Love is such a strong word (and feeling)! Who does not recognize the message it delivers? For years I’ve been signing my updates and correspondence, “With Love and Light” as a way to enclose my feelings of unconditional acceptance to whom I am writing.

But “light” is more difficult to define. There is visible light, the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is perceived by the human eye as a source of illumination that stimulates sight and makes things visible. Light can be a noun, an adjective, or a verb.

The Light that I enclose with my love is the “spiritual light,” the source of consciousness. From the yogic perspective, we are the finite manifestation of this infinite source of consciousness.

In my office we often talk about shadow moments of our lives when the light is not clearly visible. They are the parts that we generally hide from others and ourselves. And just as the photons in light overcome darkness in the physical realm, the same principle applies; by shining our conscious awareness on to the shadow parts, we can deal with them with compassion.

All living things on Earth need sunlight to grow physically. So too is the need for spiritual light to guide us along the path toward integration and healing. When we follow the light, we find harmony and peace where there was discord and divisiveness.