“Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi
Love is not a luxury, it is a vital nutrient of life. Without love, life is like a hard, stale loaf of bread. Tasteless and hard to swallow.
Love is medicine, a magical antidote to fear and anger, and the way to heal yourself and the world. If you want to change the world for the better, the best place to start is by loving yourself.
“Whoever loves himself, will never harm another.” – Buddha
All the love you need already exists within you. As Rumi suggests, our task is to unblock the spring of love that already exists within. The practice of loving kindness provides a gentle, proven, and systematic framework for doing just this.
In the first article of this two-part series, we explored how elusive self-love may sometimes seem. So much so that we might not even be aware of its lack in our life. Yet it makes itself known through an array of unhappy and unhealthy behaviors.
But we’re not stuck. Through the practice of loving kindness, we can unlock the love inside and transform our uneasiness into kindness, contentment, and peace.
Today we’ll explore the ins and outs of loving kindness practice.
