Recently I was making a herbal tea when I noticed a label on the teabag and this particular
brand of herbal teas has an affirmation or a positive statement on the label of each
teabag and this one said,
Love the day,
Love your life and I thought it was beautiful and
I've been thinking a lot about it recently and thinking about how we go about doing that.
You don't wake up one day and love the day and love your life or maybe you do if something
brilliant has just happened but for most of us it's a journey and it's cultivating love
in our lives,
Cultivating love every day.
So I've been thinking about how we actually go
about doing that,
What the essential ingredients are.
This practice today will explore that,
How we can all cultivate love.
Perhaps it's a life's work and it's certainly easier some
days than others but I definitely think it's worth exploring.
So let's settle now.
Arriving.
Feeling the weight of the body.
Feeling supported by the surface beneath us.
Noticing the breath.
Noticing the in-breath and the out-breath.
How does your body feel?
Observing and noticing.
Closing the eyes if that feels comfortable or adopting a soft gaze.
How do we cultivate love in our lives?
Consider that a central pillar might be gratitude.
Consider that noticing,
Witnessing,
Acknowledging the small things that we're grateful for each
and every day might cultivate a love for our lives.
A cup of tea,
A hot bath,
A smile,
A thank you,
A delicious meal,
The ability to move.
Sitting with that for a moment and thinking about whether
cultivating,
Committing to gratitude each and every day is something that might support you.
If you already have a gratitude practice,
Thinking about what you're grateful for in the here and now.
Thinking about your input,
Your diet and I'm not talking about food.
I'm talking about the people
in your life,
The people you keep close.
I'm talking about the media you engage with.
I'm talking about the places that you spend your time and the activities that you participate in
and thinking about whether curating,
Being more selective about your circle
and inputs,
Whether that might support loving each day and loving your life.
Maybe consciously maximizing positivity and positive inputs might support love
and just sitting with that for a moment.
Being open to considering whether another pillar,
Another way to cultivate love each day
and love for our lives is to really center and prioritize moving and nourishing our bodies.
Recognizing that our bodies are our home for this brief earthly existence
and while there is a reality to aging and there's a reality to the way that our bodies change over
time,
There's a reality to pain,
There's a reality to a degree of suffering but there's
also a huge amount that we can do to move our bodies and to nourish our bodies with love
that might support love for each day and love for our lives.
So just sitting with that,
Sitting with whether nourishing and moving your body
might support that love,
How it might support that love,
Whether there's anything you might do differently,
Continue doing,
Develop,
In relation to nourishing and moving the body.
Related
there's a growing body of evidence around the science of sleep and the importance of sleep
for everything from immune function to mood to all aspects of health and having healthy relationships.
So being open to sitting with the notion that prioritizing your sleep
each and every day might help to cultivate love for each day and love for your life.
I know that for some of us on occasion we think we're going entirely mad but we're just tired
to being open to thinking about sleep.
Recognizing also that it's not all about us,
We're deeply connected,
We're deeply connected to every living thing and to everyone else.
And I know we've talked about curating our circle and our inputs which is particularly important
with the constant bombardment of advertisements and the constant
bombardment of advertisements and the 24-hour news cycle.
But there are very positive aspects to connection and I think it's important to consider that one
of the pillars of loving your life,
Loving today,
Is that connection and is service
and is asking yourself how can I serve?
And that might be with a smile,
A thank you,
That might be through some formal volunteering,
Giving back,
It might be by sharing your time or skills,
It could be in a myriad of ways but
are you open to sitting for a moment with the idea that how you serve others and the world we live in
might help to cultivate love for your day every day and love for your life?
How can you serve?
May you practice gratitude,
May we practice gratitude for the small and the mundane as well as the grand.
May you and may we maximize the input of positive people,
Places and activities in our lives.
May you,
May we move and nourish our bodies,
Respecting our bodies as our home.
May you and may we prioritize rest and peaceful sleep.
May you and may we commit to serving others and the world we live in.
All in the service of loving each day and loving our lives.
Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
