Hi,
Welcome to the Five Elements of Love session four,
Responsibility.
Let's begin with step one,
Notice this is the time for you to take a moment in your day to ask yourself the question,
How am I?
And then just notice the answers that come back.
How is your mood?
How are your emotions?
How does it feel to be in your body today?
And just notice all of that.
As we move to step two,
Breathe.
So just gently place your focus and your attention now on your breathing and just begin to tune to the natural rhythm of your breath.
Watch your in-breath and your out-breath.
Feel the rise and fall of your chest.
And now we're going to connect your heart and your breath together.
And we do this by imagining that with every in-breath,
You're breathing deep into your heart,
The center of your chest.
And with every out-breath,
It's coming up from your heart into the world.
And as you hold that visualization,
The rhythm of your heart and the rhythm of your breath,
You know each other by saying hello and creating together the rhythm of you,
Which is this place of peace and calm for you to just rest in for the next few minutes.
As we move to step three,
Activate.
And so today,
We are contemplating the third element of love,
Which is responsibility.
And this can be quite a difficult word for us.
For some of us,
It trails exhaustion,
Burden,
And restriction in its wake.
So today,
We are going to consider deeply this word in the context of love.
So I want you to imagine that you are a house,
And you're a house standing on a hill.
And it is just before dawn,
Just before the time when the sun will breach the horizon and its tender trails of light will begin to spread their warmth and their life,
The sky is indigo and pink at the point where the rising will happen.
The sun is like the power and the energy of love.
It arises and its light falls on everything that is in its path.
It does not discriminate,
It illuminates.
And imagine that in your house,
You did not open the windows or the curtains,
You kept the doors closed and the shutters shut.
If you did this,
This would prevent the sunlight,
The energy of love from penetrating into you.
Maybe you might feel that it is not your responsibility to keep the doors open,
The curtains drawn,
To make your house open to the sunlight.
Perhaps you think it is up to the sun itself to let itself in.
And this is where responsibility becomes beautiful.
When we take responsibility for our actions,
Our choices,
When we see the consequences and effects of what we do to ourselves and to others,
We can start to make the changes that allow love in.
That might be many things.
It could be keeping your word,
It could be saying what you mean and meaning what you say,
It could be choosing to be kind instead of judgmental.
It could be a soft word of kindness when it's needed.
You yourself will know what requires you to take responsibility and,
Again,
It's like a superpower.
Because then you have the ability to keep yourself illuminated,
To never block out the sun,
To always allow the possibility that love can arise.
Step four,
Peace beam.
So take that image of you as a beautifully illuminated house,
Sunlight sweeping your corridors and rooms,
Sparkling in every corner,
And take responsibility today for allowing that inner illumination to beam into the world,
Gracing it with your unique signature.
Have a beautiful day.