Maybe you’ve caught yourself flipping off another driver. Maybe you worry that you yell at your kids too much. Or maybe you watch the news and simply want to add more love to the world as a counter to the hate and destruction that is reported each day.
Regardless of your reason, wanting to be more loving is one thing, but making it a practical habit that you include in your day-to-day life is another.
Let’s talk practical applications.
- Keep track of thoughtful and helpful things people do for you for a day or make a list of things people did for you in the past. Each day, pick one person from your list and send them a thank you note.
- Make a list of three things you love about yourself every night. Some people find this harder than kind acts for other people. However, being able to love yourself will do as much, if not more, for helping you become a more loving person.
- Pick one person out of the people you see on a regular basis and make a list of their positive attributes, strengths, and behaviours. Over the course of a week, find ways to let them know you appreciate them. Next week, pick another person and do the same thing.
- Every day, look directly at someone and smile – be it a stranger or someone you’ve silently passed in the hall for years.
There are far more practices and habits you can develop than I can cover in this blog, but if you start with one or more of the above ideas and make them part of your daily life, you’ll see things shift beyond your expectations.
The more you look for small ways to be more loving and then act on those things, the more it will become second nature. Your habits of kindness and love will slowly displace any tendencies to find faults or criticize.
As always, I am available if you have any questions – for counseling, mindful change sessions, or coaching. Please let me know if you would like to talk with me. You can contact me HERE.