We are traumatized as terror unfolds from the Boston bombings and the killing at MIT.
Our minds are full of horrific images, as we feel more and more fearful and out of control.
What do we do and how do we talk to ourselves during this traumatic time?
The quickest, most effective way out of fear is to turn to love.
Actively loving knocks fear right out of our heads.
Our hearts are instantly softened by love.
It may sound simplistic or corny, but love is the answer.
What does this mean, to turn to love?
Call your friends to tell them you love them.
Love yourself by turning to things that soothe you.
Love means right now turning away from televised pictures and discussions of terror.
Watching the pictures of blood that were caused by hate is the opposite of what we need now.
We know what happened and we won't forget.
We deserve and need to love ourselves through the trauma.
Do the things that soothe you.
Put on music you love that touches your heart.
Say sweet things about yourself out loud.
Dare to feel silly in this way, knowing this is the love you need from yourself.
Focus on love.
Who do you love?
Write love letters to those who are in your heart.
Write yourself a love letter.
Love is the immediate antidote to the pain in our hearts.
It is a medicine far more powerful than any poisoned daggers and actions of hate.
Love is the only powerful weapon that conquers and cleanses and can't be destroyed.
The cleansing power of love destroys hate, though it doesn't stop hate from existing.
This is true, although a puzzle for us to understand.
Love is user-friendly, for it naturally comes from inside of you.
Rather than participate in fear conversations about how the world is unsafe, talk about love.
In the words of Carole King, "Only Love is Real."
The chorus of her song has a provocative lyric following "only love is real" with "everything else illusion"...
This is impossible to comprehend or believe right now, in the midst of acts of real violence.
Yet there is no doubt that "love is real" because if love wasn't real, it would have no impact nor would it have the instant healing power that it does.
Practice love right now, and feel how soothing love is.
You deserve to be soothed and that is not at all the same thing as being in denial.
You deserve to be healed by love and to feel love.
Right now.