The Purpose of Unconditional Love

I was recently looking back on my gratitude journal and had a chuckle for how often I have our dog listed.  If you are a dog person you get this -  we just love our dogs so much - and they for sure, have unconditional love for us.  Imagine your most strained relationship, and now imagine feeling what you feel for your dog, for that person.  Say what?!  I am going to suggest unconditional love is actually a gift you give yourself, and it makes your life easier, not harder.

Love feels good.  If given a choice most of us would choose it, yet we don’t often consciously choose it.  Instead we choose to feel disappointment, or frustration when someone doesn’t meet our expectations.  We create rules that set us up to feel negative emotion.  We act as if there actions, determine our feelings.  This is not how it works - our thoughts about their actions cause the negative emotions.  The truth is, you not feeling loving is only hurting you.

You always have the option to love available to you.  Often times clients will tell me they need their spouse or in laws to act a certain way for them to deserve their love.  Here’s the things friends - your love for them doesn’t jump into their bodies.  Love is what you experience.  You get to feel love when you love somebody.  So just as you are the only one feeling the love, you are also the only one feeling the hate.  You hold the responsibility to choose which one you want to feel.  Wouldn’t it be ridiculously amazing if you love everyone like you love your dog?  You may not think it is possible, but just imagine how life would change if you started to be open to the idea.