Hello and welcome to day 12 of a 30-day experiment.
It's an experiment where I'm living from a place of love rather than fear.
So for 30 days I am intentionally bringing my awareness back to love,
Bringing myself back to settled feelings rather than getting lost in unsettled or insecure thoughts and feelings.
And I'm writing a journal and then every day I share a particular nugget of wisdom that I've learnt from the day.
So today I guess the best way to put it is that I feel like I've been like a can of WD-40.
Do you know WD-40?
It's a spray and if you've got a squeaky hinge or you've got a rusty lock,
What you do is you spray on WD-40.
It's like a lubricant and magically the squeak will go away or the rust will give way and you can open the lock.
It's a wonderful thing.
And what I love about WD-40 is that it doesn't take much to make something go smoothly and that's what I've learnt today.
It's about me being like a can of WD-40 and helping things go smoothly.
So let me explain what's been going on today.
So today was a really lovely day.
It was a birthday celebration and we gathered in the garden of my mum and we invited family to come along and have an afternoon tea.
So this is a really lovely English thing to do.
It's scones and jam and cream and sandwiches and cups of tea,
Lots and lots of cups of tea.
And invited people along and I really just wanted everybody to feel relaxed and looked after and as though they were just part of an informal but friendly afternoon.
That was my intention.
And so I realised that living from love today was about just being like sprinkling fairy dust or spraying WD-40,
Sprinkling fairy dust to make things go smoothly.
That's what I wanted to do.
And so I brought my awareness back to love when things would have irritated me had I not been taking part in this experiment of living from a place of love rather than fear.
So here's a little example.
One of the guests promised that she would come and give me a hand to get ready and she was actually two hours late.
So I had to get ready on my own and when she arrived I felt a little niggle of irritation that she hadn't been there on time but I chose love.
I just was okay with it and welcomed her in.
And then there was someone else who came along,
A guest who decided that they absolutely desperately wanted to eat before everything was ready and laid out and was quite insistent and I just gave her a plate of food.
I thought rather than battle it out or get annoyed let me just give her some food.
So I gave her a plate of food before anybody else had anything to eat.
And again it's simple I know but it was me just coming from a place of love rather than fear.
I drifted around filling up teapots with hot water and making sure people had sandwiches and cutting cake and taking in dishes to wash them up and ensuring that people had somebody to talk to or I'd sit down and talk with them.
It was one of those occasions where I was engaged in an intentional way of just helping things to run smoothly and it was such a beautiful thing to do.
And I was almost on the periphery of what was going on.
In other words I didn't feel lost in it.
I wasn't lost in conversations and lost in connection.
I was on the periphery with this view of seeing things unfold,
Seeing people connect,
Seeing people laugh and chat and be relaxed.
And it felt as though I was almost like the audience watching what was going on.
Or maybe a better way of putting it is I was like a stagehand making sure that the production worked.
So for me today living from a place of love rather than fear has been really easy.
It's been about being with family.
It's about being with friends.
It's about not getting tripped up by habitual thoughts of irritation.
It's about doing the things that just need to be done in order for people to have the best possible experience.
So I've been spreading my fairy dust or WD-40 making sure that things go smoothly.
And actually I've really really enjoyed it.
I've not done it from a place of martyrdom or being put upon.
I've done it from a place of love and I feel this warmth and sense of love at having been part of it in this way.
So that's what I've learnt today.
I've learnt that today was all about helping things run smoothly and that's how I've been living from a place of love rather than fear.
Let me know how you're getting on.
I really want to know what's happening for you as you live intentionally from love rather than fear.
What are you learning?
