Love is all that matters

This is my 500th blog post!

To celebrate this landmark, collect your gift of my Make It Happen Manifesto.

To mark my 500th blog post, I could not have chosen a more appropriate topic – love.

What does the word love mean to you?

Does it evoke a vision of red roses, serenading in the park, moonlit walks and champagne?

In our world of glossy magazines and glitzy media, where we are constantly bombarded with images of the ideal, love struck and “perfect” couple, is it any wonder that the real meaning of love has been so diluted.

Love for some is about being starry eyed and going gaga over someone. The actual being in love becomes more important than ever truly loving someone.

Perhaps you are in love with the idea of being in love?

Here are some famous words with great depth from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (by Louis de Bernieres):-

“Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.

And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.

Because this is what love is.

Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day.

That is just being “in love”, which any fool can do.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

Those who truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from the branches they find that they are one tree and not two.”

The question is what will it take for you to be able to love like this?

And what will it take for the world to wake up to the true meaning of love?

This is the fourth in my series of 28 relationship articles for the month of February, during which I am taking you through a journey of improving all the relationships in your life.

I am calling it the 28 Day Relationships Adventure (28 DRA)

You can check out the first 3 articles here:-

Become Aware of Your Relationships

Love Yourself First Before Loving Anyone Else

Love Yourself Without Becoming Full of Yourself

You can read all 28 articles which are listed at the bottom of this post.

So Just What is Love?

Love is the most amazing thing in our lives.

It is what makes us human, what makes life worth living. Nothing else truly matters. The size of our homes, bank balances, the beauty of our spouse, the speed of our car – all these things pale into insignificance when we face the splendour of what it is that makes us tick.

Love does not make the world go around – it simply makes the ride worthwhile!

Love is not the highly commercialised circus we see around Valentines Day. It is much deeper and much more profound than sending someone a dozen roses at hugely inflated prices. It is much more than candle lit dinners and fancy chocolates.

We all yearn for that deep connection with others, those moments of bliss, joy, completeness.

We crave to have more of those delicious moments we may have had with a romantic partner. And yet, such moments seem so rare and forlorn.

We all remember the blissful moments when strangers have shared their love and made a difference.

We all remember the feeling of gratitude in the eyes of someone whom we have helped.

We remember how great it feels to do something for someone without expecting anything in return.

We cry when we see happy stories on our TV screens of families reuniting. Such stories touch our hearts and yet they are so rare, as we continue to get bombarded with so much doom and gloom by all the negative media around us.

We remember the sheer joy of children playing and the love in their eyes.

Our hearts skip a beat, we get goose pimples and we get teary eyed when we witness an act of sheer love, pure, unadulterated and unconditional.

Such Moments of Love Literally Take Our Breath Away

Love is much greater than what we feel romantically. It is what makes us sing, dance and makes us human.

The world today is just not working – our tried and tested methods have failed. We need to review our core values and to see just where we are headed.

If there was enough love in the world, we would simply not tolerate a single human being starving.

“There is enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed” – Gandhi

However, there is enough love in each of our hearts to heal the world. We have simply forgotten this as we all strive to get bigger, better and to get somewhere which we think will make us happy.

Usually though when we get there and have these things, we find forlorn emptiness. Yet there is a better way. Open your heart to what is possible.

There are so many simple things we can all do on a daily basis to bring more love into our lives. Together we can all make this an even better and more beautiful world than it already is.

“Love WILL conquer all – if you let it!” – Arvind Devalia

Once you become aware of the miracles that love can produce you will want more of the same. Your situation will change, people around you will change and you will change. You will become human again.

“The love you fail to share is the only pain you live with right now in your life” – Shore Slocum

Let us all become human again together, and manifest even more love in our already magnificent world.

A world of love, and love always.

After all, nothing else matters.

Daily Exercise for Today

Pause for 5 minutes today and reflect on how you can bring more love into the world today. Maybe you will discover your own magical wand to bring more love into the world.

It could be as simple as smiling at someone who could do with a lift, doing something for a friend, playing with your child and being fully present, giving a compliment to a stranger and so on.

Check out my 31 ways to carry out random acts of kindness and spread the love!

Of course remember to do it without any attachments to the outcome!

Please share below your experience of bringing more love into the world.

Finally, remember to celebrate with me my 500th blog post. Please do click here for your gift of my Make It Happen Manifesto.

28 Day Relationship Adventure

Postscript – Here are the complete 28 articles in this series for Feb 2011.

Please do check them all out:-)

1 – Become Aware of Your Relationships

2 – Love Yourself First Before Loving Anyone Else

3 – Love Yourself Without Becoming Full of Yourself

4 – Love is all that Matters

5 – 9 Simple Tips To Create Energising Relationships

6 – Why Decluttering your Friends is Good for You and Them

7 – Stop Bending over Backwards for Other People!

8 – Be Special to Find the Special One

9 – 10 Key Secrets for Becoming Likeable

10 – Don’t Fall in Love – Create Love

11 – Do you Believe in Soulmates?

12 – Open Your Heart and Find the Special One

13 – Create your ideal Valentine’s Day

14 – Make it a Fun Valentine’s Day Everyday!

15 – Make Your Relationship Even More Special

16 – Learn to Love Unconditionally

17 – 11 Keys to Improve ALL Your Relationships

18 – Why the Human Touch is Key

19 – How NOT to Make Friends!

20 – Share Your Love with Your Loved Ones Everyday

21 – Stop Judging, Start Loving

22 – Simple Trick to Instantly Improve All Your Relationships

23 – Why No One Is Ever An Ugly Duckling!

24 – Why World Compassion Begins With You

25 – Why Teamwork Always Begins with YOU

26 – How to Let People Go From Your Life

27 – Thank the Divine Every Day

28 – Stop Being An Approval Seeking Machine

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Every Retweet and Facebook share helps me grow my blog. I look forward to seeing you here again soon. Thank you for reading! – Arvind

 

Image courtesy of yoga – photowork