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I write about love and I help others struggling in relationships, however, if I’m honest, I don’t always take my own advice.

I am humanly flawed after all, and I have had my own share of heartbreak, grief, and loss.

I am slowly waking up and you can too. Waking up requires that we become aware of the iron fence and slowly start opening up.

The truth is people who have experienced heartbreak often will guard their hearts with a fortress. If we aren’t careful this fortress can become a prison, not a gate.

The walls that we create to protect can destroy lives, the very lives we try to protect.

Human beings need each other.

We aren’t designed to navigate life alone living in isolation.

We are designed and meant to connect. We are biologically hardwired this way for survival.

So, how do we embrace love?

How do we make space for love?

How do we slowly open up that gate?

I have been meditating on love for a year. Yes, meditating and praying.

This is, simultaneously, a heart-wrenching and heart-opening experience.

A daily heart-opening meditation followed by journaling has helped me get in tune with feeling those emotions, like visitors who come and go.

Daily journalling dreams, thoughts, and behaviours have also provided insight.

I have been exploring and slowly opening my gate and letting myself be more vulnerable.

This is a journey, and like all journeys, there have been times when I’ve lost my way, times that I have become sidetracked, and times I have stepped off the path altogether.

The self-love journey was and is a daily practice. The practice is the path to self-actualization and renewal.

Being honest with oneself is integral to this process.

Identifying and acknowledging cognitive distortions is a start.

Challenging negative core beliefs comes next—we face those fears. Facing the fear of rejection and loss can be painful, and yes, it is necessary.

There are steps to take moving forward.

Gentle and loving self-talk is integral.

Relationships serve as mirrors and opportunities to grow. We can embrace love when it arrives by first showing compassion for our wounds, acknowledging that we all have wounding.

We embrace love by standing in our truth, naked in our own vulnerability.

We slowly open and share our true, authentic self.

We live in the now while dreaming and planning a future, one which includes another human.

We create space and fluidity.

Leaning into life, we become the dancer and the light of our own lives. This is the dance that started when we first arrived on this planet.

This is the dance of love.

We become the lover and the beloved.

Learning to embrace love as it arrives is like learning to breathe all over again.

We learn to live again, breathing life back into our heart and lungs.

We come alive.

Darlings, may you all be well, and may the light shine upon you as you journey the path of love.

~