“We loved with a love that was more than love.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe
“The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.” ~ Brian Tracy
“Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being. It’s not ‘I love you’ for this or that reason, not ‘I love you if you love me.’ It’s love for no reason, love without an object.” ~ Ram Dass
What if love is the ocean and I am a fish?
Often when we think about love we give it a very localized essence. We think about specific people we love or activities that light us up. However, what would change if we pulled back and gave love a much larger perspective?
Instead of thinking about love as something you feel, think of it as something that totally surrounds you as you go through your day. Like the water a fish swims through.
Let’s take this illustration a step farther. Remember learning in your middle school science class about osmosis? Typically, it was used in the phrase, “Putting your textbook under your pillow will not allow you to learn your science by osmosis”. Well, osmosis is the act of gradual mixing usually through semi-porous membranes. What if love flowed in and out of your energy field and in and out of everyone else’s energy field?
By being willing to be semi-permeable you could infuse yourself with love and exude love. You would be love instead of experiencing love.
This new way of being will color your whole life if you’d let it. See yourself as love, look for love, and react as love.
This month adopt the mantra “Only Love” as you go through your day.
See Yourself as Love
Look into your eyes in the mirror and see the spark of the divine within you. As a wave in the divine ocean you have a separate shape and form, yet you are not separate from the ocean itself. Treat yourself as love with love. Speak to yourself as love with love. React to your faults and feats with the divine love of a proud parent.
Look for Love in the Eyes of Your Neighbor
To love your neighbor as yourself doesn’t mean to love them in your old singular way, but rather to love them as an extension of the universal love. The mirage of individuation often deludes us into thinking we are separate; yet if you approach your neighbor as just another wave in the same ocean, you acknowledge the oneness that connects you. With that perspective, you can actually love your neighbor as yourself.
Be Love Through Your Reactions
As you go through your day stuff happens: pressures mount, your kids are fighting, someone cuts you off in traffic, the news on the TV is all bad, and your spouse did that thing you hate, again! Believe me I get it. These things happen, that is an absolute certainty, and you can’t control that. How you react is what is in your control.
Adopting an “Only Love” mantra will bring intentionality to your reaction. Pause and think about the most loving way you can be towards yourself and others in these stressful situations. “Only Love” generates compassion, empathy, calmness, tranquility, kindness, and even humor in these situations.
So, when pressures mount talk to yourself with the voice of kindness. Instead of thinking of all the things that could go wrong, turn instead to focus on what amazing things could happen. When your kids are fighting, “Only Love” infuses humor into the situation. When that driver cuts you off send out love and compassion for the stress they are experiencing. When the news is all bad on TV instead of getting worked up, remain calm as you send love to that war-torn area or to that politician that really used to bug you.
And when your spouse does that thing for the hundredth time, turn your expectations into appreciations. Pass over that specific act and turn your mind to all the wonderful ways they contribute to your life.
Commit to “Only Love”
Break out the post-it notes and decide that this month’s mantra is “Only Love”. Post it on your mirror, your computer, and your car dashboard. When you feel the rising tide of stress well up within, look at your reminder and deeply breath in “Only Love” and exhale “Only Love”. Do that 3-4 times and you will create a new response that is infused with your true essence.
This Valentine’s Day my wish for you is that you are surrounded and sustained by your own divine love.
Blessings,
Donna