Ciana Moulton, Marketing and Events Executive
Love is the magic grown-ups get to keep. It is a decision taken to nurture something precious while it grows into something far better than you had ever imagined. Love is both the easiest and the hardest thing in the world. Love is listening. It is caring more about another person than you care about yourself. It is a moment where everything changes from me and I, to we and us. Your world shifts.
Love is in the quiet and it is in a 3am argument over whose turn it is to buy milk. It is having someone beside you when you fail, having your hand held, being told all is okay. Love is being picked back up so you can move on to succeed. Love is all consuming and crazy and makes little sense. Love is a blind belief, truth and trust. Love accepts you for who you really are. The best thing about love, it is only the beginning of a much longer story.
Twitter: @ci_wii87
Kieran Ring CEO at The Global Institute of Logistics
To me Love is a language. I was blessed that my parents spoke it fluently and passed it on to me as a child. It has a limited number of words, each of which contain light. It’s spoken politely, with a soft tone and mysteriously, you forget it in your sleep! The language is good for 24 hours and has enough words for just one day, after which a fresh supply has to be downloaded (best done first thing in the morning). When I forget to do this, I speak naturally and I just have to have my say! I speak loudly and I feel important. Instead of listening I interrupt, my words are coarse and the world seems to darken. (The world doesn’t darken, I do!) When I speak in love, I don’t have to have my say. I speak softly and the hearer feels important. I listen, my words are soothing and the world seems to brighten. (The world doesn’t brighten, I do!)
And you can add special words to the language. Mine are Siobhan, Petra, Toni, Jack, Reuben and Caleb, their love means everything to me!
Sandra Smith Yoga Teacher, Energy Bodyworker & Nutrition Consultant
I used to think that love was a feeling. That it was something that could be given and taken. Something that you could fall into and out of. I grew up hearing how we should love our fellow man and then that we must learn to love ourselves before we can truly love another. Now, I believe that love is what we ‘are’ at our core! I believe that I ‘am’ love! Although I have had lovely experiences over many years of practicing yoga and meditation, this feeling of ‘I am love’ has never resonated with me as strongly as it now does, since I’ve started practicing and teaching Tantra Kaula Yoga. The feeling of freedom and non-judgement allows love to flourish and most importantly create healing within.
Facebook: Tantra Kaula Yoga
Yahaira Reyes Jimenez, Author
Once again, the universe gives you what you need when the time is right. The request for this piece comes precisely as my heart is being broken, for the millionth time. And what better way to think about the meaning of Love than when you’re crying a river, listening to sad Latino songs and shouting “why me?” to the sky. Perfect timing!
Love is peace, the idea that a missing part is back in its place, and that your heart is complete. It is not the need of having someone next to you to love and cherish daily because this will make you happy. I am already happy, but love often feels like a physiological need to share all the love inside me with another human being. At times I fear that if I can’t share it soon, my chest will overflow; and I will end up hugging strangers on the street, just so I can be rid of so much emotion and can walk, once again, as light as the breeze.
Paddy Honan, Life and Business Coach
Defining love is always a challenge, as we are really talking about different concepts. On the one hand, romantic love or ‘Eros’ as the Greeks called it, is the intense attraction between two people. This is circumstantial and is really love of two personalities, striving or pretending to be perfect for each other. This popular ‘in love’ phase is not love, but attraction or infatuation and can sometimes quickly turn into hate or anger. Spiritual love or ‘Agape’ on the other hand, is love for the sacred reality of each human being. This form is beyond circumstance and is principle based. It drives us humans to extend beyond our own interests, to suffer for the well-being of our fellow humans and to rise above creature comforts. This sacrificial form of love is also found in intimate relationships. While we may believe that needing someone is love, the truth is that when we help each other to grow, irrespective of how it makes us feel personally, is when we really begin to love each other.
Aiyanna Diyamayi, Meditation Teacher of the Amartya Tradition
For me, Love means to be present to my true authentic being, that lives forever free beyond the clouds of the mind and to allow that into expression. It is an availability for the one divine will that wants to create through all of us in perfect orchestration, to fulfi l the need in every moment. It is an act of humble and innocent listening for that part of divine will that wants to fl ow through you and me in every moment – and to allow that to become real. It takes courage, truthfulness and self-compassion when we no longer try to fulfi l expectations in order to be loved, and honour ourselves through allowing our true nature, love and creativity to be expressed. And so we let go, listen and live our deepest truth – and give ourselves permission to make mistakes on the way. To take those courageous steps beyond our fears and to live with an undefended heart is the highest gift of Love and nurturance we can give to our beloved, ourselves and the world as a whole. And what we receive in return is true purpose, true fulfilment and true relationship.
This is taken from our summer 2015 issue. Subscribe to receive the magazine in print each quarter >
