Be Love: A Way Of Life

Discover the power of love

Built with ideas from Ram Dass, Sadhguru, and my own personal twist.

meditation, mindfulness meditation, loving awareness, self awareness, benefits of meditation, be here now, aware of emotions

You may, or may not have noticed that every time I write, I end by saying “Be Love”. You’ll also have noticed this if you follow me on Twitter.

As I begin to grow my blog and write more, I believe it’s important that I dig into what I mean when I say this. By understanding “Be Love”, you will have an easier time seeing where I come from, and my train of thought.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve read and listened to a lot of ideas on Buddhism, Taoism, Yogism, and more. A lot of my ideas and beliefs in life come from these philosophies, as well as from meditations of my own.

After all, each of our life experiences form our beliefs.

Ram Dass and Sadhguru are two individuals in my more recent years that have had a bigger influence on me. When I hear what they talk about, a lot of it resembles the same conclusions that I have come to myself.

The concept of “Being Love” resonates the most.

This embraces the true beauty and meaning in life more than anything else. It allows you to explain how you should live every moment with two simple words.

Be love.

In this blog, I will not only attempt to explain the concept but also teach how I apply this to my everyday life.

The basis of the concept

Being love is actually a very simple concept. However, at first, when you start trying to apply this to your life, you realize that it requires constant effort. With time though, that’ll fade and it will become who you are.

To begin, you need to be aware of your actions and thoughts, and how they affect your relationships. Everything you do must embody love. That’s where the effort comes in.

Ram Dass emphasized that our essential nature is love, and our spiritual journey is about uncovering and expressing this love in our lives.

Love is not just an emotion or an action - it’s a state of being.

When we are in this state of being, we radiate love and compassion in every aspect of our existence. I like to come this to when your friend is newly in love. They’re so joyful and happy that their state is almost contagious. The love just “oozes” off of them.

That’s the state of love.

Sadhguru teaches something similar.

Love is a state of being, not something you do. Love must be a part of your nature, it’s not something you seek externally.

Sadhguru also emphasizes that love is not reserved for people in your life or your relationships. You must expand these experiences to everyone around you. This brings a sense of oneness and unity to the world.

To enter the state of love, you must connect with your inner self and experience love as a natural part of being. That’s where yoga and meditation come into play.

Applying “Be Love” To Your Life

Prior to acting on a thought, you have to make a decision. What would be the most loving thing you could do?

The way that I look at it is if love was a person, what would it do at this moment?

Would “Love” yell at the car that cut you off, or would it smile, and keep driving?

Would “Love” make fun of the person wearing an unusual swear? Or would it appreciate the uniqueness of the person in front of it?

I have found that embracing love as a person, and embodying that person, is the easiest way to constantly “be love”.

How do I do this?

Historically I’ve drank a lot and partied a lot. Today, however, I have not had a sip of alcohol in 6 months. One of the reasons I’ve been able to do that is by constantly trying to “be love”.

Now today, prior to going out, I always meditate for 5-10 minutes. During this meditation, I focus on being love.

I run through situations in my mind and how I can react to bring more love to the moment. Before I go out, I’m already aware of who I’m going to talk to, and what conversations I have. My goal is now to bring more love to that environment.

By building that intention ahead of time, you’re setting yourself up for success and much more loving and connecting conversations.

One of the reasons I went sober is because I enjoyed having these conversations much more than those when I was drunk.

That’s why I believe the best way to “be love” is to embody love as a person and build the intention of bringing love to every moment ahead of time.

Eventually, it’ll be effortless and become who you are.

Self-Awareness

Sadhguru’s teachings on self-awareness are key to understanding and experiencing love as a state of being. By being self-aware, we connect with our true nature and embody love more fully in our lives.

Self-awareness is the key to love. By becoming more aware of our thoughts, emotions and inner experiences, we can recognize the love that is true to our nature and then learn to express that love fully.

That’s one of the reasons why meditation is so important.

Allowing your mind to flow. Let your thoughts and emotions pass by in front of you so you can better understand them. Don’t hide from your dark thoughts. Be aware of them.

The better you understand your thoughts and emotions, the more you know how to navigate them. That way you can now navigate relationships with greater empathy, compassion and love.

