Love enables us to conquer illusion, rise above division and prepares us for a good fight for our survival. Often conflict looks like a challenge to love one another more, but it is usually a reminder to develop more self-love. Humanity is an aspect of divinity disguised as friends and strangers. Inner peace is accomplished by becoming whole ourselves. What occurs in our internal world appears in our outer world. Whatever deepens our ability to experience joy, happiness and love needs to remain in our life. Patience, forgiveness, and the absence of shame are qualities that dramatically improve the quality of our life. When the decision about which road to take becomes confusing, take the time to focus inward and choose activities that reinforce the fact that we are worthy and lovable. When we, as individuals, believe in our worthiness and lovability, any primary template or personal paradigm about love can transform. Illusion reveals our delusions so we can experience expanded forms of love. The following meditation from my book, The Promise of Wholeness offers ways to enhance your ability to love. 

A vital goal of being human is to master earthly forms of love. Honoring, nurturing and truly respecting myself gives me the muscles to love my neighbor and eventually all of creation. The ability to love is a precious gift in life and is the only treasure I can take with me when I cross over after death.

My goal is to embody love completely in my mind, heart and soul. Maturity is directly related to my ability to maintain incorruptible principles in the face of life’s slings and arrows. Discerning my shortsighted delusions and illusions from long-term solutions enables me to overcome my trials with love and awareness.

Most of us were taught as children to love one another and open our hearts to family, friends and lovers. Embracing someone else is a formidable challenge all by itself but the most difficult challenge to master is to love myself.

Love is the quickest route to evolve into a blissful state of being. Transforming illusion into love is one of the primary mysteries blocking my realization of wholeness. Treating a negative personality trait as a friend or figuring out which belief system recycles my problem is a good starting point. When I can embrace my flaws with compassion and acceptance, love occurs with ease. When I treat every positive or negative aspect within in a loving way, I accept myself as I am. This delicate process creates the template and the requisite learning curve to develop the skill set and balanced wisdom necessary to learn how to apply this skill with another. The secret of turning my life around from a world of hurt, betrayal and abandonment into a loving one lies within this understanding.

Family, friendships and intimate relationships are sacred mirrors reflecting my successes and failure to love. When I embrace the annoying habit of another person as a mirror of my own frailties, problems transform easier as I become more capable of bringing compassion and deeper forms of incorruptible love to my relationships. The illusions hidden within my personality are challenging to reveal, but they also provide solutions to the problems I have recycled with others. Judgment, righteousness and my victim/perpetrator paradigms generate separation. When I love and accept my failures, my heart opens; my compassion for others deepens and more desirable outcomes occur.

Successful relationships with friends and lovers provide templates on how to direct these concepts towards humanity and the world at large. When enough people consistently apply this approach as a daily practice, suffering is transcended and the whole world will become more loving.

Love challenges me to embrace my enemy with a softened heart. The act of loving is a  shortcut to my divine roots where I can exude the purest expression of my divine essence.

The following affirmation reminds me to surrender and love mindfully in troubling times:

My divinity within knows that there is wisdom afoot, which is intangible to my personality. I align myself with the divine and my soul to discover this presence in my life with wisdom and love. I accept what is happening to me with grace, acceptance and a knowing that the divine is love and the answers to my questions will come eventually.

I am love, divinity is love and that is all there is. My divine soul longs for wholeness while in human form. Love is the answer, the question and all there is in the universe. I seek the wisdom while on earth to know, understand and live this truth.

I ask the divine to help me align to oneness and love. I appreciate your assistance to hold love, be love and accept that I am nothing but love. And so it is.