How do we empower love in our lives?
Since the attacks in Beirut and Paris, I have seen many posts (including my own), about the power and importance of love in healing pain and grief.
This has set me pondering how we can mobilise the power of love, into our lives or more to the point how can I mobilise this power in my life and what would that mean? What would love look like in the context of a modern life?
So if have decided to combine three powerful practices to Experiment with Love: meditation, including the power of mantra; 21 days of practice: and the modern practice of blogging to publicly declare my intention and share my ‘results’.

Meditation

The practice is a simple one:

  • Sit in my favourite meditation position, in my favourite meditation place and ensure that I am comfortable;
  • Remember the people, animals or plants I love unconditionally, first each of my children as babies and then as they are now, then my partner, my family etc.
  • I allow my mind and body to become completely saturated with the sensations of loving unconditionally – the sheer, luxurious pleasure of loving in this way.
  • Then anchor this feeling in my body by intentionally holding my forefinger so that each time I want to experience this feeling all I have to do is squeeze my finger.
  • Then I allow my circle of love to expand to include people care for conditionally, then people I know, then people whose actions have caused me harm and so on, until I have expanded my circle as broadly as I can.
  • Then I let go of all thoughts and rest in the sensations of unconditional love.
  • When I am ready (which gauging by this morning’s sit, may take a while), I will chant the mantra OM and return to the tasks of getting to class, a twelve year old off to school and a partner to work.

Then, during the day if situations become tricky, my mood spirals downward, doubt or indecision come for a visit or I encounter a person to whom I am reacting, (or anytime I feel like a jolly), all I need to do is to squeeze my finger, chant OM and return to state of love, and see what happens.

This practice I will do every morning for 21 days, watch the results and then report back via my blog every night.

21 days

Why 21 days?

Well, according to the world of personal transformation, it takes 21 days to create a habit i.e. if you do something for 21 days you instil the something in your brain and body as a habit – something you just do, without having to make the decision every day. You are rewiring your brain to include this ‘new’ activity, and in my case I will be rewiring my brain for love, not just once a day but several times a day in times of difficult, stress and anxiety as well as pleasure.

Blogging

So, why blog, why not just keep it to myself and mind my own business?

A good question that I am asking myself. I think the first part of the answer is that a public declaration is a powerful statement that holds me to account. Even if no one reads this blog I am much less likely to squib on my experiment to love for 21 days if I have told someone about it than if I sit at home and try to do it at home.

Second answer, is I am much more likely to observe the effects of my practice if I am not committed to writing about it every night. I am then at risk of either not observing the impact on my life or forgetting, over time. An experiment records data.

Third answer is that I can share the results of my experiment with a broader audience than just my immediate family. Then if you or anyone you know wants to try the experiment yourself you are welcome to join me and join the conversation.

And finally, and for me the most important, is it is a way of coming out, owning who I am and my original intention when I began this yoga journey; to live in a state of love and peace, and share that with anyone who will listen.

Today is day one.

You are welcome to join me or comment on the blog. I will report my experiences each night and share the results on Facebook and Linked In.