Love Defined

Love.  I recently heard a guest on an Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday show define love as kindness.  I would also add appreciation for when you appreciate something, you are in a space of love.

Love has many nuances to it.  I love my husband, but this love is different than my love for our children or our love for our family dog.  My love for pizza is obviously different too than a love for living beings.

Love is an action as well as a feeling.  Love in action is kindness.  Compassion for another is a feeling of love.  These are the expressions of Source/God.  We are not always in the space of love.  Instead people are often these days feeling stressed, overwhelmed, angry, or sad,  They spend more of their waking hours in disempowering, “negative” emotions than they do in the more positive ones like contentment, optimism, and love.  When you are not coming from a space of love, you are presented with life lessons. These lessons allow you the opportunity to grow in wisdom and understanding. They broaden your perspectives as you reach for and search for that place of love. Challenges may take you out of the space of love, but you can always find your way back. Finding your way back is part of the lesson. Staying there, in a space of love on a regular basis, is THE lesson.

heart and loveLife can present many challenges that serve as distractions to our purpose in life.  Love can bring you back on track when you work on these things:  love for yourself, love for your experiences, love for others–especially for those you need to forgive.

Love is the salve that your soul needs–that the world needs.

When I was going through my divorce, sometimes I would find myself so stressed that I would talk about things to my family members in order to process them.  Talking about things like that can get you stuck in the negative events going on in your life.  Instead of working through them, your story can become more and more about how you, the victim, are at the mercy of your ex.  Empowering isn’t it? (Not!)  Then, after relating a terrible incident, I would notice that I felt really yucky (for lack of a better term).  It didn’t feel good to be relating the drama going on in my life.  I began to get down on myself for slipping up and not taking the higher road of not saying anything bad about my situation.  It was a never-ending loop.  Love for one’s self is an important aspect of love and I have learned to love and forgive myself for these minor transgressions.  As selfish as it may sound, love for oneself is perhaps one of the most important aspects of love.

If you don’t love yourself you will make choices in life based upon the belief that you aren’t deserving of love/you’re unlovable/you’re not enough and your life will reflect this lack of love.

When you feel a lack of love toward a situation or a person (which is a great learning opportunity) take a moment to get quiet, go within, and then send love to them.  Sometimes you might feel resistance to doing this, but that’s a reminder to send yourself love and light too.  We are all doing the best we can in any given moment.  When you recognize this and come from a place of compassion for yourself and others, it makes life go so much more smoothly.

 

4 thoughts on “Love Defined”

  1. I remember a song by a country singer that said something like “love isn’t something that we feel, its something that we do”. That’s a good reminder to me when I don’t feel like being loving… emotions often come later.

  2. This is so true. Love comes in many different forms, but we must learn to love others and ourselves. Without truly showing love and appreciation to yourself, we each will struggle with being able to love others fully and wholly. Thanks for posting!

    1. Hi Elizabeth. Thanks for stopping by! I agree with you–love starts within–loving and appreciating ourselves then we can reflect that outward to the world. Plus, you make better choices in life coming from a higher place of self-love than from self-loathing.

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