How Do You Love When Your Body is in Lockdown? Two Love Prescriptions a Psychotherapist Wants To Share With You

Article by Charley Wininger, Growth Op

I wanted to write you a Valentine’s card, but of course, dear reader, we’ve only recently met, and I don’t want to be presumptuous.

Besides, in times like these, there’s more that needs to be said than I love you. How do you love when your body is in lockdown? When your spirit’s in quarantine? How do you love when the world seems to bleed a bit more anger and angst every time we flip open a screen?

Here are my prescriptions.

Prescription #1

When we feel cut off from others we love (or from those we just really like!) as if we’re stuck in some bad dream, serving a stint in solitary confinement, punished without a crime, love anyway.

Or when we are cooped up with a partner we might love, but whose face is becoming a wee bit too familiar, more than is normal, or natural: Love anyway.

There are so many forces in this world to pull us apart.

So many ways to forget all I owe the one I love. All she’s done for me. How my whole life has become one continuous thank you to her and the One who gave her to me.

So I will love her anyway.

And when we can only send our love through a screen, as if we’re trapped on a two-dimensional chip… love anyway.

There are so many frets and woes to turn us away from seeing all the good we’ve got.

So many reasonable-sounding reasons to get distracted from all the love in our lives.

But we should love anyway.

So much on the news to flood our bodies with stress hormones, while the memory of being with all our friends resides, like an invisible tribe of brothers and sisters around our living room, the echoes of their hearts like the beating of little drums, keeping the rhythm and keeping the faith.

With their help, we will love anyway.

Loving untethers me from time, sails upon an eternal beam beyond all suffering and circumstance. I disappear and no longer really mean anything… other than what I’m offering — someone — right now.

And when I feel I’ve no more love to give, I can recall that it’s lonely somewhere, and then find a way to give some love to someone, thereby channeling the endless supply, and getting replenished in the process.

Loving unreasonably — that’s love. Loving in spite of, or because of, it all.

And then there are drugs.

Prescription #2

Valentine’s Day can be a good time to consider that Cupid’s arrow is (rumor has it) laced with MDMA, and maybe with cannabis as well. So it can be a great occasion (or excuse) to have an intentional smoking sesh or roll. Here are some suggestions for you and your partner (or someone you’d like to be your partner).

…

Face Cradling

This very intimate exercise, done facing each other cross-legged on the floor, entails each of you taking turns using your hands to hold your partner’s face in a gentle way. (See illustration.) The one who is held may wish to look into their partner’s eyes (or, if that feels too intense, close their eyes) and let this tactile nourishment seep in.

Read the full article here.