Choosing Love as a Way of Being

Before you read another word, pause for just a moment.

Imagine moving through your day rooted in the feeling tone of love.

Not sentimentality. Not romance. But a steady, embodied sense of openness and care.

How might your conversations change if love, rather than fear, guided your responses? How might your body language soften? How might your energy shift as you move through meetings, family dynamics, moments of uncertainty, or even quiet loneliness?

This is an invitation into a different internal state. A state that has the power to change everything about how we experience life.

Recently, I had the joy of participating in a LinkedIn Live conversation with Ayris Scales for Tipsy Tuesday: Live, centered around the theme No Ordinary Love. What emerged so clearly in that space was this truth: love isn’t confined to romance or relationships. It is something we can consciously bring into our everyday reality.

At one point, I paused the conversation and guided us through a brief love invocation — an invitation to drop into the feeling tone of love together. Not as an idea, but as a lived experience. And in that moment, it became clear how portable love really is. How it can be carried into any situation, relationship, meeting, or decision including our professional lives and career paths.

Love as a Way of Being

Love, when experienced through the heart, is not passive. It’s an active orientation of the nervous system.

When we’re under stress or facing difficulty, the body often defaults to protection. Fear narrows perception. Muscles tighten. Breath shortens. We brace, both internally and externally.

Love does the opposite.

From the heart, love creates expansion.
The breath deepens.
The body softens.
The mind becomes more flexible.

Research in neuroscience and psychophysiology supports this. Studies on emotional regulation and heart–brain coherence show that states associated with compassion, appreciation, and care are linked to improved nervous system regulation, clearer thinking, and greater emotional resilience. In contrast, fear-based states narrow attention and reduce cognitive flexibility.

In other words: the state we operate from shapes the reality we experience.

Why This Is Revolutionary

Choosing love doesn’t mean ignoring conflict, grief, or difficulty. It means meeting them from a place that gives us more capacity, not less.

From love:

• difficult conversations become less reactive

• decisions feel more grounded and humane

• grief feels held rather than isolating

• loneliness softens into connection with self

This is true in leadership. It’s true in families and partnerships. And it’s especially true in moments when life feels uncertain.

Love doesn’t remove challenge. It changes how we are with it. And that shift, internal before external, is where real transformation begins.

A Brief Practice: Immersing in the Feeling Tone of Love

Find a comfortable seat.

Gently bring one hand to your heart. If it feels supportive, place the other hand over it. Allow your breath to slow.

Begin to imagine the breath moving in and out of the heart space.
Inhale — receiving.
Exhale — softening.

Rather than trying to feel love, invite its quality. This might show up as warmth, spaciousness, tenderness, or even neutrality. Bring to mind the person you love more than anyone in the world. How does loving them feel? Notice the quality of this sensation.

Let love be an atmosphere rather than an emotion.

As you rest here, quietly explore:

• How would I move through today if this feeling tone guided me?

• How would my voice, posture, or presence shift?

• What feels possible from here?

Stay for a few breaths and notice what changes subtly and more profoundly.

Carrying This Into the World

We don’t have to wait for conditions to improve for love to be present. It’s a state we can return to, again and again, through the heart.

When practiced intentionally, love becomes a stabilizing force — one that supports clarity, connection, and resilience across every area of life, including how we show up professionally and the choices we make about our work.

If this reflection resonates, let it accompany you this week. And if you’re curious about cultivating this state more deeply through coaching, meditation, or energetic support, I’d be honored to walk alongside you.