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!

The following thirteen (13) aspects are typical for people who are in successful and healthy relationships:

People in Healthy Relationships…

1. Show appreciation, affection and gratitude to one another.
2. Welcome each other after time apart and show interest in hearing about the other’s day and activities.
3. Typically respond to one another’s verbal and non-verbal communications.
4. Can work cooperatively together on projects.
5. Go out together (outings, activities, entertainment, socializing).
6. Share life chores together (housework, meal prep, bills, childrearing etc).
7. Value most of each other’s choices and decisions and can respectfully talk about their differences.
8. Share and discuss their dreams and aspirations, and find shared values and meaning.
9. Review, share and talk about events in their shared and personal history.
10. Take pleasure in meeting each other’s needs for intimacy, passion and commitment.
11. Talk openly about their physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs.
12. Wish to stay together and keep enjoying their union and partnership.
13. Want happiness together and for one another.

If all of these pointers apply to your relationship you are definitely on to something absolutely amazing!

If quite a few of these pointers do not apply to your relationship, it may be time to give it some extra attention. Instead of putting your attention on how the other person is “showing up” in the relationship it may be of an even greater value to explore and notice how YOU are “showing up”. Are you being the best there is of you? Are you being the person you like to be?

Most relationship predicaments are rooted in unrealistic expectations and lack of open and loving communication. Any attitudes and beliefs based on; “I’m not good enough” and/or “You’re not good enough” will impair your happiness potential in any and all relationships whether it’s your relationships with other people or the relationship you have with yourself.

For advice on ‘rekindling’ relationships, check out the following article:

Seven Steps to Rekindling and Creating an Open and Loving Relationship

Creativity is man’s strongest weapon.
Love his greatest ability.
Fear his primary source of failure and…
Narcissism his inherent weakness.

A vision without action is nothing more than an illusion. What is your vision?

Envision – Create – Live

All it takes is action!