The Surprising Power of a Broken Heart

broken heart

The last time you had a broken heart, did you spend a lot of energy wishing it hadn’t happened? Trying to fix it?

We often view having a broken heart as being a victim, whether someone else broke up with you or you lost a loved one to cancer or you moved across the country and it ended a deep relationship. I would like to submit another angle for heartbreak: that it’s the best medicine for knowing, accepting, and loving ourselves.

It leads us to show up more as our whole self.

Most of us have layer upon layer of walls around our hearts, hence we don’t let people see us as the full human we are. We don’t even see ourselves fully. Breaking our hearts, in whatever way that happens, can cause enough of a shift to let new parts of us be revealed.

 

Read the full article at Beducated.

So What the Heck is Unconditional Love?

woman smiling while being kissed on the forehead by a man

I was raised saying, “I love you” to my friends, family, and intimate partners. And while this phrase was freely given as a child, as I grew up I developed a need to know I was going to hear it back before I said it.

Only in the last few years did I learn that this kind of love is conditional. As you may have already realized in your life, this can create a lot of suffering.

In my current partnership, we have agreed to return to unconditional love no matter what. For us, this means regardless of what happens, who hurts who, where trust has been breached, or how much we want to hold a grudge or not forgive each other, we choose to love. We choose to peel back what’s in the way and remember that we are love without needing to do anything.

But, What is Unconditional Love?

Is it really possible to love no matter what? What might it mean to love without any conditions? Without concern, if that love is reciprocated or received? Regardless of how we are treated?

Would it look something like Jesus saying of his crucifiers, “Forgive them, Lord. They know not what they do”? Thinking about the people who have figuratively crucified me, my response is usually quite different. It’s more like, “You’re such a $@%*(%#.”

It makes sense that most of us have no idea what unconditional love is.

Read the full article at Beducated.