Two Powerful Tips for Cultivating Self-Love and Opening to Receive Love

As someone who’s walked this healing path through childhood wounds, relational traumas, creative blocks, and more, I’ve learned that true wholeness starts inside us. Chandler and I have grown together over many years of births, losses, joys, and challenges, discovering that loving ourselves first creates the safety to receive love without chasing or defending.

The biggest mistake?

Waiting for someone else to complete us, when self compassion is the

foundation that changes everything.

As the poet Rumi beautifully reminds us:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it, and embrace them.”

Here are two embodied tips to start (or deepen) that journey today, drawn from practices of self love and connection

. This is only one tiny similar drop of all we explore in Sovereign Pearl.

Tip #1: Somatic Self-Hold Practice

Sit or stand with feet grounded. Wrap your arms around yourself—one hand on your heart, the other on your shoulder or belly. Close your eyes and feel the warmth, pressure, and rhythm of your breath. Notice tension or softness without forcing change. Breathe into it for 3–5 minutes, silently saying, “I am here for you, exactly as you are.” This calms the nervous system, builds self-trust, and makes receiving embrace from others feel safe and natural.

Tip #2: Softening One Protective Boundary

Identify one small protective wall (e.g., hesitating to share feelings or accept compliments). Journal briefly: What does it feel like in your body? What would softening it 10% feel like? Then try it—share a gentle vulnerability with someone trusted and notice the sensations that arise. Meet them with kindness. This strengthens your ability to receive love while staying sovereign, turning old defenses into doorways for connection.

These short, body-based practices open the door to your inner sovereignty where self-love naturally flows into deeper, healthier relationships.

As we draw closer to the month of love, what more exquisite way to celebrate

than by turning the deepest devotion inward? February arrives soon, carrying

its tender invitation to romance, connection, and heart-opening.

Yet the most radiant, magnetic love story begins with YOU, cherishing every layer of yourself, softening every guarded edge, and allowing your own presence to become the embrace you’ve always longed for. When you pour devotion into your own body & heart first, you become the source of the love you wish to receive… and the world cannot help but mirror it back in exquisite, unexpected ways.

If you’ve been postponing this sacred return to yourself, the moment is electric right now. Sovereign Pearl begins March 5–May 7, 2026. This 10-week immersion is your luxurious, soul nourishing journey to reclaim feminine radiance, embodied wholeness, and unshakable sovereignty through yoga, dance, nurturing self and sensual care rituals, deep meditation, soulful journaling, intimate live calls, and a circle of luminous women who see and celebrate you exactly as you are.

Imagine stepping into this spring already glowing from within, ready to meet love (from yourself and others) with open arms and zero compromise. Spots are limited, the energy is rising, and the list is growing, don’t let this season of the heart pass without claiming the transformation that’s been calling you.

Registration details are available—reach out via the site or text/call (828) 749-2229 today for questions, discovery calls, or flexible installments.

Here’s a glimpse of that tenderness: us in the woods, wrapped in an embrace that whispers sometimes the most intoxicating love is the one you give yourself.

Here’s to devoting this month, and every month to the most beautiful romance of all: the one with your own radiant soul.

In celebration of this sacred “yes” to yourself, use code LOVEMYSELF at checkout for $150 off your enrollment.

With love, Raphaela

Peek Inside Sovereign Pearl

What stirs in your heart as we approach February? Share in the comments

I’m here listening.

If your soul is saying yes, don’t wait another heartbeat click Here for Sovereign Pearl and step into the love you were born to embody.