Orienting Yourself Toward Love

by Brad and Jan Lundy

In the March/April issue of Healing Garden, we introduced the concept of Perfect Love, the highest form of love we long to experience with another - unconditional love - love without conditions, love without the ego.

For thousands of years now, the ancient wise ones - masters, saints, and yogis of all religions and spiritual persuasions - have known how to access Perfect Love, but rarely was it within reach of the average person. Their approach might take years, even lifetimes, of study, practice, and personal sacrifice. So, what did they know that we don’t? Very simply, they knew how to operate in the world as their Spirit selves. Perfect Love resides within our spirit identity. If we are to fully experience love such as this, we must begin to spend more and more time in our Spirit identity rather than our ego identity.

Our journey to Perfect Love begins when we can successfully identify when we are operating from our Spirit self vs. our ego self. Actually, you are experiencing parts of your Spirit self all throughout the day. Anytime you have a thought or feeling of being kind, generous, loving, or peaceful, you are operating from your Spirit self. Every positive human quality that we have a name for is part of our Spirit selves.

On the other hand, whenever you have a thought or feeling that ties you up emotionally, causing tension or frustration, you are operating from your ego self. Imagine all the negative qualities we experience as human beings: fear, anger, greed, despair, judgment. These are all part of our ego selves.

Because you are a spiritual being having a human experience, you will experience many qualities of both ‘selves’ throughout the day. Moment by moment, depending on the experiences you’re having, you’ll move back and forth between the two. It reminds us of the lyrics in a Donny and Marie Osmond song, “I’m a little bit country. I’m a little bit rock and roll.” We act as if we are a little bit ego and a little bit Spirit. The key to experiencing Perfect Love is to begin to spend more and more time on the higher end of the spectrum - the Spirit end - and to make choices every moment to live and love from this wonderful space. To do so, you just need to identify which foot you are standing on.

Try this simple technique when you need help identifying if you are acting/reacting from Spirit or ego.

When you are feeling badly, experiencing any strong negative emotion, pause, and ask yourself, Which foot am I standing on?

Let’s think of your right foot as your Spirit self and your left foot as your ego self. Identify the feeling you are having: I’m feeling (anger, fear, etc.)

Actually, if you are asking this question, you’re probably standing on your left foot, which represents ego. If you were standing on your right foot, the Spirit self foot, you would probably not be asking this question in the first place!

Remember, whenever you feel any of the negative emotions we’ve described above you have tapped into the energy of your ego self. Once identified, you can decide to remain in that negative energy or to move toward your Spirit self. There are many techniques for doing so which we share in our book, and will present in future columns. For now, practice identifying which foot you are standing on and notice how you feel.

The more time you are able to spend in your Spirit identity, the more Love you will be able to experience. Love will naturally flow out of you and come back to you in return each time you do so. Try it and see!

In our next column, we’ll show you how to tap into the ‘Vibration of Love’ to experience even more Love. But if you can’t wait until then, visit www.soulsailing.com for guidance.

Adapted from Perfect Love: How to Find Yours and Make It Last Forever © Brad and Jan Lundy, Heart to Heart Press, 2006.

Brad and Jan Lundy are the founding editors of Healing Garden Journal. They invite you to join their online community dedicated to ushering in Perfect Love: www.soulsailing.com. For presentation dates, private Soul Sailing lessons and book purchases visit their website or call (231) 933-6070. Please see back cover ad for Perfect Love book signing dates and locations.