Remembering Your Essential Nature

Close your eyes for a moment and think of the word love. What comes to mind? There is no right or wrong answer.

(Seriously, stop reading and close your eyes for one moment. I know you didn’t do it yet!)

Many of us associate this word with romantic love - you know cupid, hearts, flowers, champagne, Valentine’s day, arrow in your butt type of thing.

But what if I were to tell you that each one of us is love. Not just that we are loving, but we are love (noun). That underneath all of the hurt, fears, and baggage that each of us acquires over time is love, our essential nature.

Now before you start thinking of your archenemy and everyone else in your life that has caused you discomfort and harm, try to hear me out.

What if for just a moment you were to believe that your essential nature is love? That you are a Divine Being merely having a human experience (Hulnick & Hulnick, 2010). How would this shift the way you relate to yourself? Would you see yourself differently at all?

Now for some this may be hard to see because of the amount of guilt and shame from the past that you carry around. Ok. Let’s start with someone else then. Think of a small child you know - one that you truly feel love towards. One that causes you to feel that warm, squishy sensation in your chest at merely the thought of this child.

See this child in your mind’s eye. Can you envision them as love? As if they contain a golden light that just pours from them and that light is love.

Now think of another child you know. Can you do the same for them?

If so, how is it that these children are different than you? That somehow they are special but you are not? You were once a child and were just like them. Then time passed, experiences happened, you interacted with people that forget their essential nature and as a result caused you harm, and slowly, over time you began to forget your nature as well.

What if you were to believe again? Even just for a week?

Well that’s my challenge to you. For the next week try to see yourself and everyone that crosses your path as love - looking past all of the BS to truly Seeing the Loving Essence (Hulnick & Hulnick, 2010) in your mailman, bagger at the grocery store, your partner, friends, boss, fellow driver who cuts you off on the freeway, chatty neighbor, employee who is having performance issues, even your arch-nemesis.

What’s the worst that could happen to run this experiment for just one week?

This is a practice. Trust me. It may not come easily at first. You may have to try over and over (some humans will be trickier than others), but you will start to get the hang of it the more you attempt to see the loving essence in others. Like most things in life, I think you will find it to be worth the effort.

And for a bonus, write your experience down somewhere. Notice any shifts? How do you feel at the end of each day as you practice this? How do you feel at the end of the week? Do you see yourself or others any differently?

Can’t wait to hear how it goes for you!

Be still. Be love. Be you.