Blog Category: love
Favorite Love Poems
No discussion of poetry would be even remotely complete without mention of love poems. Most likely, all of us have at least one favorite. Whether or not we can recite it, there’s usually something that we have heard that has touched our hearts.
Here’s my favorite – and it’s best read aloud. I invite you to think about your favorite and to share it with someone you love today. Poetry can connect our hearts.
i carry your heart with me i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
~ e. e. cummings
Please write me and tell me your favorite love poems. You can also post (so everyone can share) on the Study Hall blog beta site at:
http://www.coachingforresults.com/studyhall
When Is Surrender Sweet?
Surrender can mean defeat . . . or surrender can mean transcendence.
If it’s defeat, we are called upon to be strong, learn from what happened, and move beyond what we were fighting against. We can learn to be resilient.
However, surrender can be useful if thought about in the context of giving in to something ultimately larger than ourselves and yielding to it for our own growth and evolution.
Writer Sara Paddison, “When we know love matters more than anything, and we know that nothing else REALLY matters, we move into the state of surrender. Surrender does not diminish our power; it enhances it.”
Can you think of a place where “Sweet Surrender” has significantly enhanced your power? Are there any areas of your life where yielding to love or some other great force would actually make you far more powerful as a human being? Has your not surrendering actually diminished you in the past? What are the ultimate consequences of your not surrendering?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Granting A Reprieve In the Name of Love
Our annual celebration of love has its roots in the martyred St. Valentine who is rumored to have sent the first “official” note on February 14th, 269 A.D., the day he was executed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius. It was signed, “From Your Valentine.”
In concluding our week about LOVING YOURSELF, what would your Valentine to yourself say? Start with something like, “I love me because . . . . . . . ” and then list 5 or 10 things that, without equivocation, you love about yourself.
Consider making a note in a journal, diary or calendar where you can be reminded of these things when, in the future, you might forget them.
Consider letting others in your life know what you love about yourself and what how you express it. You can do this in personal relationships, but you can also do it in business. For example, “I pride myself on my attention to my clients” or “I love the way that our products help people.
Tomorrow, consider granting yourself – and others – a reprieve and pardon any outstanding offenses in the name of love.
Most of all, consider how loving yourself thoroughly and well gives you the strongest possible foundation from which to engage the world . . . another strategic advantage in the Land of Results.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Valentine!
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Discipline Is Self Love
My friend, Carl Bressler, likes to say, “Discipline is self love” . . . a statement that speaks volumes about our topic of LOVING YOURSELF for this week of Valentine’s Day.
The word “discipline” has the same root as “disciple,” which infers that discipline can be understood as “being true to and committed to core values like health, integrity, excellence, etc.”
Thus, Carl’s statement could read, “Commitment to core values like health, integrity, excellence, etc., is self-love” . . . and that makes a lot of sense. It’s illuminating to understand discipline somewhat differently than its normal definition which often implies difficulty.
Trying on this different definition of LOVING YOURSELF, what kind of discipline, for you, would represent self-love? How successful are you in adhering to your core values? Which core values would you like to focus on for Valentine’s Day as a means of loving yourself?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Not Belonging and Loving Yourself Anyway
Groucho Marx said, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member” . . . a poignant and funny thought while we’re discussing LOVING YOURSELF!
The “club” to which all of us belong is the human condition. All of us know its ups and downs. Let’s use Groucho’s witty remark to delve into how we can love ourselves in spite of . . . or maybe because of . . . our humanity.
What “clubs” have caused difficulty for you in the past? Can we embrace all the imperfections and faults that barred us from permanent membership in the “perfect club”?
What would you teach your children about how to handle feelings of not belonging? Might your feeling of not belonging have prevented you from joining the best club of all . . . the club of full self-acceptance?
Perhaps the path to truly belonging is LOVING YOURSELF! CELEBRATE YOURSELF TODAY!
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Loving Yourself Without Condition
Yep, February 14th is rapidly approaching. A time to celebrate romance . . . and a time to LOVE YOURSELF!
Anthropologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, “The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others, but ourselves as well.”
Unconditional love . . . a fascinating and often elusive ideal. It flies in the face of loving someone else or oneself as a REWARD for being “acceptable.” You just get to love yourself completely with no reasons or justifications . . . just because you exist.
If unconditional love is possible for anyone (and I believe it’s possible for everyone), maybe it’s for our ourselves because we alone know both our “failings” as well as our “noble intentions.”
What are the implications of unconditional love . . . just for today . . . to love yourself unconditionally? Has that been difficult? Do you consider it even possible? What are the practical effects of this kind of COMPLETE SELF-LOVE? Why does this matter?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.
Accepting Yourself Completely
This is Valentine’s Week, and we are drawn to thinking about hearts and chocolates and romance. A good time to consider our topic for this week: LOVING YOURSELF.
It’s been said that you can’t truly love another until you love yourself. We live in a culture that constantly engages us in comparison to images of perfect people living perfect lives. In a way, self-loathing is an integral part of consumer marketing.
The message is something like: “You can only be loved / lovable if you are like these perfect people . . . and you can fix what’s wrong with you and your life by buying our products.”
Living in that environment of conditional love, we have found it tough to be tender, kind and forgiving to ourselves. We often hear people say that they are extremely hard on themselves.
Karl Jung said, “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
This year, how about a Valentine’s Day for you, too, as well as your loved ones?
What would that day look like? How could you make a clear expression of love for yourself this February 14th? What would you do? What would you not do?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.