Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Romantic love is a wonderful thing! It feels good! But is it the highest form of love that we can aspire to? What if we can go beyond the idea of romantic love?
A Higher State of Love
According to Marci Shimoff, author of the best selling book, Love for No Reason: 7 Steps to Creating a Life of Unconditional Love,* there is, in fact, a higher state of love that comes from within us. We can learn new habits and techniques to get in touch with this empowered form of love just like we learn to play tennis or the piano. When we are generating love from our Source, we can experience love no matter what is going on in our lives. We are able to bring love to situations, rather than try to extract love from other people or situations.
While we all have our individual purposes in life, the overarching purpose we all share is to expand in love and joy. When people who had gone through near death experiences were asked to describe what happened, all of them who had gone as far as the life review said only two questions were asked of them: “How well did you learn your lessons?” and “How much did you love?” As Marci has said, this is not an exam you can cram for!
Loving for No Reason
When we love “for no reason” our love isn’t dependent on someone else pleasing our ego. It is completely our own experience of open-heartedness, where we are full of compassion for others and for ourselves. The place to start is really with ourselves, for unconditional love begins by understanding that most important relationship–the one we have with our own Inner Being. We ARE love and any time we are not feeling in an open hearted, loving state, we are not looking at a situation the way our Source within us sees it.
Benefits of Going Beyond Romantic Love
Learning how to get in touch with the love within us, that isn’t dependent on what anyone else is doing or experiencing offers us many benefits. We become better parents, we recover from stress more quickly and have better overall health and well-being. Our relationships are more fulfilling and we are more magnetic to love. Living in unconditional love does not mean being weak, or a doormat. When we are loving to ourselves we actually are more able to say no when appropriate, set boundaries and even leave a relationship that is not a good match.
A Practice to Get in Touch With Inner Unconditional Love
To start, take the time to connect with your own inner experience. Sit quietly, take a few deep, calming breaths and think of someone you love. Really get into the feeling. Notice where you feel it in your body. Then, gently shift your focus to the feeling of love itself, without the object of the love in the picture. Just be with that inner experience of love for as long as you like.
Marci’s book is available on Amazon.com and also on her website, www.thelovebook.com. It is filled with many inspiring stories, scientific research on love and exercises you can do to raise your love set point to experience unconditional love in your life. I am pleased to have been trained as one of her “Love Ambassadors” to offer workshops based on her book.
* You can also order the book from me for just the cost of shipping. I’ve been given several to distribute!
