A love story....

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You receive from the world what you give to the world.” – Gary Zukav

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share a part of my own love story.

Although my husband and I were deeply in love and trying our best, our first year of marriage was filled with misunderstandings, fights, and lots of hurt feelings. I did what any young wife might think to do – I blamed my husband for everything! I was convinced if I could just get him to change and to understand how he was making me feel, that everything would be better. Sounds logical, right? Well, this approach did NOT work for me. In fact, the more I focused on changing him, the worse things got.

Luckily, just the right books and teachings came into my life at the perfect time. (See my reading list here.) I learned that instead of trying to change my husband, I needed to become conscious of MYSELF. So I started focusing on my own energy – what I was thinking, feeling and contributing to my husband. I began to shift myself and my reactions.

As a part of this change in focus, I started a gratitude practice. Each day, I wrote down one thing I appreciated about my husband. Sometimes I shared it with him, but most of the time I just wrote it down for myself.

Within a short period of time, everything shifted. We soon found ourselves in a new marriage. This one was filled with compassion, understanding, and appreciation. The difference felt like nothing short of a miracle. Even better, this change was lasting.

This experience not only transformed my marriage, it changed ME. I now realized that it was my energy that created EVERYTHING I experienced in life. I continue to live and learn from this truth.

This is not to say we've ever had a perfect marriage! Of course, we've had our share of challenging times and periods where we're out of sync. But the foundation since that time has stayed the same. I remember that no matter what the challenge, the invitation is always to come back to center and to look within.

What I deeply know is that our experience of love comes from within. The more we align with love and the more we give love, the more we receive love. Where are you in your love story? I’d love to hear!