Day 2: Shine Your Love Light

Your first giant step on the path to keeping love central in your life and in your everyday interactions, is simply to set an intention to open your heart - to invite bodhichitta. 

The Buddhist term bodhicitta means "completely open heart and mind". Developing bodhicitta is a journey: You move toward a flexible way of thinking and feeling, releasing fear and a need for security, and embracing the possibility of love.

Pema Chodron, in "The Places That Scare You", says that bodhichitta comes from the soft spot we each have, that allows us to feel the pain of others. "Without realizing it we continually shield ourselves from this pain because it scares us. We put up protective walls made of opinions, prejudices and strategies, barriers that are built on a deep fear of being hurt. ... But fortunately for us, the soft spot—our innate ability to love and to care about things—is like a crack in these walls we erect. It’s a natural opening in the barriers we create when we’re afraid. With practice we can learn to find this opening. We can learn to seize that vulnerable moment—love, gratitude, loneliness, embarrassment, inadequacy—to awaken bodhichitta."

Today I ask you again to access your intuitive mind - your connection to God, or the Inner Guide - and open a door to bodhichitta.

• Set the mood: Light a pink candle and dim the lights. If you want, you can turn on some favorite instrumental music very softly.
  

• Craft a clear intention: Say something like, "Today I invite bodhichitta, my open heart, to guide me, and ask where is the path of love leading me? Where can I release fear? 

• 5-minute Love Meditation:

1 minute - Relax your body, and focus on the tender emotion of generous love. Allow a smile to settle on your face and in your heart.

1 minute - Visualize love as soft, tingly, warm, pink light, and see it move from your heart to every part of your body so that every cell is glowing and vibrating.

1 minute - Now see the pink light of love radiating to fill the whole room, then the whole city, and the whole planet earth.

1 minute - See that all people, plants, and animals feel warm and happy.

1 minute - Send an extra dose of love light to those people you want to have a better connection to.

• Open to messages and gifts: You might get a vision, or thoughts, or just a feeling.

• Give thanks and return: Saying thanks out loud is how you acknowledge the reality of the gift. 

• Journal: Write (or draw) in your journal the images and thoughts that came to you, without editing or judging.