Words are animals, alive with a will of their own. – Carl Jung

Love, in all its many guises, offers us the best medicine. It is an opening to an energy greater than ourselves, an invitation that at any time we can accept. Who doesn’t remember being comforted as a child through illness or accident and the deep peace born of that love, care, and concern? The strongest love medicine is transmitted between two people who love unselfishly and unconditionally. True love medicine can’t be predicted or controlled, comes in all shapes and sizes, and often when we least expect it. At it’s best it can heal the deepest wounding of our soul.

But it all starts with us and the kind of love medicine we use on ourselves. Here’s where we get caught, where we stay stingy and withhold. We are so hard on ourselves, drive ourselves continually, feel as if nothing is ever enough, that what we do and who we are is never good enough. The feeling of having to do or be something more in order to be loved, even by ourselves, is thoroughly and insidiously ingrained. If we could only see our intense love for others is really the love we have for our self and take a little time to bestow some warmth and kindness within where it’s needed most, then we could begin to change the whole tenor of our lives.

We can start with our words. Acknowledge what we love about ourselves and then write it down or say it out loud. Make the love concrete. Words have the power to soothe and heal the soul, that’s why saying, I love you, to yourself and others feels so good. Go ahead, don’t be shy, tell yourself how much you love you, and mean it. Because that is the truth deep down inside, it just needs our voice to bring it to life.

It reminds me of the Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto who did all the experiments with words and water. He found water freezes in different crystalline shapes depending upon the word it rests upon. Love creates a beautiful snowflake while hate creates a distorted one. Beautiful words create beautiful patterns, while broken words create broken patterns. It’s so obvious we miss it every time. Just think of the difference in how you feel when you receive love verses when you receive anger. The mighty energy of the words we speak and the feelings they convey may be unseen but we feel their impact everyday and in every possible way. We ride high on the vibrations of words of love in whatever form that love takes.

Nature only confirms what we already know in our hearts, that our words have power. How we will use them is the question. We feel the impact of our own words as well every time we speak. So why not heal? Why not love? Why not get out of our own way? Withholding love of any kind in any degree doesn’t make anyone happier. We all lose out with less love in the world.

So what kind of love medicine could you use today? A good book and cozy chair, working in the garden, playing outside with your children, holding the hand of someone you love? Noticing how much we already do can be a powerful love medicine too. Honor the love already freely given. It’s not an endless road of never enough, but the truth we are already enough. Try out those words for some much needed healing; you are enough. Begin to look with more kindness and compassion at yourself and the deep truth of who you are and what you live day in and day out. See where you can let more love seep into those daily rounds.

Let the mystery and magic of your words create the love medicine you need to begin healing all the old wounds and false beliefs.

kb