I have a feeling that many of us have felt like this month was unending. It almost feels like we should be half way through 2025 and yet as of today we have only finished one month. How is that even possible? Time truly is such a weird, and slippery, concept. With damaging world news—political, natural, violence, and more—it feels like 2025 has gotten off to a bad start.

So what do we do in the face of so much horror, both in the world and personally? I wish I had a perfect answer, a cure-all for this world, but sadly I don’t. But I will tell you what I do. I try to make my world a little better, because if I feel better—emotional as well as physically—I can then go on to help other people. Your cup has to be filled before you can fill someone else’s. So I give myself permission to not go on the news or on social media. I give myself permission to not judge myself based on other people’s lives. I give myself permission to take care of my needs. I try to help the people in my life by lifting their spirits or doing something for them, no matter how small. And I try to find joy.

Is this easy? No! Most days it is hard because I bombard myself with self-criticism, or judge myself for not doing enough, or for not helping other people enough. It can be quite depressing. So on the days that it isn’t quite so depressing, I once again give myself these permissions and hope that I don’t feel too guilty about doing it. My hope is that the more I do it—speak to myself with love and not criticism—the easier it will become as with any skill. This is actually a concept called self-compassion, which I am actively learning and working on. The world is bad enough without me being so hard on myself, and so I am trying. Will all these things make the world a better place? Maybe not. But I do believe that bringing kindness to others—and yes, even to myself—will help in some way. At some point if we are all kind to each other that has to bring about positive change.

Next month Valentine’s Day is celebrated, which is all about love. What if we expanded that love to everyone—ourselves, our families, our partners, our friends, our neighbours—and that we did it not just on the 14^th but on every day this coming month? We all have such large capacities to love, so what if we decided to share that? In actions big and small, from smiles to making someone dinner to donating to a worthy cause and everything in between. Maybe this will help the world, and if not the whole world, then at least the world and the people that we interact with.

Let us try to make February the month of love and kindness, let’s see how much positivity we can spread.

As an energy healer, in both Intuitive Healing and Reiki, I know the power of energy. Energy does what we tell it to do, so when we send people positive thoughts, we are actually sending them positive energy! Never underestimate the power of sending people love and kindness.

Sending kindness and joy to you for today and the coming month.