Many of us feel a lack of love in our lives. We know we want more love, richer connections. We tend to look outward for that love. We want to meet Mr. Right or Ms. Right – so they can bring more love into our lives. We want our wives or our husbands or our children to act differently, to be more loving toward us. The truth is, we don’t need to change anyone or wait on anyone or “find” anyone to experience much more love in our lives. We each have the power to radically change the amount of love we experience, and make that shift right away, through simple, everyday practices like these:
Serve Others
Service is an expression of love. All of us are given dozens of opportunities to serve each day, which means we are also given dozens of opportunities to experience more love. Help someone in need in your neighborhood, workplace, or community. Give time, energy or dollars, and watch how that brings love back toward you.
Nurture
Nurture something. Help it grow with your love. Nurture a child, an animal, a garden, a project, or an idea. Tend to it with love, respect and care. As you extend love to it, you’ll feel more love within.
Be the Representative of Love
In any situation, particularly tough situations of conflict, uncertainty and stress, try to be the representative of love. Other people will surely be representing fear, anger, or anxiety. You can be the representative of love. Ask yourself, “What would love say or do in this situation? What does it mean, in this situation, to embody love?”
Breathe Deep
Spend time in stillness, focusing on your breath. Sometimes, this will help you move past the chattering thoughts of fear and judgment, and into a deeper place within, one that is made of love. Sometimes, it will feel more difficult, more uncomfortable, but even then, it will help you more easily access feelings of love later on, as you move through your day.
Invite Love in
We spend a lot of time searching for love, but we forget we have the power to invite love in. When you are feeling lonely or sad, angry or afraid, silently invite love in. Simply turn within, and invite the energy of love to come into you. It may not show up in the moment you ask, or in the way you expect, but that invitation will be answered.
Find Beauty
Beauty helps connect us to love. In any moment, search your surroundings for five beautiful things. No matter where you are, they’ll be there. Maybe it’s the way light falls on the sidewalk, or the face of the person sitting next to you that you didn’t notice before. Maybe it’s the wrinkles on the hands of the elderly man on the bus. Maybe it’s the steam rising up from the coffee cup, or tree branch against the sky. Just look. Just notice. Within a few minutes, you’ll be feeling love in your heart.
Know When You Are Out of Love
In any moment, we can live from a place of love or a place of fear. Make it a practice to notice when you’ve strayed from an attitude of love. Simply notice it, and then use one of the tools above, or others that work for you, to return to love. See if you can become more and more adept at noticing when you’ve strayed, and make the return to love sooner and sooner. From there, the kinds of people we want to be surrounded by show up, attracted to the love we embody and extend to others. The gift, the great blessing, is that more love is always available to us, through simple pathways like these.
Tara Sophia Mohr is a coach and writer. She writes the blog Wise Living. You can receive her free goals guide, “Turning Your Goals Upside Down and Inside Out (To Get What You Really Want) by clicking here.
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