The greatest love is within me. When I accept the possibility of this I can begin to choose to connect to this love instead of seeking it outside of myself through recognition and acceptance from people, places and things around me.
We all have this love inside us. It is the same in quality but with billions of different flavours of expression.
Beginning to connect to this love is the start of the grandest love affair any human being can imagine.
It is where I get to meet me on the inside. Where I begin to know how silky I can feel when I just let go of all the stuff I think I should be and just allow me to be. The more I let go, the deeper I drop into this expansive silkiness. The depth of my love is fathomless. It is there within me always and completely, regardless of whether I choose to connect to it or not. When I begin to acknowledge this Love I start to see and know myself differently. There is a growing awareness of the preciousness of me, my own delicate exquisiteness that I would not want to harm or disturb with a rough movement, a harsh word, or a hurtful, self- bashing thought.
This loveliness is what I have begun to trust as being me, especially in the face of all the ways I have lived that have not been me. All these ‘not me’ ways have been built and honed over a lifetime to help me survive in the world as I knew it.
When I choose to look for love outside of me it puts me at the mercy of everyone’s opinion of me and I become a slave to their approving smile and a victim of their disapproving frown. I spend my time needing them to tell me in a look, a word or a deed that I am ok and that I have their favour. This is what I have known love to be. I went out of my way to get love and overrode the love I already was to do it: saying yes when I felt to say no; saying the nice thing when I felt otherwise; working hard when I felt exhausted; doing the right thing but feeling something was wrong; looking after other people but neglecting myself; getting good grades but feeling like a fraud. I lived life seeking love and trying so hard to make myself worthy of it that I didn’t notice my own innate loveliness; I overlooked and did not appreciate the beautiful qualities I already have.
The love within has no connection to survival, it struggles not, it simply is – joyfully so without end.
This love I have connected to is so amazing and yet it is so normal at the same time. I realise this amazingness is just ordinary when it comes to connecting to and nurturing the Love I am. It is so grand and great yet it is completely common because it is in everyone, not just a chosen few, but in every, single, one – without measure or favour.
By Adrienne Hutchins, Brisbane, Australia
598 Comments
We expend so much energy searching outside of ourselves for love when it was there all along inside us just waiting for us to acknowledge and appreciate it.
Taking the time to fall in love with me has culminated in the “grandest love affair” ever, and while it feels so grand to be loving me the way I do today, it actually feels so very normal. Every single one of us is absolutely amazing so there is so much to fall in love with, and never fall out of love with, ever again.
I love your sharing of you connecting to this deep love inside yourself Adrienne, ‘When I begin to acknowledge this Love I start to see and know myself differently. There is a growing awareness of the preciousness of me, my own delicate exquisiteness that I would not want to harm or disturb with a rough movement, a harsh word, or a hurtful, self- bashing thought.’
“I spend my time needing them to tell me in a look, a word or a deed that I am ok and that I have their favour. ” I have spent time doing this as well and it is exhausting and debilitating.
Starting to build and connect to this love inside of us is one of the best decisions we can make in my experience, ‘choose to connect to this love instead of seeking it outside of myself through recognition and acceptance from people’, which can have us endlessly seeking and chasing.
Our Love that returns once we re-connect to our essence, Esoteric, Inner-Most, Soul and the inner-me are all one and the same and the innate-ness of feeling and living that way becomes a Livingness that will never be denied for it brings within from our connection True wisdom that is forever expanding.
This was lovely for me to read this morning. I got a kind of ‘a ha’ moment in how much deeper I can connect with myself and it is funny but I had this feeling of ‘can I really do that’ like a child wanting or thinking they need permission to do so. Very exposing as to what I have been living in or what energy has been running me. A love and connection that is ‘so AMAZING and yet so normal at the same time’, that is what every single one of us holds within. Crazy how we can live in a way that is completely the opposite of this yet it is right there within us the whole time just waiting for us to take the step towards it and return back to Love.
All of a sudden, life is simple and effortless, almost scary without the issues and lack of self-worth that I was so used to. And in the sinking into myself and connecting to my own well of endless love I sink into a very deep stillness and feel ancient and sacred.
As you offered what this connection feels like, ‘silky’ was the word that stood out to me, I took a moment to feel myself and could feel that silkiness. To appreciate what is there before we do, say or think anything is vital because, as you say, we are everything before we do say or think anything, so to have that as our foundation means we are to search outside of ourselves less for the answers trusting. It is well worth asking why, after all what can silkiness do in a crisis!!! yet there is also a deep knowing that you are fully equipped to deal with what is in front of you and that is the knowing that searches less and lives more.
We are so used to letting ourselves to be distracted by life, e.g. thinking about what to do next, our next holiday, about tomorrows working day, but too by doing our daily tasks as in a way that is not loving but just this task needs to be done and quick because then there is time to go in another way of distraction, possibly by doing nothing or watching TV or having your favourite snack. But all the while we are in the motion of this we do not connect to the loveliness we are, could we say that we are avoiding this?
It’s a timeless piece Adrienne, thank you. What you have shared is very simple, clear and relatable. Since I have come to the work of Universal Medicine I have begun the process of reconnecting to the essence of love within me, and when I am in that love I feel more like the true me than at any other time. It really confirms for me that love is who we are.
Yes Melinda, it feels like we have been avoiding this loveliness from within for so long, while at the same time we where longing for it so much because from deep within we have always known this.
The greatest love is indeed within. I know that and feel that as well, and it also feels like only the beginning. There’s so much more! To see in how many ways I am still geared to the outside world, to get the approval that I am worthy, to make me feel good. I see that and step by step clock it, and renounce it: this is not it.
