Let's celebrate love throughout the year!
Reflecting on love recently, I recalled a memory from 2011 when I went to see spiritual teacher Dr. David Hawkins in Sedona, Arizona, for his lecture entitled "Love."
This lecture would be his last, as his health was failing. He could no longer see, hear or walk very well, but his spirit of sharing the Truth was still alive. He spoke the whole day, and his lecture was rich with insight from beginning to end.
There was one statement that really stood out for me –
'Love is not an emotion; it is a state of consciousness.'
This wasn't the first time I heard a teacher say this, but for whatever reason, it landed differently. It felt like his words of wisdom moved from my head to my heart.
In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to go up on stage and ask 'The Doc' a question. The transmission I received from being in his presence changed my life. I am deeply grateful.
The longer I am on the path of self-discovery, the more I have integrated teachings about love on an experiential level.
We are love.
Our soul was open, free, and fluid when we were born. We were a pure expression of love. As adults, love is still our true nature.
However, the conditioning from our childhood (beliefs, self-images, stresses, experiences) creates a sense of separation from it; we identify with the conditioning and think this is who we are.
Love is still there – but there are blocks. Rumi captures this perfectly,
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
The barriers that he refers to are the conditioning imposed upon us at a very young age.
This sense of separation can lead us on a never-ending desperate search to find love, to feel loved or loveable, or to have greater self-love. The ego drives this, always seeking and looking outside oneself to solve 'a problem'.
However, this constant seeking is the very thing that is leading us further and further away from that which we long for – to reunite with our divinity. When our search turns inward rather than outward, we open the door to Truth.
We can still get caught up in the trappings of the ego. The trap I got caught up in was making self-love another project, something to accomplish with the hope I would one day get an A+.
I wanted to be the best meditator. I wanted to be spiritual, and I wanted people to think I was spiritual. I am giggling on the inside as I write this. What the heck does being really spiritual look like or even mean?
But as I have learned repeatedly, there is no grade and no finish line. The journey inward is one of rediscovering our true essence and reclaiming our divinity.
Our practice is being here right now.
What do we do when we want to develop a relationship with someone? We spend time getting to know them. We care. And over time, the relationship deepens.
How do we develop an intimate relationship with ourselves?
* We shift our focus from seeking to exploring.
* We spend time getting to know ourselves.
* We practice being in our bodies, feeling our feelings, and noticing our thoughts and reactions.
We aren't trying to fix or get rid of anything. Our willingness to be present creates a deeper understanding of why we feel or operate in the ways we do.
For example, suppose I constantly go out of my way to please everyone or make others happy, so I feel loved or worthy of love. In that case, I might be curious about this part of me. I am interested in exploring the following:
What do I say or do?
How do I react?
How does it make me feel?
What part of me feels /acts this way?
I'm curious about this.
We can ask, "I wonder what part of me needs to please everyone or is so desperately longing to feel loved?" I can guarantee you it is a younger part of ourselves in the subconscious longing to be noticed, understood, and loved.
So we listen, get to know, and hold this part of ourselves with compassion.
We begin to understand how our life experiences have impacted our perception of who we are and how we operate in the world.
As we shine our light on the subconscious, change happens.
You know those moments when you stop and recognize:
You don't believe that thought anymore.
You didn't feel the need to prove yourself.
You feel comfortable in your skin.
You spoke your Truth.
You are doing things just for you.
You feel more confident and whole.
This is huge. This is a shift in consciousness. The blocks or barriers dissolve in these moments, creating space for your true essence to shine through.
May you be open and curious to recognizing and experiencing love, in it’s truest and most divine form, as it exists within each of you.
With Love,
Diane