How do you define love?

I was asked to give a talk at Unity of Vancouver earlier this month. The theme, given to me by Unity, was Love.  As part of the preparation for my talk I asked myself  “What is my definition of love?”  Love is one of those words that we see everywhere, used in all kinds of contexts from “I love chocolate,” to “Love is life force energy,” to “Love hurts!”

My start was to define love as emotion and things evolved from there!  I’m not going to give away where things ended up – you’ll have to listen to the talk for that (a big tease I know!) – but I will say that my definition was inspired by ideas from:

• meta-physics and the New Thought Movement – and in particular a book entitled The Twelve Powers by Charles FIllmore.  I focused on the two soul powers of love and wisdom.
• the belly brain (the seed of your wisdom power perhaps…) and the heart brain (the seed of your love power perhaps…) – two concepts referred to in the context of Interpersonal Neurobiology.
• a fun website I explored called www.canyoudefinelove.com.
• many poems, words, and songs on love from the likes of Rumi, John Denver, Deepak Chopra, and more!
• images of love from Gaping Void – here’s one of my favourites.

I hope my talk inspires you to connect with and listen to love – in all its shades and hues.  You’ll find the talk here (mp3)…

P.S.  Came across many jokes/sayings about love in my exploration as well.  This one made me smile:

Do you believe in love at first site?  Or should I walk past again?

Text and Images Copyright © Dr. Catherine Hajnal 2011, 2012, 2013