Do You Wake Up to Love or Anxiety?
I don’t, or didn’t, wake up to love. Too often, anxiety, and sometimes its near cousin – dread, are my first visitors.
Some mornings, the TO DO LIST appears before my eyes open to the first rays of sunlight. Then comes fear that I’ll forget something. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the list’s magnitude. Often, it’s both.
The Problem is Anxiety – The Solution is Love
One of the most important items on my list involves finding, sorting and organizing thousands of family photos. Our 28 year old son wants them stored on the cloud so they’re protected in perpetuity. No longer living near our family home, he also wants virtual access anytime, anywhere.
It’s a daunting project and requires good organizational skills, which are not my strong suit.
Our photo collection sits on various media depending on the technology of the time they were taken.
- Hard copy
- Framed and on display
- Framed and stored
- In photo albums filed according to year, subject, persons or randomly
- In large manila envelopes, sorted or unsorted
- Hard disc
- Soft disc
- We no longer have devices that read discs
- Computer folders
- iPhoto
- Various earlier versions of photo editing and storage software
It’s no wonder I’m not jumping out of bed with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. There’s an 800 pound gorilla on my shoulders.
Our son’s request reflects his commitment to and love for family. Love is also why it’s so important for me to respond.
Wouldn’t it be grand to wake up to love instead!
How to Wake Up to Love – A Guided Meditation
It’s possible. I can wake up to love every day, and so can you. I discovered how while practicing Ruth King’s guided metta, or heart, meditation.
Metta is the intention to love and involves letting go of the desire to feel or achieve love. When practicing metta we wish ourselves and others well-being and freedom from suffering.
According to Ruth, we offer Metta without expectations or urgency for something to change. It makes our life easier. We practice metta because we want to be free from hatred, greed and delusion. It’s a humanizer, harmonizer and purifier of the heart.
Hatred is its own suffering. Love is its own reward. Anne Perschel
Wake up to Love: A Metta Practice
My morning awakening now begins with a short form of Ruth’s metta practice.
Begin by imagining a few people who have supported you in your life – teacher, friend, relatives, pet. See them sitting before you. Let them move near. Sense their warmth and happiness that you called. Allow yourself to receive the gift of their support, right here and now. Allow yourself to be touched by it. Notice what happens in your body as you allow and receive the support from these loved ones. In turn, offer them your gratitude. Look at each of them and say thank you for your love, your care and all your goodness. Notice how you feel in this body and heart as you do this.
At this point, I add the following;
Imagine the people you love and support. See each one in front of you. Wish them the kind of love and support you just received. Feel your warmth flowing towards them. Feel what’s in your body as you do this. Rest in this place and let the sensations grow.
And so I awake with a smile on my heart. I wish the same for you.
Post Script
If you don’t experience much or anything, stick with it. If you feel a wall around your heart, stick with it. If unpleasant feelings come up, stick with it. Love awakens eventually, because that is the nature of human being.