“Karina, what in the world are you talking about?”

(I talk to myself sometimes and this is what I think people may say about the titles of my posts. ha ha) 

As I was saying, Unconditional Love is one of the toughest and hardest workouts I have experienced. When I decided that I wanted to love unconditionally, I agreed to go through a roller coaster of emotions, to be tested about my love in many situations, and to heal throughout this journey.

It sometimes feels like I am in boot camp and Love is kicking my ass.

BUT you know what? Love hasn’t killed me, it’s only making me stronger and creating a Warrior of Love.

First off, I want to be bluntly honest, I am still practicing this type of love everyday and I am far, FAR from perfect.

I want to begin by telling you how I practice unconditional love everyday in my life:

Love myself

• I am going to be real right now, I don’t love myself 100%. I still judge and criticize the things I do, how I look, the things I say but the difference now, is that I am aware. I take a step back, I examine my thoughts about myself, I observe, I feel it, and I forgive myself, I change my thoughts and words to loving positive ones and remind myself everything is perfect as it is. This is one of the toughest exercises I have experienced in this process.
• When I wake up I write things about myself that I am grateful for.
• During the day, I will intentionally tell myself “I love you, you are perfect where you are.”

Envision love as the BIG PICTURE

• You know when you have a big vision or goal in mind and you kind of know how you will get there. You may have smaller goals and steps to get to your destination. Well, same with loving unconditionally.
• The way I can best explain it, is like this. I LOVE EVERYONE but I don’t necessarily “like” everyone or I don’t agree with others (AND THAT IS OKAY!) And I have created steps for myself to practice loving them anyway.
• My small goals and opportunities to practice this love could be:
• • When someone makes me angry or upset, I choose to take a deep breathe in and tell them I love them in my head.
  • When someone says something hurtful, I remind myself that they did not mean it and I love them anyway.
  • When I feel someone may not be doing the correct thing, I choose to accept where they are at and imagine that they will eventually learn the lesson and I just keep loving them.
• Every time I feel like I do not “like” someone or something that’s an opportunity to practice my smaller goals to get to my ultimate purpose of LOVING WITHOUT CONDITIONS.

Accept others as they are…

• Not everyone is going to think or be like me and I appreciate that. Everyone has different gifts and talents in this world and they may demonstrate them completely different from what I am used to.
• Some people are louder or quieter, some may have their opinions on how I live my life, some may talk longer than I truly want to listen, or some may think I am doing things completely wrong all the time. I am LEARNING (still working on this) to accept those around me. I tell myself that every action and situation is like a mirror for me and a chance to show them and myself compassion, forgiveness and LOVE.

Love is a Sacred Space 

• To me a Sacred space is just a moment or time where people feel safe enough where they can express themselves or just be who they are. I like to think of love as this space.
• If I am able to show or make they feel loved, my hope is that they feel safe, they feel like they are at home and that they are loved for who they are.
• If I am loving with conditions, others will never feel safe to open up, they will not be comfortable in their own skin, they will hide their true selves. So I decide to love, no matter what, I believe they deserve that.
• Unconditional love is a space where people can grow, go through their pains and emotions but they know that they are still safe and protected to go on this journey of theirs. (At least this is how it feels for me.)

“If no one shows them love, then who will?”

• I tell myself this all the time especially when I have felt hurt by someone or by a situation. I tell myself a story of how that person may not have been fully loved and it’s my purpose here to show them love even if they don’t really accept it. I know that I love that person for who they are and that’s what God wants me to do.

I, Karina, am an open and vulnerable person

• By being open everyday, by telling my story, the light and the dark sides, by being myself, being honest, and literally telling everyone everything about my life is demonstrating unconditional love.
• I am willing to risk what people think about me just to show everyone and everything how much I love them.

“I love you”

• I don’t wait to get to know someone to tell them I love them. I will tell strangers that I love them. I will randomly send my friends and family messages expressing my love to them.
• I say I LOVE YOU several times a day and I mean it. It was weird for me at first but again, it’s like you are working out a muscle, it won’t grow if you don’t use it.

These are the major and main ways that I practice Unconditional Love in this dimension.

Some of my connections have weakened. 

I want to be honest, since I decided to love unconditionally I have noticed that many of my connections with family and friends have changed. Love is a high vibration, it’s an energy most people may not be used to. I understand that.

It can be a scary thing for people to feel truly loved, to be fully accepted for who they are. It’s uncomfortable, I know because I was there once. I know I am meant to be there for them no matter what.

It gives me anxiety if I don’t demonstrate love

Demonstrating love to me could be by smiling at someone, asking how their day was, giving a person a hug, or just authentically connecting with them specifically on a soul level.

If I feel like I did not share my love with the people I have interacted with, it gives me anxiety and I will tell you why.

• What if giving love to the anger cashier would change how he or she treats their children when they go home (maybe that child will not get hit that night.)?
• What if giving love to that random person on the street prevented them from robbing the next person they see?
• What if giving love to the person I interacted with will stop them from murdering, harming another human being?
• What if giving love to someone each and everyday will create that person to spread some love to others that day too?

People could argue and tell me that by loving too much could cause someone to do these things anyway. Sure, possibly, maybe. I will still choose to love. I would like to believe that a little love is still with them during their actions and that I planted the seed of love and hopefully that seed will grow with time.

Unconditional love feels like a continuous heartache…

You would think that unconditional love would be all flowers and beautiful colors but it’s not. The more I give and accept love the more it feels like my heart is growing to make room for it and this makes it feel like a huge pressure in my chest that feels like I want to ripe my heart out. (I apologize if this is graphic).

Seriously though, loving is hard and it leaves you sore but just like a workout once the soreness starts to go away, one is ready to take on the next workout. My heart muscle is just getting stronger and stronger.

And this leads me to my next sentence…

My purpose and mission on earth is to LOVE. 

I know that God’s purpose for me in this lifetime is to LEARN how to LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY and share that with those around me.

On this adventure of love, I know that I will be confronted with pain, struggles, difficulties and I am willing to go through this. And I know that I will be provided for and abundant when it comes to love and joy.

Everyone shows love differently and this is my way of doing it. I wasn’t told or taught how to love, when to love, why to love, where to love, and who to love, I just use the love inside me and it has led me to here.

I want to tell you all that I love you…. UNCONDITIONALLY.

I really, really do or at least I am learning how to. You are special, unique, and you have been given the opportunity to be here and I love you for that. I love that you bring so many awesome gifts to this world, that I get to learn from you, to be challenged by you, that I get to love you.

I love, LOVE. Love gives me joy, hope, faith.

I am blessed to go through this intense workout. If I wasn’t put through these difficult tests how else would I be able to be a Warrior of Love.

I love you all!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months that have been filled with so much UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.