Humans are pack animals. We are biologically designed to connect with each other and generally have longer and healthier lives when we are social. The benefits of relationships are further enhanced when we internalize the love that surrounds us. Keep the kindness you receive alive within you by savoring these experiences.

Especially when find yourself feeling lonely, think back to times when you experienced love. Remember feeling connected with your pets, friends, children, partner and/or birth family. Can you see their faces in your mind’s eye? Revisit their loving words. Imagine the sensation of a warm embrace. Savor these loving experiences regularly. When you’re drifting off to sleep at night, think of yourself surrounded by your loving community and soak up this experience. When you’re stressed during a difficult day, call upon this loving community within you.

In this short video, American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, poignantly describes how she draws upon her internalized love. Ms. Angelou absorbed kindness from people she encountered throughout her life and evokes this love when she faces life’s challenges.

Who are the rainbows in your clouds? Make a list of those special people (and pets) and regularly envision them. Especially if they are no longer alive, allow them to live on within you by remembering how it felt to be loved by them. Make a montage video in your imagination of your favorite memories with your loved ones. And let the love within you spill over so that you can be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.