Do you struggle to understand it? Can one understand it mentally? I do not believe so. Love in modern times seems to have been made like everything else, superficial. We see it as physical love, as sex, as passion. However i believe love is so so much more than what we have been made to focus on.

In order to understand something, it sometimes helps to understand parts of the whole first. I spent a long time trying to bundle love up with other good qualities. All goodness stems from a place of love, but the understanding of love at its core, still eluded me. I thought to myself love is in acceptance, in patience, in tolerance, in service, but that is not the totality of it. These qualities are all wonderful, great qualities to work on and develop. If you see love as a flower, harnessing all these qualities within yourself helps to uncover the petals of love. However experiencing the flower is not the same as appreciating its individual parts.

I truthfully struggled with love. It is said God is love. We are meant to live in state of love. Well for a long time, I thought this felt like I was being asked to climb Mount Everest! Slowly though through work on different qualities and aspects of life and living and learning and healing, you get to the base of Everest and then slowly but surely you begin the climb.

So what is it? The closest way I can describe it is when you experience it, it feels like your heart expands and the love you feel flows from you, outwards. It is not an inward flowing sensation. Love causes the heart to expand, no matter whether you show love for the nature that surrounds you, for your family, your child, or love the work you do. It is the flowing of this essence, into all things that makes it a worthwhile practice.

Love does not need nor ask for anything, it just is. If you are waiting for others to love you before you commit to loving them, you might well be kept waiting. In order to receive love you need to learn to love yourself, flaws and faults and all. The imperfections are what you need to begin to love in yourself and once you begin to do this, loving others with all their faults and flaws and imperfections gets a whole lot easier. We are not meant to only love things that are perfect. We are meant to learn to love.

It is said love can move mountains, and you may well be asked to move the mountains that surround your heart in order to give and receive love freely. You know you have experienced something special, when god takes your greatest pain and fills that space with love. It is then that you truly begin to understand the transformative power of love. When that which used to cause you pain, now brings you deep joy and love, you know love has been used to transform you. This to me is the ultimate power of love.