For most of us, there’s a state of stress or distress we’ve come to call normal.  A humming of the cells. A vibration of the body.  A rant in the mind that undermines our sense of well-being and perpetrates great suffering.

This may have begun as early as the womb, if our mothers were under duress.  Or we may have evolved here, slowly and over time, as life forgot we were the embodiment of the Divine, God’s gorgeous gift, and we slumped into believing what we were told or assumed about ourselves—stupid, not good enough, ugly, unworthy . . .

We’re all taught these lies in one way or another. And we all suffer for them.

These messages become a loop in our thinking and we learn to contract, distract, withdraw and withhold ourselves from life, love, because we believe we’re undeserving.

Our nervous systems get amped and over-stimulalted, and fight or flight  becomes our way of life.

We believe that this is just the way things are.

Until we discover the possibility that this isn’t actually so.

And decide to do something about it.

I like to say, “Just because a thought is loud and repetitive, doesn’t mean it’s true.”

So, like the loving, soothing mother many of us never had, it is our job to calm and contain the over-stimulated nervous system, the frantic inner voice, to bring ourselves, slowly and gently, to a place of greater peace.

How?  By speaking kindly, and feeding ourselves, our cells, with love.

I often show my clients the photos of Dr. Masaru Emoto, the Japanese scientist who studied the effects of energy on water. Dr. Emoto took jars of water and put words or photos on them, or played music to them.  He then took a drop of that water and froze it into an ice crystal.  The photographs are phenomenal.

The water that had love, beauty, kindness broadcast into it turned into gorgeous ‘snowflakes’.  The water that had anger, meanness, chaos broadcast in turned into black, ugly swirls.

Our bodies are eight-five percent water.  Just as is the planet.  Each cell is a little water balloon.  That inhabits, incubates and demonstrates what we are broadcasting.

And, anything broadcast out, is also broadcast in.  We feel and receive whatever we are projecting toward another.

If we want to heal ourselves and become happy, we need to change the channel and broadcast beautiful sound, vibration, thought into ourselves.

The good news is that we just have to be aware and attend to this in the next moment.  Are we being kind or abusive?  Are we sending snowflakes or black swirls?

A simple way to practice this—whether you feel like it or not—is to stop, close your eyes, put your hand somewhere in the center of your body and begin telling yourself, “I love you.”  Simple as that. Simple, but not necessarily easy.

Especially if the habit has been unkindness.  Most of us are very good at some version of ‘I hate myself.’  But it’s time now for this to stop.

It’s time to begin infusing our bodies, minds and energy fields with love and compassion, kindness and care.

It’s time to change the world, one world at a time. Beginning with ‘me’.

So, hand on heart.  Eyes closed.  A gentle “I love you” to begin. And if there’s a place inside you that’s screaming, ‘No, I can’t!  I will not do this!’ see if you can love that. See if you can love yourself through the pain and patterning of your own unkindness toward yourself.

Doing this will begin to change everything.

Changing yourself, your cells, and ultimately your life and the world, one “I love you” at a time.