If we put conditions on love, is it really love?
from Love Like God: Embracing Unconditional Love by Absolute Love Publishing
Share
By:Rick Hanson
The Unexpected Benefits of Contributing
I'd like to encourage you to notice, acknowledge and celebrate contributions of all kinds. It's amazing how this practice will enrich your life. Contribution is what creates relationships because it establishes a shared experience. Contribution nourishes both the giver and the receiver - a double gift that lasts forever in the heart. It's the little things you contribute that aggregate into really BIG things. Take a smile, for example. A simple smile can quickly build into an emotion of interest, of curiosity, of excitement - that inspires a reciprocal action! A contribution can be something very simple or something profound…
What Makes a Leader
If you are discouraged by all the discord you see in the world, I would like to share the one change that changes everything: changing how we lead. We hold the key to move beyond hope and through transformational change by looking at life differently and making different choices. We frequently use the terms leadership and management interchangeably as if they mean the same thing. They don't. We lead people and manage things, such as work and the everyday tasks of our lives. Leading is about our humanness, our relationships and our interactions with each other. Leaders are those who choose to make the…
Clutter, Peace, and a Lighter Spirit
My spirit felt heavy. I couldn’t seem to write and no reading material held my interest. I felt bogged down by life. My intuition told me to clean. I had items the kids had left, thinking they would want them some day. To my surprise, I found out they didn’t. I started looking around my home, realizing that I had stuff that meant nothing anymore. Suddenly, I felt energized to get rid of stuff. Heaviness became my decider. Does this item weigh me down, or does it make me smile and feel lighter? …
Prioritizing Relationships in This Unpredictable World
Many blessings in life are sadly taken for granted. You will never understand how precious life is until you face a life-threatening disease. I discovered this after being diagnosed with breast cancer six days after giving birth to my first child. I truly believe God sent me my son to spare my life because He had a great plan in store for me. I learned that we experience trials and tribulations to learn life lessons. We can either sulk in our misery or grow from the experiences and help others. Had I not struggled through a devastating disease, I would…
Say Yes To Know!
As an adult I am learning to assume and model a healthy way to be there for someone in need. It is not to say that psychologists and counselors have all the answers, but most do have the skills of identifying behaviors and issues that are inherent in a rough patch in my or a close one’s life. Yes, there are consequences to being in a relationship with one who does not want to hear what you have to say or demean your feelings; however, we have to push as hard as we can to diminish the claim of being…
The Wisdom That’s Saved My Sanity
The first thing I would share would be to stop at nothing to know the truth. Particularly the truth about who you are, your relationship to the Divine, and what you stand for. Next I would offer some pearls of wisdom I have collected from beloved friends and wise persons that have saved my soul and at times my sanity: "There is no competition for my true life's purpose, so there is no reason to hurry or worry about anything." "Be yourself, everyone else is taken." "People treat you the way you treat yourself." "You are stronger than you think."…
Improve This Relationship, Improve Your Life
I am passionate about helping people create better relationships with themselves. I once asked an audience to write love letters. "Make them gush with adoration and affection!" I told them, and then added this: "Write the letter to yourself." There was almost an audible gasp. I didn't read them, but as people left, an older woman in tears told me she couldn't come up with one thing. I was deeply saddened imagining what this state of inner desolation was creating in her outer experience. You see, life is an inside-out game. Our relationship with ourselves influences everything. How well we…
Stop Waiting for It to Get Easier
I learned 13 years ago how precious life is, and how short it can be, when I was diagnosed with melanoma. Having cancer was a defining moment in my life and I realized that that no matter what goals and dreams I had – the time to make them happen was now. I still run my life and operate my various businesses with that same sense of urgency. As a coach to entrepreneurs and small business owners, I hear about ideas for growth a lot. And whether the idea is based on a new product, a new or improved service,…
9 Principles for Great Relationships
Love is a choice, attraction isn't. You don't have any more control over who you fall for than you do over gravity. But when the chemical craziness of that first attraction wears off (after days or months or years), you wake up every day, look at the person in your bed and choose to be in love with them. You can choose not to love someone too. Don't be a love victim. Too many folks stay with men and women who are awful for them because they "love" them or because they're afraid of "failing". You have to love yourself…
Your Relationships, Your Legacy
What matters most in life is relationships. They define the quality of your time on Earth and determine the legacy you leave behind. Reaching out to people and letting them into your heart offers you - and them - the warmth and comfort that only deeply caring friends can bestow. So why aren't more of us able to establish these critical connections? The answer's simple - fear. And getting past it is the first hurdle to building lasting, meaningful relationships. Facing your fear isn't easy, but in relationship building, like bodybuilding, it's no pain, no gain. Many of us fear…
9 Wisdom Keys for Creating Possibility
Growing up, I always asked why people do the things they do, to learn their mindset. Your mindset creates your moods, attitudes and habits. I developed the following nine wisdom keys for feeding your mindset with possibilities & positiveness. 1. If you reveal who you truly are, you will attract the people who will most complement your life. Life is short and unpredictable. Don't waste another minute on the people, places and things that don’t make you happy. You are the one thing you cannot run away from, no matter what your passion, vision or inner talent is. Don’t worry about what…
7 Paths to the Life of Your Dreams
Be your authentic self. Be true to yourself always. Don't worry what other people will think. March to the beat of your own unique drum and do the things that make you happy. Magical things happen when you're following your passions, the things that you really love in life. Surround yourself with people who inspire you. Always seek to be around people who amplify your energy. After interacting with them, you'll feel uplifted and excited about life. Look for this reaction when considering friends, coaches, business partners, mentors, clients, Mastermind Group members, etc. Practice blissful thinking. Dream the biggest dream…
Making Art Out Of Life
Relationships have the brilliant power to inspire. To be inspired is to breathe in and out with the joyous certainty that you are loved for who you are. My favorite poet, Pablo Neruda, wrote metaphorically about the inspired individual in one section of his epic poem entitled "The Great Ocean": The wave that you let loose, Arc of identity, exploded feather When it was unleashed, it was only foam, And without being wasted came back to be born. All of your strength returns to its beginning....... What was expelled by the action of your abundance, All that was left of…
