Practices to Cultivate Love

To help cultivate pure love we need to look deep into our hearts. So think of someone you feel a simple, uncomplicated love for – maybe a child or a pet – and focus your attention on the love you have for them. Notice how your heart feels. Look as honestly and deeply as you can into what is behind this love, into what is pure and what is not.

When starting this practice it is natural to find aspects of attachment, desire or ego. However it is very important not to close our hearts to love because of these. We are working to transform our human, imperfect type of love into something purer, not to banish love from our lives.

The task is to go deeper and discover the essence behind this love, to taste the sweetness of the pure love within yourself. To find this love that connects you to all things.

Another powerful way to cultivate love is to bring our attention to the love that flows around us. So you might want to start a love journal.

Journaling about love on a daily basis will help you to notice the many acts of love in your life. It may be acts of love that you see others perform – such as a mother caring for her child, a person watering their plants or the self-giving of the flowers themselves in sharing their beauty with the world. It could be an act of love that someone gives to you – such as asking how you are, letting you go first in a queue or offering to help with a task. Or it may be an act of love that you give to another.

However it appears in your life, reflect on how it made you feel. What happened in your heart when you experienced this act of love.