurt in the past.

But what happens in that space where you find yourself waiting for someone else to love you? If you’ve experienced this way of loving you know that it’s not always pretty. I realized that loving in this way meant that I was withholding the love in my heart, and as a result my life force was contracting and my radiance was “pinched off” until someone else offered me love. Needless to say, this is not an empowered way to live or love.

The second way I’ve related to loving was to direct a lot of love toward myself. After all, isn’t it crucial to love yourself first? Self-care and self-worth cannot be underestimated, and I figured out pretty quickly that these are things that can only be given to me by myself.

Being self-loving is a critical, cannot-be-overlooked step in the journey toward deep fulfillment and true happiness. But in the end, with all of the self-love in the world, I still felt dissatisfied and unfulfilled.

What was missing?

What I’ve come to realize is that no matter the magnitude of love that is showered upon me, no matter the breadth and depth of self-love I offer myself, what really evokes my beauty, radiance and unique gifts the most is when I allow love to flow freely through me.

You see, Radiant Loving isn’t just about the love you’ve been given, or about the love that you give yourself. It’s also about the love that wants to come through you.

As women, we feel most alive and beautiful when love is flowing through us, without hesitation, restraint, contraction or fear. I honestly believe there is nothing more powerful than a woman with an open heart. Unparalleled levels of radiance and life force flow through us when we freely and openly give love.

We may think in our minds that we need a reason or an excuse to express our loving. But what’s really true is that it is a choice. We can choose to love, to simply open our hearts right now and feel the magnitude and magnificence of what can flow through us if we allow it.

We can choose to allow love to flow through us regardless of the pleasure or pain in our lives. We can be deeply moved, energized, and enlivened beyond our imaginations by this act of courage and grace.

A beautiful way to magnify and enhance who you really are is to allow yourself to radiate more love. When your heart radiates more love, your life becomes more radiant. Your relationships become more radiant. You are more radiant.

This kind of brilliance and light not only emanates from you, but it enhances everyone and everything you come in contact with. When I began to tap into the never-ending wellspring of love that lives within and all around me, and when I recognized that this love deeply desired to express itself through me, I was humbled.

I realized that giving and sharing this love with others was the truest way for me to experience love for myself. And I realized I could give and share love in so many ways! I imagined myself being a conduit for love in my life and the lives of others, and I felt the excitement begin to bubble within me. It’s incredible to realize that as women we possess this uniquely feminine gift of becoming more radiant as we allow love to flow through us. We get to share this love with the world if we choose to, and as a result of this openness, we get to share our beauty and radiance as well.

How will you choose to open your heart and allow your radiance and alluring nature to shine?