‘The love within has no connection to survival, it struggles not – it simply is joyfully so without end’ … I smile and feel a deep settlement and joy in my body as I read this and let go, understanding that my job, my only job is to be with and live this love. That’s it.
There is a lightness and simplicity in your words that inspires me so much Adrienne. Definitely love is who we are. Once we connect it feels so normal and grand at the same time. Thanks for sharing so beautifully
That puts relationships on its head (looking for love) — you cannot have love without igniting the love within and being that love with you.
The trouble is when we seek outside of ourselves and are always wanting others to validate us, we then find that we start to believe that we are unlovable or not worthy of love. Only when we begin to build a loving connection with ourselves, do we see that no one from outside can give us anything and that we do not need anything and that we were chasing fools gold.
“The more I let go, the deeper I drop into this expansive silkiness. The depth of my love is fathomless. It is there within me always and completely, regardless of whether I choose to connect to it or not.” – This word silkiness is so descriptive and one that I can relate to when I have done the Gentle Breath Meditation and Esoteric Yoga, and Adrienne has offered another level to this which is so empowering – to know that that depth of love and stillness is always there waiting to be connected to and lived from, even when we are doing things that hinder us from feeling it. This shows that it is never too late to choose love in our lives no matter what our history.
Love is the pulse of the universe, the light of God, that which unifies and encompasses all, and through our connection to the love we are within it is here we realise our Godliness and our divine purpose for being here.
Looking to others for approval of who we are is incredibly debilitating and when it is our normal in childhood lays a foundation that cripples us for the rest of our lives.
Recognising that the greatest love is within us and that it is our source of fuel for everything we do say, think and indeed are, we have the opportunity to surrender to a support that is all embracing.
“When I choose to look for love outside of me it puts me at the mercy of everyone’s opinion of me and I become a slave to their approving smile and a victim of their disapproving frown.” I spent many years of my life living like this. To rediscover I have an amazing love within me was a revelation when I came to attend Universal medicine presentations. It feels very sad that most of humanity aren’t aware of the love we all have within.
It is in all of us without measure or favour, what a great way to express the truth of the love we all are.
What I have found interesting is that I was able to live most of my life unaware of the connection I have within my body. The I was affected by how I thought the world wanted me to be and discarded my own truth in search of trying to fit in or be a certain way.
The futility of that outer search for love is captured so succinctly here ‘When I choose to look for love outside of me it puts me at the mercy of everyone’s opinion of me and I become a slave to their approving smile and a victim of their disapproving frown.’ It’s an endless game that we can never ‘win’ and leaves us less, and always wanting something else, and yet I’ve played this game to death and can still get caught in it, and all the while it’s that connection in us that truly nurtures us, and others for in fact that’s what we each bring our love, our loveliness, that’s our unique part, and it’s always there ready and waiting. So no matter how much we’ve searched without we can always come back within.
“The love within has no connection to survival, it struggles not, it simply is – joyfully so without end.” That is indeed the difference with going inwardly and going outwardly to learn about oneself and about life.
There is so much to explore within ourselves that we actually would not have to put any time and energy into anything that is not form this love that is at the core of our being.
“All these ‘not me’ ways have been built and honed over a lifetime to help me survive in the world as I knew it.” This is key, they have been honed to ‘survive’ perceived as a life threatening situation if they were not lived that way because we would stand out, we would be up for ridicule or exclusion and inclusion has been seen as vital to life. Until we understand that this is illogical in our day and age we will have this deeply embedded fear living in our bodies and having an outplay in our decision making.
This is beautiful to read and feel, thank you Adrienne.
Some words get old, but none of these do, for what you share Adrienne is timeless, wise and true. This love doesn’t change or go anywhere it just waits for us to open up and explore instead of dipping our toe in every now and then.
” Beginning to connect to this love is the start of the grandest love affair any human being can imagine.
It is where I get to meet me on the inside. ”
What makes it most joyfull is the fact that its a re- connection ” meet me on the inside. ” thats what makes it so lovely.
We are all love. Every last one of us. Even those who behave abhorrently, even those that rape, murder and do all manner of horrendous things that we cannot fathom. Yes it is true and we all know it. So how can it be that we have so much evil in the world? It is clear it flows through us and not from us. When we allow ourselves to feel the truth of this we can drop our judgments and get on with being the love we are.
‘The greatest love is within me’ is a great power to consider that we have and to appreciate this is a choice we can make to have a huge impact on our lives.
The greatest love IS within us all, and yet we act like chickens – always looking for something outside of us, scrabbling around in the dirt for the gold we already have within.
The timing of reading this blog today was perfect and it really touched me deeply. I could palpably feel the depth of love that Adrienne has connected to and just how accessible this truly is to all of us if we just choose it. “When I choose to look for love outside of me it puts me at the mercy of everyone’s opinion of me and I become a slave to their approving smile and a victim of their disapproving frown.” -This line alone is a life-changer for me as I got to feel just how much I have given my power away to other people and wasted so much energy worrying about what people think of me in my life.
Well said Michael, we give ourselves away to what is spoken and unspoken from other people about who we are and what we do – incredibly disempowering and illogical when considered in reflection yet at the time so natural and logical. To be able to nominate the pattern offers a freedom to redress the balance and make our relationship with ourselves the deeper pull.
I do recognise that too Michael, the wasted energy into the striving for the best for others and myself but not recognising that it was a false picture I was led by, the picture of feeling worth only by the recognition of others.