Valentine's Day feels like the perfect time to announce the Love 365 Project.
Why? Most people want to feel loved on Valentine’s Day.
Flowers, heart-shaped candy boxes, jewelry, some grand gesture that says: you are loved, you are seen, you matter.
We get disappointed when it doesn’t happen, or doesn’t happen the way we hoped—when we don’t get that validation.
I used to do this too. A lot.
According to retail surveys, Valentine’s Day spending hit a record $27.5 billion this year. Record spending on love, yet the U.S. Surgeon General reports we’re in an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. One in two American adults now experiences it.
Record spending on love. Record loneliness.
Something isn’t adding up.
What if love wasn’t something external but an internal state you can access?
Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg said it beautifully: we think of love as something that can be delivered like a UPS package, and it feels very fragile because it depends on something outside of ourselves.
From Sharon’s Instagram page
What if there was a tool that could help you access that state?
A few years ago, in some of the darkest, most isolated moments of my life, I created a practice of love-spotting to retrain my brain and my nervous system: Love 365.
The practice was super simple: Every day, I’d take a walk and look for hearts—either the word “love” or a heart shape in any visible form, for example:
- “love” in street art and graffiti (thanks, Banksy)
- A naturally-occurring heart shape in nature
- A sticker
- A stranger’s tattoo
- A random license plate
- A saying on a T-shirt
I’d take a photo and deposit it into my Love 365 portfolio, like a check in my (love) bank.
Spotted on a road trip in Portugal
Every time my mind would spiral into “this is it, end of the road”, and my body would tighten into a knot with anxiety, I’d tap into my Love Bank savings and challenge that story.
The seemingly pretty basic practice did some serious mental conditioning in the background.
Thanks to neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire based on where we direct the attention), every love-spotting moment was strengthening my neural pathways linked with well-being, compassion, joy, and gratitude.
As I trained my eye to hunt for the good and intentionally notice what was working well—the presence of love and the basic goodness of life—more of it began to show up and multiply in my experience.
This practice was so helpful and fun (fun is key here) that I started sharing it with friends around the world. To my surprise, photos started coming back:
- Love Bridge in Penang, Malaysia (thank you, Svetlana)
- Heart-shaped rock from California, USA (thank you, Anita)
- Heart-shaped rock from Sakhalin, Russia (thank you, Tatiana)
- “Love Wins” street art in Colorado, USA (thank you Jonathan F)
- A love worm spotted in Amsterdam (thank you, Natalia)
- Hard Rock Cafe in Montenegro (thanks me)
The collection is now over 200 photos and counting. The goal is to reach 365 photos—one for every day of the year. ♡
Now pause for a second. What shifted in you just seeing the photos?
If you felt something—even subtle warmth or softening—imagine what a daily practice could do (check out my upcoming book about that).
Your turn
I invite you to go on a 5-minute walk right now. I promise you’ll find a sign of love out there. Send us the photo and I will add it to the growing LOVE 365 PROJECT from around the world. I will also send you a gift: my students' favorite meditation for opening the heart.
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About the Author
Olga Pinn is a California-based health and wellness coach, mindfulness meditation teacher and author with a globally-inspired practice. Formerly an e-commerce executive, she founded Meditate Mate and co-founded Inward VR, a mindfulness technology startup. Her down-to-earth approach to mental and physical wellness combines meditation, weightlifting, yoga, and surfing.
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