Last week, we talked about The 5 Love Languages and understanding the ways in which we need to be loved. This week, we're discussing how we show love to others. Think about the people you love...how do you let them know they are loved and cared for by you?
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Welcome back to Inner Warmup where your inner work begins. My name is Taylor Elyse Morrison, creator of Inner Workout, as always are our expert guest. Thanks for being here. You know I like to start off episodes with a mini mindfulness exercise. So what I want you to do is to find your heartbeat, find your pulse, maybe put your hand on your heart, your neck, your wrist someplace, and just start to tune into that rhythm and see what you can learn about that rhythm, what you can notice about it. Does it feel steady, erratic, quick?
Just think about how you would describe it - no good or bad, just is. There’s something really grounding for me, at least in tuning into my heart in that way. And it's also really relevant because this month, we've been talking about love and relationship and community. So of course, we love a heartbeat moment.
This week, the question that I've got on the table for you is how do I show love? How do I show love? Last week, we talked about the five love languages, what makes us feel loved. And now I want to think about the other side of that equation. How do we show love? And in order to do that, we first have to think about who we love. Who do we say that we love? It could be at a really obvious level, your partner, your friends, your family, maybe you've got a work wife or work husband that you would say that you love. But there also might be larger groups of people or values. You could say I love Black people. That came to mind one because I am Black and two because it's also Black History Month where a lot of people profess their love and appreciation for Black people. So then the question there is how, how do I show that love?
Is it just a social media post? Do I have Black people in my life that I'm also caring for and being in relationship with? Am I giving my time, my money towards projects and causes and institutions that make it easier for the Black people in my life to live. And that's just one example that I gave because it was timely. But it can be that I love people who are dealing with a mental health condition. I love people who experience disability. I love people who are refugees. I love kids who are struggling in school. There are so many things that we might say who I really love. I love those people. But how do you show that love, whether it's something super close to home, like your partner, or something more abstract, like a larger group of people. I really want you to dig into how you show that love.
I think it's important because the way that we talk about love generally is these flashy, big romantic gestures. You can pick whatever your favorite rom com is and think about the thing that happened towards the end of the movie where the person said, “no, wait, I changed my mind. I love you.” If they flew across the country, or they quit the job or they left the relationship or, I mean, I could just keep going on…now I'm thinking about this reality show arc of how the person showed that they loved the other person. Those are all beautiful ways to display love. And also they're not how you sustain love necessarily.
If your friend only was nice to you on your birthday, you probably wouldn't stay in that relationship for that long, right? Your friend probably sends you encouraging texts or invites you over to watch a show that you both love together or talks you through a situation that you're experiencing with your boss. There are all these little moments that your friend does to show you that they love you, to show you that they care for you. And I want you to think, if those same things are present in your life, are you showing your love for the people that you say that you love? Are you showing love to yourself too?
I'm going to give you some time to reflect further on this. How do you show love to others? To yourself? And if you want to get really specific, when's the last time you did a loving gesture for someone? Not necessarily a big, buyout a whole movie theater and show them a movie you made about how much you love them. But it can be a teeny tiny gesture too. How do you show love? When's the last time you did a loving gesture to someone you loved?
Thanks so much for taking the time to reflect with me. If you want to share anything that popped up for you feel free to shoot us a DM on Instagram and if this episode resonated, maybe you share it with a friend or someone that you love. Thanks for listening in. Take care!
