Can You Feel The Love?

Human Love
Love is the most powerful force in the universe. But we don’t use it to its fullest capacity. Or perhaps better said, we humans don’t use this incredible internal superpower as much as we could. Human beings are supposedly the most conscious beings on earth. What does that mean? It means as human beings we are much more than our animal instinct. We have an intuitive, emotional, and spiritual awareness that gives us the power to choose, moment to moment, what we’re doing with our human existence. And that means we can choose Love over all of the other things that are not so good.

Lately, a lot of humans are doing a crappy job of making conscious use of our human superpower that is Love. Why is this? It’s really about priorities, as human beings have advanced in science, technology, production, and success, we’ve deprioritized awareness, consciousness, and presence and even more basic things like honesty, patience, and kindness. All of these are aspects of love and while these things may seem intangible, are what when put into practice, are what can help us human beings make the most of our humanity. We’re so busy thinking that we forget to feel the love. Let's look at a few ways we can get and give some more Love in our lives. 

Self Love
“Love thy neighbor as thyself”, a very well known teaching of Jesus, is one of my favorite all time quotes. These simple words have profound meaning no matter what or who you believe in. Note that “thyself” is included in whom we should love. So often we think it means it's all about loving others. But if we don't know how to Love ourselves we can't do a very good job of loving someone else. Self Love doesn’t mean ego. It means self care. Real self care. And that is much more than a nice bath, a meditation here or there, taking a trip, or buying a new outfit. You’ve heard the saying “Love heals all”. It's true. But to heal it we have to feel it. And it only happens when we do it. When we Love. When we feel the Love. Remember, Love is a feeling, not an idea. So how do we feel self Love? If we think of Love, we’re in our heads, but we know that our hearts are a powerful center where we can feel Love. Take a moment and feel it there, in your heart. Can you feel it? But what’s even better is if that feeling of Love, of the warm fuzzies, can go from the top of our head to the tips of our toes. Let it flow. Make some space inside you to feel the Love. Allow that Love to spread out and seep into all of you. How does it feel to you? Warmth? Softness? Light? What if our whole body and being can be full of and emanating Love??

Relationship Love
What does it mean to be “in love”? If you’ve ever been in love, it's such a beautiful experience. It reminds us who we are. True love can help us to feel more like ourselves and those we love also get to be more of who they are. Love is a beautiful thing. It feels so good. Like I said, it's the most powerful force in the universe. We love to love and love the feeling of Love. But so often ideas and thoughts keep us so in our heads that we forget our hearts, we forget the love. To be in Love we need to feel. And that’s what's so amazing about it. The feeling. Those warm fuzzies feel so good. And the more we feel them the more we activate those human superpowers. What’s great about that, is that it feels good to us and to those around us and it really helps us to love our neighbor as ourselves. It's about the inside and the outside. 

Love in relation to others is something that if we pay attention, we can learn a lot. Real love isn't about sacrifice. Real love is good for everyone involved. If we sacrifice ourselves thinking we're doing something good for someone else, and make ourselves sick, get hurt, or cause problems for ourselves, it's really not as good or loving as it could be. On the other hand, when we “secure our own oxygen mask” with self love first, we take care of ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually, we’re in a better place to care for others. A true act of Love feels good. It feels right for everyone involved.

When we make ourselves a stronger conductor of love we can be a more powerful force of Love in the world. This embodiment of Love in ourselves makes the most of our human superpower and sets a beautiful example of Love and goodness in the world. If we’re empty we have less Love to share and transmit and it becomes dysfunctional. But when we fill ourselves with the infinite and powerful force of Love, and when we give that gift of self care to ourselves, it grows, it overflows, and transmits to those around us. It's infinite, powerful, and so beautiful.

Spiritual Love 
Love is a force, not an object. Within Love is immense power and goodness. It has an incredible capacity to make magical things happen. It moves through time and space. We can feel Love for someone or something on the other side of the world. It's something that we can feel when we watch a movie that moves us to tears, when we lose someone dear to us, and even when we’re healing from a longstanding pattern that no longer serves us in an act of self care. We can use this powerful force of Love, in relation to self, other, and to all of creation. And when we feel it, we nurture it so that we feel it and grow it more and more. Then we too become a force of Love that we can bring into our lives and to the world. And the world really needs it. So when we’re struggling with something, we can tap into the Love. 

Andrew Taylor Still, MD DO, the founder of Osteopathic Medicine, said “I love my fellow man, because I see God in his face and in his form.” No matter our faith, it's this kind of Love, this recognition of our humanness, that can help us in so many ways. Recognizing that our fellow humans are our brothers and sisters, can help us to feel compassion, to remind us to be patient, to be kind and loving to those around us, no matter who they are. 

When things are hard and we see things around us or in the world that are cruel, negative or violent, it can be really helpful to remember and to connect to the feeling of Love. If, when we see something dark or negative happening, we aren’t careful, it can take us down too. We need to rise above, stay strong, remember what’s important. Remember Love. 

Emanuel Swedenborg, an anatomist, astronomer, and theologian said, “Love is the life of humanity”. To make the most of our own humanity, we can use our human Love superpower in any moment we need it. We can connect to the force, the force of Love, center ourselves in our own sense of well being and feel the Love. We can fill ourselves with it such that it overflows. When we remember the Love, those warm fuzzies that we’ve felt at meaningful times, from a hug, from a sunset, from our connection to our faith, our awe of the beauty of nature, and connect to that feeling more and more of the time, we activate and make the most of that human superpower of Love that resides within us. Can you feel the love?