10 Things You Love About You

Mark this day in your calendar. Today is the launch of the Love Cultural Revolution. I'm starting a self love campaign. Beneath the crisis of oil, water, coal, foodstuffs, healthcare, human rights, environmental protection, lies the fundamental lynch pin that keeps all other crisis spinning in chaos. I'm talking about the crisis of no self love. Today we are shifting the values of our culture. We are shifting the way we relate to ourselves, so as to shift the way we relate to one another and the planet. I am starting with me. These are the ten things I love about me:

I love my sense of humor

I love being goofy and singing loud when I get home from work

I love my good Heart

I love that I’m learning to take care of myself and be gentle

I love that I show up to work, even when I want to stay in bed

I love that I know when to change my diet when my body shows signs of weariness

I love that I love my wife, family, and friends

I love that right now my heart is swelling and aching as I share what I love about me

I love being creative an innovative about business, healing and spirituality.

I love being courageous and sensitive in challenging situations

I love myself deeply

I think that was eleven, but you get the idea. When you write these down take a few deep inhalations and exhalations to root the self love into your being. Then say them out load and breathe them in even deeper. Every time I do this my body begins to tingle and heat up. We are social beings and reality gets created by sharing with each other what's happening in life. So in order to launch the Love Cultural Revolution, I request that you share the 10 things you love about you with me and every one you can think of and that you ask people, “What do you love about you?”.  Let's hear it.

Love you … Luke

Cultivating a thriving spiritual, professional and personal life is what I'm up to in the world. I love promoting healing combined with creativity, innovation, and action as an expression of love and gratitude for self and life. It's a tricky dance working with people with varied health concerns. Some just want relief from symptoms, some want to go deeper, and some want to go to the deepest depths and make an offering from that place. I am happy and grateful holding space for people to heal and grow to whatever extent they are willing and able. What really lights my fire is people transforming. That is, letting go of an old way of being and moving into a new realm of being. This takes massive courage. 

                   You could say life is all about transformation.
                                            caterpillar to butterfly kinda stuff.

Being great at life is lowering your resistance to this natural phenomenon and hey, maybe even enjoying it a little.
         Birth, life,death. Over and over. That's it.

 The Upanishads say this cycle is occurring all the time. In fact it is happening so fast, we don't recognize it; like frames of a movie. Because we don't see it, we experience life as if it were a continuous narrative. In reality it is not. Therefore in any given moment, you could choose to be any way you want. Cool! - and - Scary! "You mean, I'm responsible for how I experience life?"  Agggghhhhh! kinda funny. he! he! he!
      
         Becoming responsible for your life doesn't mean all your problems disappear. I wish! Sometimes I find myself on a great outward stroke of skillfully dealing with challenging situations. Other times the muscle to deal with issues becomes atrophied and the fear, dread, and monkey mind have a ball with my psychophysiology. This scenario: not so much fun as it can lead to physical manifestations, aka health issues. Access to love, power, and fulfillment lie in being fearless in face of your circumstances. Wherever your at with your journey, may it continue to unfold with ease and joy. May we link together and support one another on the path.

lovetolovetoloveya ...Luke

Groomzilla

Standing before the precipice of the Indian summer a cool breeze touches my face. I am settling into a new life and a new vision of the future. Sadness arises and subsides as the coming of age years fade away and an established rootedness of the trajectory of my life emerges. Images from movies like Stand By Me, The Goonies, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off flash through my mind as I have moved through the same life experiences, rich with anguish and joy. The nostalgia of youth swoons me like a dove in still full moon light waters. A sigh of delight falls over me as we move into another season and another life. I want to share so much with you about healing, life and love.

            The healing train is a movin’ and summer is making a grand exit. Big News. I got married this summer. Whoooo hoooooo!!!!! Can you believe it! It has been an amazing ride. As we encroached upon the ceremony, something began to stir inside me. This rite of passage is nuanced with cultural heritage, emotional unpeeling, and the dissolution of old beliefs and foraging of new ideals. I remember when I asked Emily to marry me on the Oregon coast almost a year ago. Within minutes, I experienced a shift that felt like an enveloping of protection and guardianship. It was as if a multi-layered down blanket enshrouded itself over our relationship, somehow buffering the commentary and opinions of the outside world, allowing us to gestate in a kind of womb leading up to marriage. With the wedding a month a way, I felt the beginnings of a squeamishness, ready to be birthed, initiated and presented into another realm of both worldly and spiritual commitment and existence. I am so grateful, fulfilled and honored to live my life and interact with so many heartfelt people. If you are reading this, you are one of them. Thank you for your Love and support.

            You may have heard of the term bridezilla. I have a confession. I really gave my fiancée a hard time after we got engaged, that I would not stand for any bridezilla-ness. I mean I was explicit and adamant about it. I didn’t want micro management or nitpicking regarding any aspect of our wedding. Admittedly, I was a jerk at times, of which I’ve apologized profusely and need to do more so. Things always have a way of coming back around. You may or may not have heard about the bridezilla concept, but I’m sure you haven’t heard of the groomzilla concept. Oh Yes. I was probably the first GROOMZILLA. It’s embarrassing to admit, but it is true. My now wife was so awesome throughout the wedding process. It was an honor to marry her. I on the other went through a total freak out, “I want cupcakes, not cake!”, “The DJ better do a great job!”, “I hope the venue doesn’t suck”, I mean groomzilla to the max and I’m not proud of it. Groomzilla. Now you have it. As I write this, I need to pause to catch my breath, because I have revealed to you my impervious, ridiculous nature. I am human and I love not being perfect.

never stop loving yourself...

you know that voice inside, that voice that tells you to do something you don't want to do? and you know it's right? that's your heart. That is the universe speaking through you. and then there's the other voice, the voice of reason, logic and practicality; that tells you not to be different, not to rock the boat, not to... express yourself. Loving yourself doesn't mean lollypops, rainbows and balloons all the time. It means doing the work that the universe asks of you and in these times, it asks a lot.


To be healthy, vibrant, full of life, is to love yourself and risk taking action where the results are unclear. We can negotiate, temperate and pace ourselves, but we can only deny that voice for so long before thedenial begins to deaden our senses, our perception and our passion. Never stop loving yourself, never stop listening to the voice that asks you to risk... that makes you nervous inside.

I am convinced that most people with persistant anxiety and stress have built structures of reason and logic around not listening to that voice of the heart. All of us wish sometimes that voice would go away, even the brightest stars can fall without integrity i.e. some recent major sports stars. This is after all, real life and the people who are making it happen, who are the engines of this world, listen to that voice no matter what. You don't even have to be full-on about it, you don't have to take it to an extreme, trust yourself, honor yourself, never stop loving yourself. Together. Onward!