Dear Friends,
If you are finding it painful or upsetting to read or hear the news, today’s Your Daily Brush is for you.
If you are content and feeling that your life is going well, today’s Your Daily Brush is for you.
No matter where you lie on the spectrum of contentment, keep in mind that love, in its multitude of forms, is like oxygen for your soul and psyche.
Love is an essential nutrient for your soul and psyche.
Love is an anti-dote to hate crimes, isolation, despair and various ills in the world.
Love is a skill that everyone can learn.
Love can be understood through various lenses: psychology, neuroscience, biology, theology, spirituality, sociology, philosophy, music, art and literature. You don’t have to choose all of these lenses. Just chose one lense, or as many as feels right for you and look at the world through your chosen lens or lenses.
This is the beauty of love - in that though we may all choose different lenses, at the end of the day, we all arrive at the same end point.
I invite you to see the short video above and if you feel inspired, please share in the comments what love in action looks like for you, so others may learn from your wisdom and experiences.
If you feel that you do not have enough love in your life, know that I am sending you love - through my words, and in my meditations.
If you feel a dearth of love in your life, have faith. There are others as well who send you love, through their prayers and good wishes for collective wellbeing.
Sometimes we are lucky to receive love, the way we receive sunshine: unasked for and given freely.
Other times, love is more like cultivating a garden: we can plant the seeds of love around us - through kind words, helpful deeds, and considerate speech; sometimes it might also take the form of sharing a joke to make someone laugh or smile.
We water the seeds of love with attention and interest in the other person. We never know what exactly will emerge or in what time frame. But sooner or later, the seeds of love will grow and turn into beautiful blossoms that add beauty your life, and bear fruit that nourishes your psyche and soul.
If you are inclined to be scholarly, you may think I sound like a greeting card. Trust me. There is a reason why sentimental greeting cards are so popular; it is because they speak to universal truths. But there is also much more to these statements than inferences made from greeting cards.
There is longitudinal research that shows that when people look back upon their lives, it is relationships that they value the most.
Not things.
Not cars.
Not money.
Not careers.
Then there are the end of life reflections that people share, which inevitably point toward love, in its multitude of forms, as the most important thing. And what we can take away from the research and first hand reports is that love is a powerful way to promote your mental hygiene:
Love offers you meaning.
Love promotes your resilience.
Love makes you feel joyful.
Love offers you purpose.
Love uplifts you from misery.
Love heals your injuries.
Love prevents your (emotional) injuries.
Rx: Each time you feel pain because of events in the world, or events in your life, choose love. Be open to receiving it. Be open to giving it. Be open to planting the seeds of love so they can grow into the future, even beyond our individual and collective lifetimes.
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