Our co-founder Laura was featured in ShoutOut LA this past week. Take a peek and find out more why her upbringing led her to create The Love Mandala.

Have you seen the infinity symbol before, how if you trace it, it flows in and out of its beautiful loop? It is a profound symbol and I discovered a unique application of it for myself recently.

I wondered how do I learn to live with an open heart, even vulnerable on a regular basis without feeling totally lost when I feel hurt or disappointed?

How do we learn to open the heart to more love?

When we think of love in relationships we so often skip over that super obvious one with ourself. Unfortunately so few of us have experienced what love in its pure unconditional form. As children, we have all either had others around us intentionally or unintentionally impact us in a way that left us wounded or feeling that love was conditional. This inevitably closes the heart where we give and receive love. One of the beautiful opportunities we have is to go within to feel our natural sense of love.

There are many facets to love and loving relationships no doubt and not one single thought is going to cover all of them, but what I can tell you is that your love for yourself is a foundation. There’s a saying that you can only treat other people about 10% better than you treat yourself. So naturally we are all in this together. Our relationship with ourselves dictates the quality of our relationships with others. So what if you decided to fall in love with YOU?

Some years ago Laura and I got into a conversation that changed both of our lives. We talked about how we can give and receive love in a way that will leave those we love with an authentic feeling of being loved. We also talked about what we could do to help people with this quintessential conundrum.

Have you wondered why some people have more intimate connections with others? What is their secret?

I’ll tell you a secret about intimacy and connection. A huge ingredient to success in this area of life has to do with the courage to be vulnerable. But easier said than done - right?