All you need is love
Love is an Inside Job
Becoming the you of your dreams does not necessarily mean changing anything visible. Updating the part of you that is seen might help others notice something new but is not required for transformation. Outer change is usually the result of finding a new way to move or treat the physical body to produce different results. There is a theory in exercise about muscle confusion. The belief includes switching up what muscles are moved regularly because they get accustomed to the same old set. Less results come from endless repetition. Four times every year, I create a new series of swimming routines to cause some confusion in my muscles hoping for a different result. It works on my mind also because I suddenly have to pay more attention to what is next in the series. It is likely that our inner selves are confused more often due to errant thoughts. Love encompasses many of those thoughts.
Thirty minutes of Love
Integral to transformation is fitting in time to absorb anything new. The big idea in your head and your real interest in fulfillment must be worth at least 30 minutes a day to be recognized as important to you. Thirty minutes ain’t much time. If your immediate thought is how to squeeze in that time, you must critically examine your interest in transformation. There is obviously much more wasted time in your average day that could be repurposed, but your comfortable self might not be willing to easily hand it over. Please don’t be tempted to think that cutting down on scrolling, streaming or vicing is impossible. Thirty minutes set aside for looking inside of you will prove its worth quickly. Set a timer, put your hand on your heart, close your eyes while breathing, sit tight and think semi-big thoughts. Getting to know the fulfilled you is like dating. Take the model of the fulfilled you that you thought about last month and get to know them better. Proximity makes it is easy. Start to consider how this person reacts in the situations regularly encountered. Since they are the you of the future, it should be different than the past.
Love isn’t Easy
Your love muscles require some confusion to grow. Start with the baseline thought that you should love yourself first and best. This is not a negotiable exercise. Once you can throw away all of the old reasons you find for not putting yourself first, it is crystal clear why this is paramount. It is not selfish, and it is actually one of the most often recited sentiments in every established religion. The belief that this is not natural comes from early incorrect conditioning that only has tenure as its leverage. It is not true. It is best to let it go and start over with the corrected version. The self-love you must have to really be fulfilled opens up your heart in extraordinary ways. Whisked away are the walls that partitioned who you can actually love because you don’t need them. Starting the loving process with how deeply you can feel this energy within your own heart makes it so much easier to love others. Creating the environment for true love for you automatically sets up the best scenario for finding love for everyone else. You know the depths of good and bad in you and still love fervently. Having love for others is a slam dunk after that.
Everyday Love
The program standard is love. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It shouldn’t be complicated. Find it by closing your eyes, thinking about what is actually lurking in your heart and examine those thoughts. Discard, declutter and remove stuff that doesn’t fit you now. Some of those old thoughts are tattered and became useless a long time ago. Your new heart should be full of chosen thoughts that meet your new criteria. When you consider your fulfilled self, what kind of love do you want to carry around inside? Your daily ability to love should be expanded to take up many more waking hours. The joy of having loving thoughts all day is so much more pleasant than repeating those old tired negative beliefs about anyone else. There is immense freedom in updating how we love others because it allows new methods to sneak into our daily interactions. When you pause and love someone you previously haven’t, you may find that there was no real basis for your earlier thoughts. Commissioning new ideas eliminates old struggles that produced negative physical effects. Everyday love feels so much better to practice. Focus on the feeling of your love.
Questions: What barriers do you have to loving yourself the way our spiritual mentors taught us? Why wouldn’t you want to discard old broken thoughts repeated previously? Can you love yourself enough to experience true loving feelings about the wonder that is you?
