Live the life you love. Love the life you live.

I practice the art of falling in love with my life. The blessings each of us has in our lives run deep.

Even when there has been some pain, loss, or suffering, there is also goodness in each day. But sometimes we need to make an effort to open ourselves to it.

Sometimes opening ourselves to goodness happens by itself. Sometimes we need to encourage it—to do so, we can relax our minds and bodies. When we let our shoulders relax, breathe fully, and open our eyes wider than before, we notice some beauty.

We don’t need to find beauty in every moment—It would not be true to our authentic, challenging experience of being human. If we want to live a fulfilled life, we must open ourselves. We must experience abundance in small, mundane moments in our everyday life.

Let’s call this “the practice of falling in love with your life.”

If today, you have not yet fallen in love with your daily experiences, you may change it. You may change it right now. 

How can we experience abundance in life? We can feel it through sensation and experience—but not through thinking. Our minds will always find fault. This is why we cannot ask our minds if our experience is enjoyable—but we can ask our senses.

When you wake up in the morning, how do your sheets feel like? How do your pillow and blanket feel like? Are they soft and cozy?

Yes, you might need to get up from your bed earlier in the morning. But did you sleep for the night on soft sheets? On a comfy pillow? Under a warm blanket? Notice how good this feels.

Then there is the shower and the sensation of the water running on your skin—so sensual and refreshing. Yes, you might have a meeting in an hour you are dreading—but how does the shower feel? If it feels good, notice it and fall in love with your life right in that moment.

The food you eat throughout the day: notice how good the flavors are. Our taste sensations bring us so much pleasure. Take the time to experience the wealth of flavors that life gives us.

During the day, you also get to interact with people or animals you have a love for. Yes, you may be mad at them sometimes—but are they beings you love dearly in your heart? Take a moment to feel that love. Think, “Wow! This is my life.”

The whole day will not go as smooth as you want. Toes will be stubbed, coffee mugs will get broken, feelings will be hurt. Every day people die, get diagnosed with diseases, and do terrible crimes.

But those things that hurt us, scare us, and stress us out are not happening in every moment.

Some moments are quiet and full of pleasure. And in these moments—even if they only last a moment—we can fall in love with life once again.

Indeed, loving life is a practice. We are often given many reasons to not love our life—but we should not focus on it. We can go in another direction.

We can appreciate life when we soak in the beauty of feeling the pleasure of sensory experiences. When we practice the art of falling in love with life, we notice things that feel good in our world. These things grow and start to become the norm. And one day, we notice that we aren’t practicing anymore—we are loving life, that’s all.

 ~ 

Author: Ruth Lera
Image: @elephant journal Instagram
Editor: Angel Lebailly
Copy Editor: Catherine Monkman
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