“When you consider yourself, ask what love would do, and then stay loyal to yourself. You will then truly feel what love feels like.” Brandy Osborne
A while back I went for a walk with a friend, who happens to be a life coach. This was a challenging time in my life and I was caught off-guard when she asked me, “What would love do?”
The Story
I was struggling with one of my relationships and was uncertain of what I “should” do. At that moment, my idea was to give them something that would make them feel reassured and good.
My friend asked me to think about my situation using the following analogy.
If you had a child and the child wanted a chocolate bar before bed, what love would do, is say no, or explain why that was not a good idea. Love would tell the vulnerable truth.
Love would not allow you to support a behaviour that was not going to serve your loved one.
The Challenge
The question and the thought behind it have since been crucial when dealing with tough situations where I feel conflicted between what I’ve been taught is the right thing to do and what feels right for me.
Every time an inner conflict arises, I consider myself and my needs. I remind myself that I’m living a life of awareness and ask, “What would love do?
The answers are always on the tip of my tongue.
“Love would not abandon me.”
“Love would not harm me.”
“Love would not restrict my nutrition intake.”
“Love would take me for daily walks.”
“Love would consider my choices and if they are serving me.”
“Love would tell me that I’m enough.”
The Elemental Practice
Choose to only think of yourself, and start considering what you need. Love yourself, show everyone what love looks like. Be the most compassionate, truthful, loyal and loving person in your life.
You will start to fall in love with yourself all over again, as you are your best friend, your soulmate, and the one person in your life that will never let you down.
If you don’t know where to start, here is an Elemental Practice that will guide you and help you take those first steps towards deeper self love.
I call it TED Rx.
T: Think and create
E: Execute
D: Deliver and Share
Rx: Release and Celebrate (this is the prescription that feels like joy and growth.)
T: Think and Create
1) Spend a moment with a journal and look at your weekly behaviours. The behaviours or actions you do daily. Write these down.
2) You will colour code them with red, yellow or green.
- Red is a behaviour that is not serving you mentally, physically, spiritually or emotionally.
- Yellow is a behaviour that is borderline (could be better, but could be worse).
- Green, exactly what you need to be doing for yourself.
3) Then, as you head into the weekend, write down below and fill in your answers.
- What behaviour am I going to continue?
- What behaviour am I going to stop?
- What behaviour am I going to adopt?
- What boundaries can I create to foster success?
E: Execute
Focus on the Red areas or Yellow areas. Make an action plan to change your colour to yellow or green.
D: Deliver and Share
Give yourself credit for delivering on your action plan (daily or every following Wednesday) by sharing with us at The Elemental Being (under this post) and/or with your loved ones.
Rx: Release and celebrate
Spend a moment once a week or once a month to celebrate the release of old behaviours. Even if you released only 5% of that behaviour, Success is showing up for yourself.
You are safe and you are loved within The Elemental Being community.
You are perfectly perfect, and you could use work… don’t we all?! Let’s keep working towards our future together. Enjoy the process of living life with awareness, intention and growth!
For more inspiration and tips, follow The Elemental Being on Instagram.
Love, Brandy
