Open the door to Unconditional LOVE with Gratitude. Photo by Jiroe on Unsplash

Do You Know Why Gratitude Is An Expression of Unconditional LOVE?

Kristin van Tilburg
Sep 1, 2018 · 5 min read

Do you know what unconditional LOVE is?

Have you experienced it?

Whenever I write about unconditional LOVE I have to define my terms.

Not love like “infatuation.” Not that “You had me at hello” nonsense.

That is a Hollywood kind of love that makes for great movies, but has no sustaining value in the real world.

Thinking of love that way has you looking for love through relationships. This makes you more needy than ever, and doesn’t sustain anyone, least of all you.

Not love like co-dependent attachment.

Not “You complete me.”

That is not the LOVE I am referring to here. Thinking confusing LOVE with co-dependent attachment just turns you into an energy vampire trying to suck Love out of another person.

I’m talking about unconditional LOVE.

“Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being. It’s not ‘I love you’ for this or that reason, not ‘I love you if you love me.’ It’s love for no reason, love without an object. “ — Ram Dass

Unconditional LOVE is the creative energy that moved the tectonic plates of the Earth to push mountains up into the sky. This is the energy that is the source of all life, the energy that is breathing your breath and beating your heart.

Unconditional LOVE is so fulfilling it automatically overflows out into the world. It is motivating, because the desire to contribute becomes overwhelming.

You want to give, but give of your best self, to give your LOVE. That deepens your connection to your passion.

Passion makes your life juicy and fun. Read more about the motivating power of unconditional LOVE here:

One of the ways to access an experience of unconditional LOVE is through cultivating experiencing of gratitude and appreciation.

Gratitude actually opens up the light and the path for unconditional LOVE to flow through you because you are saying “yes” to whatever life experience you are grateful for.

Gratitude makes a deep connection with the source of unconditional LOVE inside you.

If unconditional LOVE exists within you already, why aren’t you experiencing it right now?

What is lacking is perception. And that is where gratitude comes in.

Two people can do the same thing with different experiences: walking outside to get the paper.

One person is lost in worry and concerns, thinking of today’s to-do list and all the tasks associated with it.

The experience of the beauty of the morning is not registered. It is right there, offering itself to this person, but this person is not available.

LOVE is knocking on the door, but she will not hear it. So the door remains closed.

It’s a little sad, isn’t it?

It’s like Publisher’s Clearinghouse is there with the massive check for her, and she isn’t home.

Sigh.

Don’t let this be you today.

Live like this second person:

The second person faces the same schedule, but her focus is on the present moment.

As she opens her front door to get the paper the sunlight streams in, and she takes a moment to bask in its warmth and appreciate the feel of it on her skin.

She feels the sun shining on her face… Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

She sees the blue sky and marvels at the richness of that color.

Blue sky. Photo by Daniel Páscoa on Unsplash

She hears the birds singing, and imagines that they are singing a love song just for her.

She heard the bird singing and imagined it was a LOVE song just for her. Photo by Linh Pham on Unsplash

She appreciates the beauty in the moment and her heart expands with the sense of unconditional LOVE.

Room has been made in the middle of the present moment to feel gratitude for creation.

When you have the awareness of how perfectly you fit into creation, how abundant your life is from the level of being, and feel grateful, your perception opens into unconditional LOVE.

Open the door of your heart to unconditional LOVE. Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

Gratitude is a secret key to shift your awareness. Gratitude changes your relationship with life from an attitude of rejecting or defending to one of acceptance and appreciation.

Research shows this involves emotions, perceptions, beliefs and even our bodies. Because it has a positive effect even on our cells, gratitude is a mechanism of holistic change.

Unconditional LOVE flows from a sense of wholeness, an experience that “all is well” right here and right now.

“All is well” right here, right now. Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash

What is one thing you are deeply grateful for: a child in your life, or the beauty of nature? Feel your gratitude deeply. Surrender to it. Let it get bigger and bigger. Feel the gift of that person or thing. Feel how it is giving to you right now, filling you fuller and fuller with its LOVing presence.

In this moment of gratitude you open the way for unconditional LOVE to have its way with you, awakening more of your potential you didn’t know was there.

Just a thought: why don’t you carry that gratitude along with you today, and see just how BIG you can make that experience of unconditional LOVE.

Mindset Mastery

Mindset Mastery is dedicated to helping people program their minds to get from where they are to where they know they are meant to be.

Kristin van Tilburg

Written by

Writer for Thought Catalog and Publishous. ****** Helping savvy Entrepreneurs master their mindsets to activate their full potentials.

Mindset Mastery

Mindset Mastery is dedicated to helping people program their minds to get from where they are to where they know they are meant to be.