Be Love

There are times I just need a reminder about how to be in life.  I have this way of over-thinking, over-processing or complicating things that, when stripped back, come down to some simple truths. I had one of those moments this past week after watching a webcast with Ram Dass and Jack Kornfield, two leading teachers in spirituality and authors of many books.  Jack was talking about having been on a month long retreat and what followed was a feeling of radiating love...everyone he came across he felt the simplicity of love oozing from his pores.


Just imagine that all of you who are reading this felt like Jack-walking through your day as a radiant being of love.  Each time you made eye contact with someone, spoke with someone or just walked past a stranger, you had so much love it couldn't be contained within your own self and you were spilling it all over the place.  I'd love to hear the sentence, "Excuse me ma'am, but you just dropped this big bucket of love all over everything...".


We have such conflict and violence in our world, that asking people to "be love" verges on the edge of being an out of touch hippie.  Yet, no better time exists than now to embrace this simple idea.  But how do you tap into love that isn't the romantic version of the word?  How do you spill it out all over the place and not run dry? Are you at peace enough in your own life to offer love to others? Ooooh...now we're getting at something.  It has been said that we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.  This of course begs the question, "How much do I love myself?"  


When I was in junior high school, one of the biggest insults you could throw at someone was to say, "you just love yourself" which implied that you were stuck up, conceited and full of yourself.  If I were to hear this I would shrink like a flower in the hot desert sun, pulling all of my radiance into myself out of the public eye.  And there it stayed for a very long time, which created the feeling that I wasn't love and that if I put it out there, I'd be cut down so don't shine, stay dull. Fortunately, I found the practice of yoga which has helped to erase the old belief that there was something wrong in loving myself.  In fact, it is at the very heart of the practice.


When we bring our body, mind and soul into a good relationship we find a harmonious balance, one which offers a steadiness and ease. When we practice from a place of Ahimsa (non-violence), we are fully in our yoga and this is built on the foundation of love.


It's an ongoing practice as we slip into old habits and beliefs of not being kind to ourselves.  To enhance your connection to love, find a quiet space each day and begin a practice of gratitude.  Begin with being grateful for your body...all of it...including the cranky joints, sagging skin and imperfections that make you uniquely you.  Next, send love to the incredible capacity for yourself to be creative, thoughtful, resilient and willing.  And don't buy into believing all of your thoughts, but let them arise and honor them for mapping what is currently in your consciousness and therefore open to change. And finish your contemplation of love by thanking all that connects you to your higher self, the mysterious realms and unexplained magical moments in your life.  Once you've worked on loving yourself...send it out...to people you pass on the street, to those you know and those you don't, to people you need to forgive and to those who need a boost.


Rest in love.


Be love.


Radiate love.


It's the one thing that connects all of us...simply love.