How to Expand Love Today (and Every Day)
Each February we see a heightened focus on Valentines Day and romantic love. While I’m all for beautiful romantic relationships, I’d love to see the Love Month concentrate on ways to expand love within ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world.
Might sound like a tall order, but not really. Very doable.
How could we “expand love” within ourselves? Here’s a few ideas:
- Spend quiet time in nature. Take a silent walk and use all your senses to truly be in the experience.
- Listen to music that touches your soul.
- Cuddle with your pet or volunteer at the local animal shelter (everyone benefits)
- Take a few minutes to shut your eyes, put your hand on your heart and imagine breathing in, and out of your heart space.
- Write in your journal using a prompt such as: “I feel loved and loving when_____” then act on what you wrote.
- Write a love letter to yourself. Mail it.
- BONUS: OK, here’s the big one I learned from the incredible Louise...
Happy LOVE Month
This month we're looking at LOVE. Not the Hallmark Valentine’s Day card or sappy romantic movie kind of love. The real Love. Divine Love. The intelligent, creative, expansive energy that creates galaxies and beats your heart and mine.
The BIG Love.
Miracles happen when you consciously tap into your own inner divine wisdom. Most people use a type of contemplative practice such as meditation, prayer, or silent time in nature. I have received some of my most profound guidance through daily journaling.
My beloved mentor, Dr. Robert Holden, often shares a profound exercise using a writing prompt. He invites his students to settle into a quiet space, connect to their heart and write this prompt to begin a journal entry, “Love, what do you most want me to know today?”
I’ve written that question hundreds, if not over a thousand, times in the last years. Sometimes I get short sentences addressing a general life issue,...
Welcome the Beloved Community
In a world that appears to be divided on so many fronts, I’ve been thinking a lot about the “Beloved Community” that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about.
The idea was first coined by philosopher Josiah Royce and refers to “an ideal community… a society of justice, peace and harmony which can be achieved through nonviolence.” In 1957 during a sermon to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama Dr. King said, “The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community.”
The King Center’s website is a rich resource and lists Dr. King’s Fundamental Philosophy of Nonviolence:
- Principle 1: Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
- Principle 2: Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
- Principle 3: Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
- Principle 4: Nonviolence holds that suffering for a cause can educate and transform people and societies.
- Principle 5: Nonviolence...