“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” ~Mother Teresa
“The first duty of Love is to listen.” ~Paul Tillich
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.” ~Henry David Thoreau
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ~Martin Luther King. Jr.
“Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.” ~ Louise L. Hay
Believe it or not, behind every word we speak, each act we perform or our every desire, is the wish to be and feel loved. It is an innate human need that we all have whether we demonstrate that need consciously or unconsciously.
The amount of love we feel in our life is directly proportional to our level of happiness. Certainly, we can find all kinds of temporary substitutes that bring moments of happiness: material wealth, romance, food, work, and social activities to name but a few. But they are fleeting. They are nothing in comparison to the joy that comes from being the embodiment of love.
To embody love is to speak, act and react from a place of love versus a situation of fear. It is that simple. It is easier said than done, however, as we have typically been programmed to act from fear most of the time. So what can you do on a regular basis to help reprogram yourself? How do you live primarily from a place of love, and in doing so feel more love in your life?
Smile more
Nothing makes you feel better quicker than smiling. Nothing makes other people feel better than to be the recipient of a heartfelt smile. It is simple and it costs nothing. Even if you don’t feel like you have something to smile about, smile anyway. You will quickly change your mood and your mind and start to see things from a different perspective.
Studies have shown smiling does, in fact, change your brain chemistry, so give it a try and test it out. I know it works for me and it can for you as well.
Listen more
Listening is, unfortunately, a lost art for many people. We can get so caught up in the world inside our own heads that when someone is speaking to us we fail to truly listen and appreciate what they are saying. We fail to give our full attention and experience the joy that comes from being there fully for another person.
Other people not only feel better knowing they are being heard, but we feel incredible for giving that time and attention to someone else. It is truly an act of love.
Love others more
We can easily get caught up in wanting other people to love us more and feel deprived, rejected and hurt when they don’t. Especially if they don’t love us in the way we want them to love us. This is a catch 22 to this scenario however. When we ourselves love more we will actually find that we get more of the love we want in return.
Love is not a feeling but comes from action: acts of affection, kindness, trust, forgiveness, and allowing others to be themselves and loving them unconditionally. We need to be the love we want. So love more.
Hate less
This word “hate” has to be one of my least favorite words in the English language. I feel even uttering the word creates a negative chemical reaction in our bodies and I can only imagine that feeling it is incredibly detrimental to our health and happiness.
We cannot have hate and love in our life at the same time. If we truly want to have more love in our lives we have to learn to let go of hate.
Love yourself more
At times, we are our own worst enemy. So often I hear people speak poorly about themselves and I suspect the thoughts in their heads are even worse. If a friend spoke to us and about us the way we often do, I can assure you they would not be our friends for long. So why do it to ourselves?
How can we have more love in our lives if we are constantly beating ourselves up? If we don’t love ourselves, the good, bad and the ugly, how can we expect others to do so as well? Give yourself a break. Start loving yourself more in words, thoughts and deeds.
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