When you have an open, loving and thankful heart life is nothing short of perfect! Nothing really ticks you off that much and whatever occurs in your life you can handle because you know how to reconnect with love and recreate harmony and balance.

How open, loving and thankful are you in your heart?

Here are some questions for you to answer for yourself:

How open am I towards other people’s uniqueness and their differences from me and what I know?
• I am very open
• I am somewhat open
• I am a little open
• I am somewhat closed
• I am very closed.

How judgmental am I of other people?
• Very judgmental
• Somewhat judgmental
• A little judgmental
• Somewhat non-judgmental
• Very non-judgmental

How genuinely loving and affectionate am I towards other people?
• Very loving
• Quite loving
• A little loving
• Quite un-loving
• Very un-loving

How thankful am I for the people in my life and how expressive am I of gratitude towards them?
• I am very thankful / grateful
• I am quite thankful / grateful
• I am sometimes thankful / grateful
• I am quite unthankful / ungrateful
• I am very unthankful / ungrateful

The truth is that whenever you feel you are out of balance in your relationships with other people it is time for you to do something about YOU!

Our issues with other people have less to do with them than they have to do with ourselves. Are you lovingly asking for what you want and coming from a place of love in doing so? Do you feel that receiving other people’s love is based on fulfilling their conditions? Are you yourself being conditional in your expressions of love towards others?

How do you suppose you are really, truly coming across? How are you conveying your message and your point of view? What do your actions say? What are your words saying? Do your words come out clearly in your actions? What are your facial expressions conveying? How are you really communicating with other people?

What we give is usually very close to what we get! Which means that we have to start “owning the message” we give out to the world.

If we give a little love, we may get a little love, if we show a little acceptance, we may get a little acceptance, if we demonstrate a little gratitude, we may get a little gratitude, and so on an so forth. The same goes for not giving any of these things, if we do not give any, we can’t be upset about not getting any. Yet, our whole motive cannot be about giving it “only” so we can “get” it! That’s not being unconditionally loving and it won’t trick anyone for long.

Have you noticed how everybody loves being around people who know how to be unconditionally loving, and how those same loving people also seem to know how to respect and love themselves. Being an unconditionally loving person means we love without conditions, we are not expecting anything just because we are giving our love, but even so it still does NOT mean that we give our power away and take whatever we get and accept it!

Being unconditionally loving means we are willing to take the journey inwards and get real with where we are coming from and we are not focusing on receiving immediate results from the outside. We choose to stand by ourselves in knowing that our hearts will guide us and we rest assured in knowing we deserve to live life to the fullest and we deserve to truly love and be loved.

So if what we give is what we get, it makes sense for us to genuinely ask ourselves the following questions:

“What am I giving?”, “What am I REALLY giving?”, “What am I creating?”, “What am I putting out there?”, “How am I making a difference in other people’s lives?”, “Do I have a positive effect on the people I love?” “Am I open, loving and thankful as a human being?”

Whoever comes from an open, loving and thankful heart has a positive effect on other people even when they are not intentionally trying to do so. An open, loving and thankful person receives back what they put out, both from other people and from the Universe. Loving people are loved.

Our Creator designed us to be open, loving and thankful. It is our true nature and how we are intended to be. Jesus preached love and forgiveness. We all know this yet we sometimes find ourselves moving far, far away from exactly what it is we want most in our lives and are craving so desperately in our hearts and in our spirits.

You are here to love and be loved! You would not want to deny yourself of that experience, and you can quite easily have just this, yet only the first part is within your control. So how can YOU be an even more loving person?

You can start by getting real with what it is that you are REALLY putting out there.

You can ask yourself; “How can I express more acceptance, understanding, love, affection, gratitude and forgiveness to other people?”, “How can I be more godly in my thoughts, actions and in my being?”

If you are not feeling as loved as you would want to feel and not being as expressive of love as you would like to be, then you can change the little glitch in the system… you can elevate your spirit and reprogram the mind-computer:) and create balance and harmony in your life.

