THE HEART OF LOVE

On a scale of 1 to 10, (with 10 being the highest) how open are you to receiving love generously? If you are less than a 9, we encourage you to open your heart to all that Love wants you to experience. Receiving love generously at a 9 or 10 will dramatically increase the flow of love in your life.

So why don’t we receive love well?

Here’s one reason. Loving people often find it easier to love others more than themselves. They are accustomed to giving. They are often not, however, accustomed to receiving. Yet this is not love’s way. Love is unconditional and universal. Love embraces everyone fully – and that includes you! Loving yourself is part of love’s wonderful plan for your life.

Here’s another reason we may resist receiving love generously. It may seem egotistical. But loving yourself is not at all about ego or selfishness. It is about opening yourself to receive all the gifts that love wants for you.

And here’s one last barrier to break through in receiving love generously. Our inner self talk – what we say to ourselves within our private thinking and heart – is often negative. “I don’t deserve love.” “I’m not really a Love Master.” “Why would anyone love me anyway?” Well, it’s time to let that inner talk be replaced with “I am worthy of being loved.” “I have great riches to share with the world and it is good for these riches to be acknowledged.” “I deserve to feel good about myself and let love from others wash through me with joy.”

You deserve to feel worthy, valuable, loveable within yourself. You deserve relationships that genuinely honor you. You deserve to flow through life with inner confidence. You deserve to like – and yes, love – yourself. We all deserve this.

Consider how much pleasure you as a Love Master have in giving love. It is just as important for others to have this same opportunity to give love to you. This requires that you let yourself receive their love and receive it generously.

How can you do this?

Notice when someone else is giving love to you – by their words or actions. Then notice what you do as a response. Do you push away their giving? Do you hurry them to finish and be through? Do you interrupt? Or say to yourself or even aloud, “That’s enough,” even before they are finished? Do you discount their complimentary words to you by telling yourself “It isn’t true?”

Then notice how often you are receiving love generously from yourself. Allow yourself to create a new energy of not blocking love from your own heart to itself.

As you become increasingly aware of how you resist receiving love generously, you will create a new habit of being a happy recipient – a generous recipient.

Since giving is good for the soul, you, as a Love Master, can notice and even encourage generous love-giving to you. By your gracious, open receiving of love from others, you also encourage them to stay in the flow of love.

When you receive love generously, there is a second benefit to everyone. You create more intimacy. It may feel that you are being more vulnerable to receive love so openly and generously, but rather than viewing this as a weakness, think of this as a strength of being more transparent, more visible and more centered in love. Transparency draws hearts closer together.

Welcome to this life-defining love moment. Love is inviting you to experience all that love has in store for you. Do you accept love’s invitation? We hope you do.

Loving yourself means you let the presence of love flow to you at all times. It means you have full permission to receive all love and enjoy it without any feelings of guilt. It means you accept continuous self-nurturing, comfort and encouragement as always available and never withheld. It means you begin to genuinely like and love you. Receiving love generously calls you to open your heart and life to all the gifts waiting for you from love.

Thank you for receiving our love so generously right now. Welcome to the heart of love.

© 2005 Scott & Shannon Peck

Dr. Scott Peck & Shannon Peck are co-founders of TheLoveCenter, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to creating more love – everywhere. This column is based on their new eBook, The Top 60 Love Skills You Were Never Taught: Secrets of a Love Master.”Are you a Love Master? Take the free Love Skills Quiz at www.TheLoveCenter.com.