Living From Love - August 9th

Over the past two days, Liz has been exploring what it means to live from love rather than fear. In today’s 5 Minutes In Nature, she reflects on what has surfaced for her while trying out this more mindful and intentional way of being. Have you tried this yourself? If so, what did you notice when choosing love over fear?

Transcript

Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and I'm just looking up on a rather lovely blue sky and just as I started talking there was a sheep that hadn't realized I was nearby and it suddenly looked at looked up and is now looking straight at me wondering what I'm doing talking to myself. It's a really sweet sheep up here on Dartmoor. The moorland here is covered in sheep and there's cattle and Dartmoor ponies as well and I've just found a little spot which is just out of the wind. It's a little bit blurry today so I'm just sheltering behind some rocks and if you've been listening to the past couple of days you'll know we've been exploring this idea of living from a place of love and not fear. It was a challenge I set myself a couple of days ago and and I'm curious as well if you've accepted the challenge and have given it a go yourself it's like what is it like to live from love rather than fear. So I'm going to give you some illustrations of what I've noticed and actually what I want to say straight up is that I'm so enjoying this challenge I'm going to continue. I mean sometimes I forget of course but when I forget I then remember and then I come back and bring myself to this this place of love. Now it's not a forced place of love you need to realise that. It's a sense of the loving presence that is always with me so it's more of a reminder or a remembering of this loving presence and feeling it and then responding and that sounds like it's quite a cognitive thing and it's not. It's a sort of an insight a realisation and I'm not I'm not from a loving place and then I'm like come back come back that's how it works for me and then I'm back and I'm operating from that loving place. And I guess the biggest thing I've noticed for me is a sense of openness of listening. Now you know that I love listening and it's one of the things I'm passionate about. I find that listening is one of the most profound and beautiful ways of connecting with another soul in helping someone else realise that they are connected to the energy of life itself. Listening for me is a wonderful catalyst and what I've noticed is that as I recognise and become aware of living from a place of love and not fear when I'm around people and I'm listening to them I keep reminding myself of that. In everyday conversations I love to jump in and to chip in and do all the bits and pieces that we do as human beings. It's a very different kind of listening than when I'm listening as a coach. And I've just noticed that as I listen from love I'm listening for something I'm more settled as I listen. I really am listening and feeling the resilience and love in the other person. As I listen from a place of love I'm listening out to that place of love in the other person. And it just turns up in very simple ways. There was a friend of mine who was talking the other day and I was planning just to spend five minutes saying hello as I picked up my car and he he obviously just wanted to talk. So I listened in to myself and I realised that from a place of love it was just just be be here as a listener. And in that instance all I was doing was just listening. He talked for probably about half an hour. Not about anything deep or meaningful but just some of the stuff. He's finding things quite challenging. There's a lot going on for him at the moment and I just listened. And I listened from that place of love. I didn't have to come up with any solutions. He didn't have to come up with any solutions. I just knew he needed to speak and I was there just to allow those words to come out of him and for him to settle in himself. And there's another little illustration where there was somebody I was listening to on a podcast. And it's a friend of mine and usually I would listen to these things and not really respond. You know I'd enjoy them but I wouldn't necessarily reach out to someone. But listening from a place of love as I listened to the podcast I just thought oh I'm really strongly being drawn to connect with this person this friend and say how much I enjoyed the podcast. And so I just reached out to her and let her know. And again that's listening from a place of love. And she responded straight away saying how much she was grateful that I had reached out to her. So I'm kind of really enjoying this experiment of listening from a place of love or acting from a place of love. And I'd like to continue it for a few more days. I may or may not report back to you guys but if you've been having a go yourself I'd love to know how you're getting on. How are you finding it when you live from a place of love rather than fear?

Reviews

Thankyou Liz 🙏🏼 and thankyou for your thoughts on my thoughts yesterday.
What I realised for myself when I listened to your first ‘a place of love not fear ‘ was that I have had confusion about the real meaning of love.
It is not what we saw in the movies as kids, women and men ‘falling in love’
Nor is it being a doormat to keep someone loving me.
When you mentioned about setting boundaries as loving ourselves I tried that with an in-law whilst at her home, and didn’t do 7 loads of washing for her like I normally would, but minded the puppy and other dog as was the original plan.
There was a change in her behaviour towards me from being bossy to kinder when she came home and noticed all the washing still in the laundry.
I have to admit that whilst feeling like a penny had dropped for me it also felt a bit scary. That I may have tempted fate in setting myself a boundary.
Many thanks for those few words and I shall continue practising living from love and concern for myself rather than from fear because no one will love me … old childhood stuff again Liz.
I really enjoy the 5 minutes and learning and reflecting.
🌿🙏🏼🐞🦋🐞🙏🏼🌿

Is this place of love also empathy, kindness, presence in the moment? Thanks for your reflections Liz!

I took on the challenge, and I too am enjoying it. I find it encourages me to be curious and notice my thoughts as I experience what happens throughout the day. Whenever I've noticed a reaction to something that is said or a behaviour, like a car doing something I normally find annoying, I can stop and feel that place of Love and instead of unpleasant feelings I get a glow of peace.
In my therapy room, it has helped me flow and not worry about what I'm going to say or do. Clients are responding in very positive ways 💕🙏🏼
I am grateful you have suggested this challenge and feel it should be my default position as much as I remember it 🙏🏼
Thank you Liz xx