Angelic Love Practicing the mindfulness of love in five ways. By Terry Lynn Taylor   Excerpted and reprinted from "Messengers of Light: The Angels' Guide to Spiritual Growth" by Terry Lynn Taylor, with permission of New World Library. To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic. --Alphonse de Lamartine I like to ask people what our main reason for being here is. Most say that our existence has something to do with love. Although not a new thought, it is something we need to remember from time to time: Love is truly the most precious quality we have. At the end of our lives, we will not be asked how much money we made, how many things we acquired, how far up the ladder of success we got. The question that will matter is: How well did you love? Deep within the dimensions of our heart is a capacity for higher love. A love that is so pure it makes the angels shudder with joy. This innate ability can be a guiding force in our lives; when it is, the angels usher us into situations where the love we generate creates miracles right before our eyes. It is never too late to embark on a journey of higher love because with the angels lighting the way transformation can happen in an instant. The angels connect with us by way of our heart. They read our heart and see what we may be blocking and what might be causing us pain. Lessons in love involve pain, that is part of the bargain. The pain of a "broken heart" is not due to the fact that it is broken; the pain is from a building up of pressure created by fear, doubt, and anger. If we are willing to fully experience and honor the pain connected to love, then our heart breaks open, the pressure is released and we find ourselves in the territory of grace where fear is replaced with comfort, doubt with hope, and anger with forgiveness. Joy bursts forth. It takes courage to love until your heart breaks open. The word "courage" comes by way of the Latin word cor, which means heart. The angels encourage us to love more and more. Each time we do, we get closer to a place of higher love. When I say "higher love," I am using the term as a metaphor for divine love. The angels represent the divine nature of love; to connect with the angels means raising our vibration to a higher plane. We may think that this is out of our reach, but it is very simple. We only need to do our best and love with the purest intent. The vibration we give off is directly related to our intention in matters of love. If we intend to love because we want to be worshipped or to possess someone, then the vibration is heavy because so much fear goes with this game. Love is expansive it needs breathing room. In a relationship loves needs space as Kahlil Gibran says to "let the winds of heavens dance between you." The angels don't judge us, they respond to us, and interact with us based on the qualities we energize. The frequencies of the angels are in accordance with the divine. So if we are generating the lower vibrations of fear and anger regarding a love situation, the angels cannot respond to this. When we shift the energy by facing the fear and dealing with the anger, the angels move in to help lift us up. Because the angels are very highly attuned, to have a relationship with them we need to "tune-up" our own personal love vibration. The best way to do this is with a mindfulness practice. Take a moment and reflect on where you are in your quest to love well. Close your eyes and let your awareness go to your heart. Take a deep breath and let some feelings emerge. Make a mental note of the mixture of emotions. Know that regardless of the state your love-life is in, you are loved in heaven. Know that ultimately the angels whisper in your ear, "Everything is going to be okay." If you consider yourself single, rethink your use of that word. I don't believe we are ever single; that word seems to promote a belief in separation, and we always have the choice to connect to life. To further your mindfulness of love here are a few practice suggestions:   Designate a love-link between you and the angels. Think of something that you may encounter throughout your day that will initiate a moment to feel loved by the angels. An obvious love-link could be a heart. When you see a heart, take a moment and know the angels are in your heart. Look for hearts, listen for the word in conversation, notice it in writings, and feel your heartbeat. Other love-link suggestions: butterflies, flowers, cupids, clouds, diamonds, wings, etc. Think of a new love-link each day. Consciously make your world more beautiful. Beauty is important because it means something is divinely cared for. I am not talking about our current fashion sense of beauty, I am talking about something deeper than conditioned visual beauty. We all have our own sense of what is beautiful; let beauty into your life, whatever it means to you. Ask the angels to remind you to notice beauty, to look up at the clouds, to notice the sun shining through the leaves of a tree, to literally stop and smell the roses. Increase beauty in your environment: Plant a flower, make yourself look a little better by smiling more, buy some art for your home. Don't forget to laugh and lighten up. The angels are attracted when we are sharing laughter with someone we love. Instead of punishing yourself for a "mistake," try laughing at yourself. Gratitude allows you to move from a state of neediness to a state of grace. It is one of the best ways to lift a situation. The angels respond instantly to a moment of gratitude. Even when you don't feel it, start to be thankful for a situation and in time the feeling will catch up with your intention. Real compassion and loving kindness give off the highest divine vibrations, and bring us into direct contact with the divine. "Real means that we are not looking for anything in return. It means being willing to love for the sake of loving as a way to help the angels heal the planet, not to feel better about ourselves or to get a lover. Compassion means we are willing to give love when we have been given hate, to forgive, to consciously go beyond our self-interest and bridge the gap of separation that is so prevalent in human society. Even a baby step into compassion sets the angel in us free and opens the gate of the miraculous. www.beliefnet.com   A Bee bg