I’m *finally* healthy after a very sick winter. I’m happy. I love my beautiful wife. The sun has come out here in Portland, at least some of the time, and my kids say the Cutest Things in the World every single day all day long.
Sounds like love, doesn’t it?
But, what I described above isn’t the whole picture. There are some real challenges in life. We’re hiring a new operations person. We’re deeply examining our business model. We’re contemplating some big projects. And the first three months of this year have been BUMPY.
Does that sound like love?
When I strip down the beliefs in my own heart, I find that when I hit a bumpy patch, or when I face something uncomfortable, I no longer believe that love is still present. I no longer believe that compassion is really there.
The Sufis (including me ;)) teach that everything, everything that exists comes from Divine Source. That love, mercy and compassion are the foundation of the entire creation, even things that aren’t so fun.
The issue isn’t whether love is hiding from us, it’s our limited understanding of love. On our website I write “Every act of business can be an act of love.” But what does that mean, exactly?
Love can be:
- Soft and squishy.
- Nourishing and warm.
- Overwhelming and scrambling.
- Stronger than anything else, forcing everything else to its viewpoint.
- ???
I got you started, so take it from here.
My challenge for you: Identify at least three very different experiences of love. Then, find some part of your business that is frustrating the heck out of you, and look for an unexpected expression of love. I’m going to guess it’s not the soft and squishy kind.
For example, let’s look at the last few months, where it became really obvious that I was wearing too many hats, spinning too many plates, and had basically an unsustainable life.
I wanted a break. I wanted to rest. I wanted… but love, in this case, looked like a great wave, breaking me down, leaving me bedraggled, gasping. And humbled. And quiet. Able to let go of many things.
And pushing me to hire that operations person, who should be starting in a couple of weeks. It was a pushy, domineering kind of love. 🙂 But the experience in my heart was one of support, of strength, of clarity.
Then: Drink that love in. It’s safe. It’s okay. Just because it’s not soft and squishy doesn’t mean it’s not love. If you let the love that is present in, in the form that it’s in, then maybe, just maybe it can transform you and the challenge in your business in an unexpected way.
Let’s hear from you. What did you discover in this exploration? Tell me about it in the comments.
Here’s a few other articles to check out:
- Is Your Business Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
- What Heart-Centered Isn’t
- When Making a Profit Feels Greedy and SelfishÂ
6 Responses
Oh, for the love of angst… wow, do I get this:
“I wanted a break. I wanted to rest. I wanted
Love is me asking for help. I’m so used to doing all the techie stuff on my own because I love it. But it doesn’t serve my great calling to sit down and troubleshoot a WordPress install or design a log. So, I finally put together a job description for a tech specialist and I’m sending it over to a tech VA who I know. I understand that I’m exhibiting love for myself by letting go and showing love by sending my business to someone who will appreciate it.
where do i begin… i cannot per se name three areas of biz that need examining re: types of love. what i can say is that doing the Rememberance practice is challenging. along w. many other shifts i’ve made in the last 18 months, i’ve shifted course spiritually. i was a student and teacher of tibetan buddhism. what i finally had to admit after 23 years of practice, study and teaching, was that nothing was nourishing me. it was not my spiritual home & i paid dearly for the wish to *belong*! the focus of buddhism doesn’t focus on nourishing. the focus is more on letting go, dis-identifying w. the content of mind/heart.good as far as it goes but it just goes so far. so here i am starving on my spiritual path. then enters mark silver/heart of biz and the Rememberance while i’m floundering w. a private somatics practice that is going nowhere. so, that to say, THE biggest challenge is to remember: nourish myself, nourish the biz, nourish others. i *Remember* many times a day. and each time i feel the push/pull associated w. nourishing my heart. it’s hard to include the push/pull in the practice. maybe my Sufi name would be *push/pull*. opening, surrendering, trusting. those are the three areas! (>:)
Love for me is finding someone else to share my business journey with. I was able to get together with some other like-minded business owners yesterday, and I might have found someone to partner up with. Instead of taking this journey alone, now I have someone to share the adventure with.
Love sometime face a rocky road but it will continue to strive for success. Because you love what you are doing you will strive for it to achieve your goal.
Love for me is finding the most honest thing inside in deepest of heart from the people we loved, it could be from wife, kids, friend, parents or other people that our love shared to be….
more over…god gives love passion to human in order to make each other to be care…so keep our love for our loved people.