Love Wins

Life is a bumpy road. Lots of ups and downs as well as plateaus. Navigating all of it with an open heart helps us stay in a place of receptivity. What helps me when life hands me challenges is to see my outer experiences as exact reflections of what's happening within me. I prefer not to give any power to the world of appearances. Instead, I like to pause and deepen my listening. Why is this showing up right now? What is the message, the teaching and the gift here? What is needed?

This type of self-reflection keeps me centered and grounded because I am taking responsibility for what shows up rather than letting myself become disempowered or freaked out by it. When I put my center of gravity outside of myself, I pay the price. Much better to keep my vibrations high.

Of course, the ego-mind loves to wend its way into the process by spinning a negative tale. This can trigger doubt, fear and put me into survival mode. Nothing good comes of this detour. I can tell when I've wandered off because I immediately feel out of alignment and out of the flow with life.

Once you regularly experience the difference between being in alignment and in flow with life, it feels excruciating when you find yourself off course. To relieve the pain, I turn to the spiritual tools and techniques I've cultivated over the years. Meditating, spending time in nature, listening to uplifting music, diffusing essential oils, reading inspiring words, talking with a close friend can all can help me shift out of the ego-mind and move back into the heart.

Because, in the end, love wins. 

Need, on the other hand, keeps us focused on lack, leading to feelings of scarcity.

Love reminds us that we are already full and complete.

If we're feeling needy, then it's usually because we're disconnected from ourselves and our natural state of love. 

Neediness makes us feel separate and the world feel harsh.

Love allows us to see the softness and innocence in others.

There is no failure or setback or betrayal when when see through the lens of love. It is just an experience, and if we trust life's intelligence enough, we know that what is showing up is necessary for our evolution.

Love elevates us from the pendulum swings of the duality of the mind.

It allows us a peak at the bigger masterpiece unfolding in which we are simply one of the parts. Our place in it matters, but only in relation to the whole, which is mostly invisible to us. However, as we learn to trust and surrender to the wisdom of the greater intelligence (even if we don't understand it), we move in harmony with it, rather than struggle against it.

I don't know about you, but I no longer have the energy to dig my heels in and resist what is. Attempts to change, control, fix or manage my life are futile and the only real source of my suffering. Letting go and expanding into the openness of accepting what is as is immediately drops me into deep appreciation, gratitude and, of course, love.

This is my natural state. Resistance is not.

Life showers us with so many gifts when we release our neediness and attachments, and our desire for people and situations to be a certain way. Plus, when we're not micromanaging everything, we start noticing the synchronicities and surprises all around us.

Effortless flow. Grace and ease. I now know that what unfolds in my life happens first within me. The outer is merely a reflection and a barometer of that. Therefore, any changes I wish to see don't come from rearranging the external condition, but from being and seeing differently.

Love wins. Every time.