With all of the violence and confusion that seems to be crashing down on us in recent weeks, taking a step back and realizing where your priorities lay can be a huge eye opener. Too much hate weighs too heavily on your soul and the one balancer to hate is love.
So, what do you do when the love you're receiving is less than the love you're giving? Do you keep loving, or do you focus your attention and priorities elsewhere? You could take better care of yourself or maybe have a little more free time for Netflix and sleeping, or you could go on loving how you do.
At the end of the day, even if it feels like you have nobody there for you, you have your own love and spirit within you. You have the power to change someone's day for the better, and create a lasting influence on their life. If you have that power and the opportunity to make a difference, wouldn't you take it?
Sometimes if I'm feeling exhausted and feeling a little more hate than love, I've experimented to reciprocate those negative emotions others show me. By doing what others do to me in return, I find that that makes my mood worse and brings me down even lower than I was before. Loving others may be taxing, but at the end of the day, you get the return you desire even if they don't show love the same way you do. Every day is a new opportunity to love those around you a little deeper and a little harder, in whatever way you think is best.
Imagine you're in an elevator with a couple of people you somewhat recognize that work or live in your building. You have a 30-second elevator ride with strangers until they get off and you don't see them until the next time you ride together. You stand in close proximity to someone who could've just gotten fired, found out their dog passed away, or maybe got stuck in traffic. There can be many reasons for a bad day, and you don't truly know what someone else is going through until you talk about it with them. Treating others with love is especially important because you don't know what they're going through or the depths of the pain they are feeling.
Gandhi once said, "Where there is love there is life." Love one, if not the most, universal emotion. Although we all experience it in different capacities, the opportunity we have to love one another is phenomenal. Every chance you get, hold a door for someone, tell them you appreciate them- whatever and however it is you show love, DO IT. Love with all you have and give it all you've got. Loving the wrong people might pose a risk of getting hurt, but not showing someone how much love you have for them is risking so much more.
