In both my daily life and my work I see many people who live their lives in quiet desperation. Part of this is because they don’t know how to accept the love that is around them, part of this is because they don’t see the connection between those two great pillars of Being: Life and Love, and therefore feel isolated and hard-done-by. Most often, they cannot fully experience neither Life nor Love, because fundamentally they do not know how to love themselves. It is particularly difficult when we move to a new country, because then our old internal structures have been dismantled and we need to rebuild them in a new environment, culture and with new people around us.

People think that there are many different kinds of love, for instance, the love of a parent for their child, or that between two lovers or friends, or between siblings. For me, though, there is only one kind, that of Divine Love, and everything is a manifestation of this. My guidance tells me that Divine Love is Life itself. Most of the time, though, we don’t see it in this way because many of us are searching for something external to ourselves. So many of us are searching for something that is right there in front of us and all around and in us too, all the time, but we don’t realise it because we are it – we think we should be looking for something else, that elusive something, perhaps something more tangible.

Divine love is Life – all of it. And Life is Love. Love both creates Life and sustains it because it is it. And Life, every single aspect of it, is the direct manifestation and _expression of Love. I believe there is nothing else.

How many people do we know, who, whilst searching for Love, deny all Life? I know many people like this, unable to be at peace with themselves because quite honestly they don’t know what they are looking for and therefore what peace truly is. They neither know who they are nor what they are looking for. So when it’s presented to them, they can’t accept it because they don’t know how to. Or, they can’t recognise it when it’s present in their lives. I’m sure you too must know many people like this. I do.

Life is what we all search for, I believe, not Love. And when we are able to accept Life in the same way as we think we are ready to accept Love, we will see that there is no difference. When we accept all of Life, and therefore everything in our lives, including ourselves, we then find ourselves in a space of pure being and in this will be the purity of Peace.

Choice comes in when we find we can not (will not) accept something, for whatever reason, and we take responsibility in changing it. Or we change our response to it, doing whatever is necessary to come to full acceptance of anyone or anything. When we take full response-ability for creating our lives, we know that we are never, ever victims to people or life’s circumstances.

There are some philosophies that teach that there is no choice in Life, that it is just what it is. I have to admit I had a very difficult time grappling with this concept when I first heard of it. Finally, I decided to ask one of my teachers. “Well,” he said in that very patient way when it’s obvious that I’m shadow boxing. “Well, of course you have choice. You determine your own life and then you live it. Otherwise, life would not be happening through you, it would be happening to you and you would be one of its victims.”

For me, Life is a series of moments that create our actions which in turn create all the moments of Life – a Life momentum, if you wish. Self determination comes from our own crafting of each moment of our lives, ourselves, and living fully and consciously. In this way, we can sit back and live each moment as it unfolds, and Life happens through us, fully.

I’ve experienced people denying their lives in the way that they deny love, they are only willing to accept love in their own way which means that it is very difficult for them to be loved, and, in turn, for them to love back with any integrity. So we have many situations where people reach out for what they believe is Love, that is, according to their concepts of such a state of being – but in reality it is a conditioned response – and they receive in return another conditioned response. Somewhere deep inside of them they know that that is not what they want, yet they are unable to receive what they think they truly desire because they put conditions upon their receiving. Huge internal conflict then occur.

These are the very many people who are not happy with what they have, they judge it, complain about it and make their own lives and the lives of those around them miserable. We then have a whole load of misery around and very little peace. I know loads of people like this (and used to be one too until recently) and I know you do too. It’s onerous to be together in this way (and why would we choose to spend our time like this anyway?).

I truly believe that it is for those with courage to live their lives in integrity – that is, with themselves – to show the way to what is truly unconditional love. By this I mean in living our lives in acceptance, by negotiation, conciliation and without the need to be right nor to be wrong. To live in simplicity and free from a grasping need for material wealth, which to me is the same as living in simplicity. And to know that the richness of life lies within ourselves and this is something that money cannot buy.

The way defined is a practice that works for me. It is very simple and could also be a code of conduct for people who might choose lives of conscious living and conscious loving in similar ways. It is for each person to take their own responsibility for deciding the specifics of how they will do this for themselves – everyone is different, of course. When we are finally in this space, we will find that life just lives itself, and that is, through us and of us, in great peace, and we don’t have to do anything except to enjoy the ride.

 As well as healing from her Paphos base, Anna holds spiritual and wellbeing clinics around Cyprus as well as internationally. She also lectures on a wide variety of topics, gives workshops and holds retreats. If you wish to experience the healing and peace available www.onetouch-centre.com +357 2693 0388