As a reprogramming exercise you can repeat to yourself, over and over again, until it becomes “ingrained” in your mind as a natural way of being, day after day until you truly feel it in your heart and in your soul;

I am open, loving and thankful
I am open, loving and thankful
I am open, loving and thankful
I am open, loving and thankful
I am open, loving and thankful…

If you want it – you have to give it!
If you give it – you will get it!

To be a loving person who is easily loving towards your spouse, kids, family, friends, work buddies, clients and even with your business and job, you have to first love your SELF!

The relationship you have with yourself is the blueprint that sets the tone and characteristics of your relationships with other people.

The secret to creating a successful, loving relationship with another lies in first learning and knowing how to love oneself.

Self-Love attracts good people and even more love into your life and it also quenches the “need” for someone else to “fill up your cup”.

We all know that we are to be considerate, kind, loving, accepting and generous towards other people but are we considerate, kind, loving, accepting and generous towards ourselves?

Do you ever tell yourself how amazing and wonderful YOU are? Do you acknowledge your inner and outer beauty, and your amazing gifts and talents? Do you demonstrate to yourself the qualities you wish to give to – and receive from others? Are you intimate, honest and respecting of yourself? Are you committed and faithful to you?

Your relationship with yourself will be mirrored in your relationships with other people. What we cannot give and receive from ourselves makes us lack an authentic ability to do so with others.

More often than not people are in the habit of giving themselves anything but self-love. We are usually very good at reminding ourselves of how poorly we are doing and how much better we ’should’ and could be and we block our evolution by resisting self-love and acceptance because we are consciously and subconsciously buying into limiting (and untrue) beliefs about ourselves. These beliefs are often formed in childhood and influenced by parents, friends, society and media and may include thoughts such as; “I’m not good enough”, “I’m bad”, “I don’t deserve…”, “I’m unlovable”, “It’s not right to be this or that”, “I’m all wrong”, “I’m stupid, silly, ridiculous.” etc, etc.

Yet, your worth is a given. It is inherent by virtue that you exist! You are a spark of divinity, a miracle of creation itself, and we were all taught that God LOVES all his children, and finds them all of equal worth. But do we let ourselves truly FEEL that?

“Worth is a quality, not a quantity. You can neither add to nor diminish your worth. When you act or react in Reality to become more worthy, you will always fail. Stop trying to become worthy and start seeing your own worth.” – Lazaris

So my dear one… my invitation and challenge for you this week is to practice this art of self-love and acceptance, and see what it does for you. Be loving, kind and nurturing towards the amazing being that you are. Tune in with your self and tell yourself over, and over, and OVER all the positive things you can possibly think off that you already know to be absolutely true about you, such as; I love myself, I approve of myself, I accept myself, I am a good person, I am powerful, I am creative, I am bold, I am fun, I am loving, I am caring, I am a great parent, I am a good friend, I am funny, I am witty, I am reliable, I am giving, I can accomplish anything I want to accomplish, I am in control of my life, I am beautiful, I am a loving spouse. etc, etc, and then remind yourself of all the wonder you deserve in your life; … I deserve to be happy, I deserve a good life, I deserve to be healthy, I deserve love, I deserve all good things.. and basically whatever else may come to you.

Whenever you ‘hear’ your limiting thoughts surfacing, wanting to tell you otherwise, even telling you how silly or stupid this exercise is:)… just let those thoughts come and then float away as you bid them farewell and tell them “no, thank you, I am not buying into negativity”. Then, you can literally overwhelm those thought and fade them out with even more positive thoughts and affirmations. Our limiting beliefs have often been circulating in our minds for years and years so it can take some time and practice to get that habit off of its automatic setting and to consciously choose to think and feel differently.
I challenge you to try this out, as often as you possibly can, and say it out loud in the car, in the shower, to the mirror and then keep saying positive things to yourself even when you are around other people, although you may choose to do so in silence:)

YOU hold the key to change how you think, feel, and live your life. You have the power to literally ‘manufacture’ your own happiness.

Here’s to the Powerful, Creative, Loving YOU!

Happy Valentines Weekend…

“Everything on this plane, as on all others, begins with thought and intention.”

Divine Spirit doesn’t judge, there’s absolutely nothing that you would, have, or could do that Spirit won’t forgive.

You are limitless…