Friday, June 22, 2012

"Love is all you need"

I feel that there is one focal point that we can use every day to make our lives better. I believe that LOVE can make our days beautiful and our lives worth living. I don't just mean romantic love, although that type of love can bring an immense amount of happiness to your life. I want to recognize the power of all-encompassing love. Love is the feeling you aim to have for your job, your friends, the people you work with, your home, your ride to work, your meals, the barista at Starbucks that makes your chai latte with soy milk, and perhaps most importantly for yourself. Love is the ultimate source of energy.

Imagine if you woke up each day and your first thought was "I love this day". And then you stepped out of your bed and went to brush your teeth and thought "I love my Crest Sonic Brush" and eventually you made into your car on the way to work and thought "I love LA traffic".  It may seem extreme or downright crazy and the last example probably is both, but to focus on approaching every aspect of your life from a place of love changes your perspective and makes every step of your daily routine full of positive energy.

The Beatles said it best when they said "All you need is love. Love is all you need."

You may be wondering if I practice what I preach. Putting love into everything is a concept I discovered several months ago. I must admit it is not yet a part of my core behaviors but I do try to apply love to everything I do and every person I interact with. The days that I remember to come at every situation from a place of love the more I experience joy in my life.

My amazing support team
I recently competed in my very first pageant, to be the first Miss Santa Monica USA. I came into the process wanted to meet new people, make friends, and get more involved in the community where I live. Yes, I also planned on winning, but it wasn't my first priority. The weekend of the pageant, my family and close friends came in town to support me. The love that radiates around the most important people in my life traveling across the country to celebrate and encourage me infused a brand new joy in my core. I felt so much love sitting down with all of them the night before the pageant. Bob, Jill, Allie, Mimi, Margo, Kira, Colin, Taylor, Katie, Revan, Maura- I cannot even explain how much loving energy radiated off of this group coming together to support me.

Me with the fabulous Miss Santa Monica
The pageant day was an unforgettable experience of my life. All the girls came together with anticipation for what was to come. Many, like me, were entering their first pageant. I came into this day with so much love in my heart I felt I was exploding with energy. There was lots of talking, some dancing and even a few short lived group ab routines that we did before our big moment on stage. I had so much love for the girls with dreams equally large as mine, ranging from athletes to musicians to neuroscience/ engineering majors, we were a diverse group of individuals. But regardless of who we were, the energy of the day was contagious between us. All I experienced that day was love. My entourage sat in the first two rows and I could feel them looking up at me proud of me for branching out into a new world of pageantry. Their support infused me with love. As you may know, I did not win this pageant. After being first called in the top ten announcement, I was not called to be in the top five. The defeat was momentarily disappointing but the experience was something I will always carry with me as a day of joy, friendship and personal growth. Who knew I could impress a group of judges in a one-on-one interview but disappoint the same group during an onstage question? It was all chance at a lesson that will push me to work harder in other areas of my life and move forward in my future experiences. If I see the end result as an unfair question or unfair judgement, I am left helpless to make any changes. When I can look at the experience from a point of love, I can see the opportunity for future growth. So I chose love. From that place I can see where I could have done better and how the winner was most deserving of the crown.

<3 Miss Santa Monica Haley Fletcher is a beautiful choice to represent the community. A California native that focuses on furthering her education and personal growth while staying active in loving the people around and bettering her community. I can't imagine anyone more worthy of the title. And I am so blessed to be able to call her a friend.

When you remember to love, you will be rewarded.
So I encourage you and remind myself that with love, your life will prosper. It has been proven in clinical tests that people that have love and respect for their body have an easier time losing weight than people that hate their flaws. So when you recognize recent weight gain, remind yourself how much you love your body, your curves, your strength, but commit to making it better, rather than attack it for what is wrong. When interacting with the people in your life, you will find that people mirror how you treat them. Treat others with love and you will receive love in return. Come from a place of love in every aspect of your life. When you do, you will experience more love from people and from the world around you. When you see the world is beautiful, it will be such. When you see your body as strong, you will make it so. Stay positive, remember to love.


My sister recently shared a quote from "Eat, Pray, Love" that I find very powerful and a good thought to meditate on and work towards.


I think [we] have the capacity to one day love the whole world.