NOTES - WORKSHOP ON LOVE

 

JOURNEY TO LOVE

 

What is Love?  How to be Loving.

 

 

“Love is Life, if you miss love, you miss life.”  (Leo Buscaglia)

 

We all come into this world lovable.  We are all born beautiful, lovable human beings.  The journey to love begins within ourselves.  When we connect to the spirit within us we learn that love is at our core. 

 

So what is love?  Love is meant to be joyous, to enrich our lives, to enrich our spirit.  Our spirit, our souls are connected; we are One with Spirit and one with each other.  All of the Spiritual Masters taught and spoke of love, they lived love, and they were love.  Love makes us grow. 

 

We visited our three month old grandson over the Christmas holidays.  Austin is completely loved and completely lovable.  This is what being a baby is about.   Love promotes growth, babies need love to thrive.  They require hugs and kisses, we all need love to thrive, no matter what our age.  The most important love begins with self love.  We need to love ourselves before we can accept and receive love from others.  So why is it we have so much difficulty in loving ourselves?

 

All too often as we grow we learn to feel we are not loved or loveable.  We learn not to love ourselves. To love yourself is to value yourself.  The extent to which we value ourselves is a result of our belief system, who and what we feel we are.  This belief system is based on what others have told us as we were growing up.  We begin to feel inadequate or not worthy from outside sources.  Our belief system is based on what our parents, our siblings, friends, teachers said to us; how they treated us.  When we recognize that these beliefs are not facts, is when we are able to open ourselves up to learning to love ourselves.  As Buddha said, “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the universe deserves YOUR love and affection.”

 

It is not selfish to love yourself.  Loving yourself is crucial to success, to happiness.   Just as the flight attendant instructs us to first put the oxygen mask on ourselves in case of emergency, we too must nurture and love ourselves before we can accept it from others.

 

To learn to love yourself, you need to reprogram your subconscious.  This can be accomplished by affirmations.  Telling yourself you love and approve of yourself.  Telling yourself you are worthy, you deserve love and happiness.  Affirmations are powerful first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  Also, during the day express gratitude for what you do have in your life.  The relationships you have, the beauty that surrounds you, for family, health, and friends.

 

In your day to day life align yourself with love.  Base your actions on truth and love.  Follow the golden rule; do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.

 

You can never receive more love than you are prepared to give. Until you learn to love yourself, you are unable to receive love.  When you find the love and spirit within you a powerful energy is released.  When you are able to live love, to give love, you will be ready to receive love.

 

How do we view love, do we see the love in others as the goodness within them?  Do we see and value their loving spirit? Too often we define people by their appearance, their status or other external characteristics.   When you look at the inner spirit of a person, their character, you learn to love the authentic person.

 

We are ourselves must be authentic and present in our lives.  We attract the qualities we ourselves are.  We need to become the qualities we seek.  If we desire happiness, respect; we must be happy and respectful.  We need to be aware of our thoughts and feelings in order that our energy is vibrating at the level we want to attract. 

 

EVERYTHING is ENERGY. This means our thoughts are energy. Energy is powerful; therefore, our thoughts are powerful.  Your thoughts, actions and feelings create your experiences. You create your experiences and gave away your power by blaming others when your experiences don’t turn out as expected.   Look at your relationships, past or present.  Do you blame others for what went wrong? Do you find you are attracted to the same type of person and then wonder why these relationships always end badly?

 

You can’t change the past but you can change the future.  First, consciously release all relationship and thought patterns that no longer serve you.  You must forgive those individuals that where part of your past experiences. You must also start forgiving yourself.

 

You forgive not for them, but for you.  Forgive others for the hurt they have caused you.  Forgive them for being critical of you.  Forgive yourself for judging others, for making poor choices.  Write a letter to yourself, to others detailing your forgiveness.  Then burn the letter and release these pains to the universe.

 

http://www.forgivenessmovie.com/

 

How do you become loving?  What do you perceive loving to look like?  Do you equate love with sex, love with lust?  When growing up was affection openly shown in your home?  Did you feel love had conditions attached to it?  Did love feel secure?  Did you grow up with divorce or infidelity in your home?  All of these externals determine how we relate to love.  Do you believe that with love you can change someone?  Do you think love can conquer all problems? Are these beliefs in alignment with what you want to experience from love?

 

To be loving, choose to be happy.  Choose happy and loving thoughts.  Accept and give compliments.  Be considerate.  Keep your commitments.  Listen with compassion and be compassionate.  Appreciate the small things in life.  Live with an attitude of gratitude.  To increase your power of attraction in love, always appreciate and love yourself.  First and foremost be loving to yourself. 

 

cmb/jbb  copyright 2009