Let’s take a closer look at the heart as the center of love. On Valentine’s Day, the holiday that represents love, we send heart-shaped cards, chocolates, and trinkets of gold, silver, and diamonds to our loved one. Certainly, love and the heart as an organ are inseparably connected. Yet we are beginning to understand that there is more to that connection than what exists in the physical body. There is also a connection between love and the ethereal body. The ethereal body is the invisible counterpart of the physical body. It exists as an energetic copy of our physical body, yet it serves as a spiritual vehicle. Contained within the ethereal body are the energy centers, or chakras. The fourth of these chakras is the heart chakra, which must be open, unblocked, and swirling freely so that we may deeply love and appreciate ourselves and others. Interestingly, when the heart chakra is open, we are more vulnerable to having our hearts broken. This goes to show that love can be quite painful at times, although it remains the fundamental essence of our being. Gandhi said that love is “the prerogative of the brave.” To love fully means to leave ourselves vulnerable, but oh how sweet the rewards!