Love heals all.

Yes. But what is actually love?

What is love currently for you?

When I was a kid, I definitely experienced more love when I had good grades or did well in sports. It did not feel like the unconditional love that is ALWAYS there.

I was giving my best to meet other's expectations (of course, I also learned to have high expectations for myself and to be hard with myself if I didn't meet them) because it would make life easier, more harmonious and I'd feel more loved and appreciated.

Is this kind of love healing? No.

I also learned that loving someone would mean to do everything or a lot for them. This also meant for me, if someone did not do something for me they would not love me and so I would not love them.

Today, I have a completely new understanding of love.

Unconditional love is a way of being, it is an energy we can always receive and give.

It is the ability to hold space for yourself and others, no matter whether you "like" them or not. It means allowing someone to be themselves. To hold them in ways that the other person can fully relax and surrender to receiving love.

It means loving yourself through the difficult emotion & hard times.

It is the capacity to fully BE with yourself.

It is not about pushing you through life, but about loving you through it.

And there is a misunderstanding about love out there: that love and living in love feels easy, nice and good.

But love means courage and power.

It means loving yourself enough to speak your truth when it is not wanted. This is challenging - and it is love.

Loving a person whose behavior you don't like is difficult (and it does not excuse the behavior) - and it liberates you.

Loving yourself when you feel like a failure and your usual reaction would be thinking and speaking bad about you. Easy? No. Healing? Yes.

Loving you through your fears instead of running away from them or pushing through it. Feeling good? Not always. Expansive? Yes.

Will the next retreat change this in your daily life?

Probably not.

But once you recognize your truth, your innate value and you develop the ability to trust your heart and love yourself through all of life, it liberates you.

And there is not the one system, the one method, the one tool, the one retreat that will do it for you.

It takes time and it is a daily process - a way of living life that liberates and heals.