Through meditation, you also discover where love comes from. Love does not come from outside of us, but is part of our nature. As you develop self-awareness, you recognize the source of love with yourself and can express it unconditionally, without needing validation or approval.

Sadhguru’s Isha Kriya meditation is a good way to help cultivate self-awareness and access your capacity for love.

As you develop self-awareness and learn to embody love, you’ll experience a profound transformation. This will allow you to live authentically, compassionately and joyfully.

When you live a life of love, it becomes contagious. You spread joy to others which leads to a more peaceful world.

Dissolve Your Ego

The ego is a major obstacle when trying to enter the state of love. By working to dissolve your ego, you’ll be able to unlock your true potential for love, compassion and overall growth.

Ram Dass teaches that the ego is a false sense of identity that we create based on thoughts, beliefs and experiences. It’s the voice in our head that tells us who we are, what we want, and how we should behave.

This ego-driven identity is not our true self, but just a limited construct that keeps us from experiencing our inherent nature as love.

Your ego will generate feelings of separation, fear and judgment. This prevents us from connecting with others and experiencing love. When you become aware of these limitations, you’ll begin to see through the illusion of the ego, and can start to dissolve it.

To dissolve your ego, you need to cultivate your self-awareness, which again, brings us back to meditation.

When you observe your thoughts, emotions and inner experiences, you can recognize the ego’s patterns and see that they are not true.

Living in the present moment is also crucial for dissolving your ego.

The ego thrives on past and future thinking. The fear of what might happen and the grief of what has. By learning to be fully present and mindful, we can begin to dissolve the ego.

Dissolving the ego will involve cultivating self-awareness, embracing the present moment and practicing treating others with love and compassion.

Too many people are controlled by their egos and cannot handle being “disrespected” or “judged”. They allow this to control them and instead of choosing the side of love, they want to satisfy the voice of their ego.

Only by letting go, and dissolving your ego, can you unlock your true potential for love, compassion and growth, and embody the “be love” philosophy.

Self-Love

Being love starts with self-love. It is a foundation for personal growth, personal development and cultivating love for others.

When you become self-aware, dissolve your ego and be present, giving yourself the love you deserve becomes a lot easier.

We are all imperfect for the simple reason that we are human. You must be realistic with the expectations you have of yourself. Show compassion and decide from this moment to have a more loving relationship with yourself.

Many of us overcomplicate what this means. Let me explain how I view self-love.

What would someone who loves themselves do?

It’s a simple question, but by constantly asking ourselves this before making decisions, we will quickly be showering ourselves with love.

Would someone who loves themselves go to the gym today, or would they sit on the couch and watch Netflix? (That may vary day by day. That’s where self-awareness comes into play)

Would someone who loves themselves drink 3 days in a row, or take a break to rest and hydrate?

By asking yourself this question before making decisions your life will change quickly.

One more good way to show yourself love, is to literally tell yourself, “I love you”.

This is a concept taken from the book “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It” by Kamal Ravikant.

It’s very simple, powerful and yet hard to start. That’s because it can be uncomfortable at first.

What you do is you go to a mirror, look yourself in the eyes, and say “I love you” over and over again.

I know, weird. It is effective though.

This can also be done in the form of meditation.

Breathe in and say “I love you”, and then out and say “thank you”. You are thanking yourself for being you, getting you this far, and giving yourself this love.

Try it for a month straight and then you can decide for yourself.

It’s important to know that you deserve love. You are human and you were born with this right. You were born loved, and innocent. You made decisions along the way to the best of your ability and those decisions were made based on your experience, and knowledge.

Guess what… You made some bad ones, just like every other human alive. That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve love or happiness.

Stop making excuses, and love yourself.

So Why Do I Say “Be Love”?

I hope that one day we will say “be love” the same as we say hello or goodbye. That way it can serve as a constant reminder. A reminder to be present, to dissolve our egos, to spread love and compassion and to be completely aware of ourselves.

It’s such a simple concept, yet if every person embodied it in their soul, the world would be a complete, peaceful place.

Remember, this love starts within you and today, you can decide to cultivate that love and spread it.

There is no limit to love. You’ll never run out because you can always make more. Your body is a never-ending love factory and it’s up to you to give it the environment to produce as much love as possible.