It seems to me that everything that is alive responds to love. In this blog I’m going to explore why that is and whether love has the power to heal.
What is love?
Typically we think that love is defined by loving something; whether a person, place, animal or thing. Love is conditional; based upon a set of ‘rules’ that have to be met.
To love another they have to be x, y and z. Or to love a place it has to have these qualities…
But what about Universal love or unconditional love? What is that?
For me, since coming across the Three Principles (that I share in my work here), I’ve been endlessly fascinated by this idea of Universal, unconditional love.
And nothing has got me more curious than the book I’m currently reading, The Ultimate Coach. I wrote about it in last weeks blog post, Who Are You Being?
Steve Hardison, AKA the Ultimate Coach speaks and displays this love in all he does.
Universal love
So what is Universal love?
As I settle in to write this it occurs to me that it is our natural, default state of Being, before the conditioned mind steps in.
It’s like we are born a blank book; crystal clear, white, unadulterated pages. Ready for anything.
And upon those beautiful pristine pages, words are written, formed from the experiences, conditioning, beliefs and ideas that we gather along the way. And soon the white is covered over with scribbled words and a manual of ‘how to be’; of ‘who to be’, is written and followed. No questions asked.
Separation is created. There is a ‘them’ and an ‘us’ and we forget that we are all made from the same clear white pages until the manual of ‘me’ starts being written.
Labels, words, rules get created and soon the unconditional love that we had, that perhaps the book is made from, has changed into conditional love. Love with rules.
Love without rules
But imagine a world where there was love without rules. Where we could see our joint humanity, our ‘same-ness’, rather than our ‘different-ness’?
The very feeling of that, when I sit with it, is of calm, comfortable, home.
It isn’t the passionate, fiery love of conditional love, it feels as though its part of my very Being. The fabric of this physical form.
Love for self
Something I often ponder on is what impact love has on the physical body.
It seems to me that every living thing thrives with love.
This fascinating article talks of how plants that are loved and talked to grow better than those that aren’t. We know children who are loved and nurtured thrive and develop when those who are neglected do not do so. Animals love to be fussed over…
Yet how many of us still talk to ourselves in a derogatory and downright unloving way? I wrote about this in my article What Emotional Diet are you On.
If we see that love is so important in the health and development of children, plants and animals then isn’t it interesting that we’ve never correlated our negative self-talk with poor physical health? Or that we look outside of ourselves to find love, when the very fabric of our being IS love?
Perhaps there are some studies on this. There seem to be lots that make the obvious correlation between negative self talk and poor mental health but not physical health.
To me, it must have an impact on both. Our cells, the building blocks of our being, must surely respond to love in the same way as anything else does?
My experience of the healing power of love
I can only speak from personal experience but I know that my self-talk used to be horrible. There is no way that I would have spoken to anybody but myself like that.
Once it started to become visible, it stopped making sense to feed myself such hatred. When I heard the chastising, driving bully in my mind it would stop me in my tracks.
Over time it has lessened to the point where I rarely experience it. It wasn’t something I actively did. I didn’t try to change those negative thoughts to positive ones; it just stopped making sense to be so mean to myself.
And the consequence has been a gradual improvement in my physical health. Less reactions to food, less headaches, less abdominal discomfort and a general feeling of more love for my body and the amazing things it does for me.
Loving your gut
It’s for this reason, and because I want to explore and wallow in love without rules even more, that I’m running Loving Your Gut; uncovering health from the inside out.
It’s a small five week online programme that I’m running with Sheela Massand who has herself had many physical health struggles and is equally fascinated by the power love may have in healing.
If you’re interested in joining us on this beautiful journey to explore the healing power of love then we’d love to see you there. We start on Valentine’s Day. When else?!
Finally if you’d like to be reminded of unconditional love, love without rules, then I’ve created an organic, fairtrade hoodie with that slogan on:
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