Giving love is only half of the story, letting love in is the other half.
For most of my life, I’ve had a tendency to shy away from letting love in.
Maybe I do a quick checks and balances, and determine that I’m not deserving of love.
Or I’ll fear that if I do let love in, I’ll have to do something that compromises myself to feel like I‘ve earned it.
So although it might appear as though I receive love, I often don’t.
And I’m not talking about romantic love.
Love can be a compliment, words of encouragement, an act of service, an offer of support, an appreciation of who someone is…
And by letting in these kinds of love, we receive the gift of another person who has taken the time to notice and appreciate the value of who we are.
And the act of receiving this kind of love allows love to flow in greater abundance. Bc receiving love creates more love and more incentive to give it away.
This doesn’t mean letting in toxicity, or compromising our boundaries. Letting love in begins with letting in our own love first.
Allowing ourselves the time to really appreciate who we are, to heal those old toxic ideas about ourselves that we once internalized, and to build trust with ourselves so that we can pause when love presents itself and then decide for ourselves if it is in fact love, or a transaction that could leave us in debt.
When we do receive love as love, we can feel the quality of it: it asks for nothing in return, warming our hearts like the sun.
And we can continue the flow of this kind of love by noticing others and appreciating who they are, whether they’re in a position to receive our love or not.
-JLK
