By Terry Ludwig
© 2012 Diversity Rules Magazine and Terry Ludwig. All rights reserved.
www.diversityrulesmagazine.com
Terry’s brother Rob died of AIDS in 2004 and left her his writings of which Keep Up Now is the result. Terry can be reached at keepupnow@gmail.com. Check out Terry’s website at: www.terryludwig.net to find out how to manifest happiness and abundance.
The question is this…
Do you love yourself enough to choose happiness, instead of this?
I tend to absorb the energy of the people around me; especially those I’m in relationship with. When family, friends, clients or co-workers are angry and their anger projects onto me, I become upset, even though I know their anger has nothing to do with me. It’s a lesson in loving “me” I’m still learning.
When I was a young, I was conditioned to believe happiness was getting love. Love came in the form of approval, acknowledgment and validation. Sometimes it showed up as money and gifts; a sense of security. Like most people, I spent the majority of my time looking for love; behaving appropriately, looking just right and doing my best. If I did all of these things, then I would certainly be loved and protected.
If you’re like me, you have also been conditioned to pursue love this way. Your intention is to have love and you spend great amounts of energy trying to be perfect, vying to control situations, and often other people, in order to avoid pain. However, you abandon yourself in the process, and forget to fill yourself, leaving a great emptiness inside.
Self-Abandonment causes enormous pain, resulting in addictive behavior and harm we inflict on ourselves; not to mention the controlling and often destructive things we do to others.
I have come to know the truth about having and getting. It is only in giving that we can truly have. Getting love is temporary; it fills the emptiness we feel inside and easily becomes addictive. On the other hand, the ability to give love is a result of being filled with self love that is abundant and overflowing from deep within our core.
When we shift our intention, from getting love and avoiding pain to loving ourselves and sharing that love with others, our heart expands, we are filled with passion and an enormous sense of strength as we connect with the Universe.
This action requires vigilance and comes from consciously choosing to love your Self. When your intention is to love yourself you connect to the one source that connects all of us and ultimately, you will experience abundance and know true Love. However, it’s necessary to observe your mind, negate fearful thoughts and choose Love on a consistent basis.
The next time you feel scared, anxious, or angry about a situation, ask yourself, “Do I love myself enough to choose happiness…. instead of this?”
The choice is yours. You are the creator of your life experience.
Keep up Now with the stream of higher consciousness and stay connected to the Source.