Love is Louder

Ever since I heard about the Loud is Louder movement, I felt physically pulled to be a part of it - even if just through practicing love and acceptance on my own.

For those of you unfamiliar with the movement...

Love is Louder was started by The Jed Foundation, MTV and Brittany Snow to support anyone feeling mistreated, misunderstood or alone. A movement of all types of people have come together to raise the volume around the message that love and support are louder than any internal or external voice that brings us down. Individuals, communities, schools and organizations have embraced Love is Louder as a way to address with issues like bullying, negative self-image, discrimination, loneliness and depression.  Even as we work to stop negative words and actions that hurt us, we can strengthen our abilities to cope with hard times, focus on the positive, support the people around us and reach out for help if we need it.

My personal favorite...

...whether you or someone else puts that pressure to be perfect on you. Loving yourself is so much more powerful than superficial perfectionism. However, initially, it's also a lot more work to really love yourself than it is to set all of these unrealistic ideals. Fabricating unattainable goals for our bodies, our growth, our place in others' worlds, etc. is a cop out for loving and accepting ourselves! Another thing to keep in mind - setting goals in general pulls you out of being present (e.g. loving the way you look or the situation you are in RIGHT NOW) and being actionable (forgiving yourself or someone who you have made wrong to avoid loving them).  

That brings me to why I felt inspired to write today. I was thinking about the movement and asked myself what is love louder than for ME? (Loud is louder than everything, of course.) What is particularly personal to me? What do I want to be reminded of every day so that I can actively apply it? Recent (and past) events brought to mind a defense mechanism I've employed that is particularly hurtful to others. I recognize that I use it, whilst knowing that when it's used against me, I feel helpless and unloved. I don't want to resort to such a damaging reaction any longer. Today, I am putting out into the Universe a significant reminder for myself and others:

Love is louder than making someone else wrong.

As I read in in my Kindred Spirit book, you cannot love someone and make them wrong in the same moment. If you are completely loving someone, there is no such thing as right and wrong. EVER. If you are in a situation where you find yourself making someone else out to be the bad guy, you are not being love - you are not loving them with your whole heart. You have made the decision to make them wrong instead of love them. It's always hard to look at those moments in retrospect...guilt starts to creep in and chisel away at our love for ourselves. But if we are aware that we use this tactic, and decide that we are committed to giving it up, we can nip it in the bud! We can listen with love and use words that land in another's world as an opportunity (rather than an atomic bomb). The more present we are in recognizing exactly what we are doing and where the urge to get defensive is coming from (fear or hurt), the better we will become at responding purely with love. How much nicer for the person on the receiving end, and for our own souls?

Want to use some beautiful music to remind yourself that you are surrounded by love? 

Here is a great 15-song station that I StumbledUpon today:

I love you, it's that simple.