How are you at receiving, really taking in, the love and abundance around you? In the clamor of everyday life, can you feel the great joy that is your natural state?

Me, I sometimes struggle.

I know in my head that I am loved and respected. I have a beautiful family, gorgeous friends, lovely colleagues, several spiritual communities. Love is all around, but I often can’t feel it. Old brain training and all—what we do and don’t get in childhood becomes the patterns of our brain in adulthood. It’s a fact. But it’s not our deepest, fullest truth.

Which is a good thing, because not truly experiencing love not only leaves me soul-starved and set up for some kind of soul-crushing, body-hurting binge, it frustrates the heck out of people in my life. It’s not nice for them when I deflect their affection.

Today while I was cycling in the park a simple little idea popped into my head:

Start where I am! I adore music, dance and other movement, and nature. Why not load up on these fun, nurturing things and sink way down into them as they are happening. Deepening my experience with these safe, joyful activities, I know from brain science, educates body and mind for ever-deepening enjoyment of the bigger, deeper, eternal joys of life.

I can’t just wait for these times to happen. I need to put fun stuff on my calendar, and let them happen fully, then slow down to feel the delight in my throat, chest and solar plexus. The sweet, cool, relaxed sensation that comes, that’s love. That’s contentment. That’s serenity. Unshakeable. The real deal. Infinite, eternal, sustaining, curative, centering, powerful.

Thus educated, my system is all the more ready to receive love and joy. Here’s another little secret: I don’t do this just for me. When I feel full and fed, I am stronger. I can reach higher and deeper, make stronger connections and be the peace I want to see in the world and in the people around me.

How about that?

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