What I Really Want For My Birthday This Year

My birthday is just a few hours away and, looking back, I can honestly say that the past year has been one of the best of my life.

Since my last birthday, so much has happened:

• The Love Mindset won the Readers’ Favourite Silver Medal for best self-help book of 2013
• I created Mindset Makeover, the 30 Day Self-Love Challenge, and recorded all three meditations that I have shared with the world
• I opened the Facebook group to go along with the Self-Love Challenge and, in it, found the most supportive, loving group of people who help me just as much as they help each other
• I sold all my things to travel and became a digital nomad in January
• I did a mass giveaway of The Love Mindset
• I made the most terrifying, liberating video of exactly what it looks like for me to face a crippling fear

I’ve had so many epiphanies on the way, yet one stands out more than the others because it’s been coming to me again and again.

I’ve continued to learn about real love, about interdependence. I keep learning that nothing is ever just for the world, nor is it ever just for me. It’s for all of us. Love is for all of us.

My book winning an award wasn’t just my accomplishment. It was also an accomplishment for the message of love and healing. The programs I’ve created spread love in the world: love that extends to everyone who is exposed to it and radiates back to me. It’s for all of us.

The Self-Love Challenge group wasn’t just something I gave to the participants of the program as a gift to them—it’s been a gift for me too. I’ve shared myself more intimately there than I ever thought I could. It’s my safe space and theirs. It’s for all of us.

Becoming a nomad seemed like something that was just for me, but then I got all the messages and emails from people who found my actions to be their “last straw.” Some moved, others became nomads too, and yet others simply allowed themselves to entertain the idea. I didn’t just do something to liberate myself—I allowed those who watched me do it to see it as possible for themselves. It was for all of us.

That is what made me do the giveaway and make the video. I wanted to give myself a birthday gift that was also a gift to the world because, this way, there’s so much more to receive, so much more to give, so much more love for everyone.

I see again and again how giving to others gives to me and how giving to myself gives to others. By nourishing my own authentic self, I become more authentic and liberate others’ authenticity. By making the world a kinder place, I live in a kinder world. By making the people of the world more loving, more compassionate, more open—I live in a world of such people.

Is there anything more beautiful?

I haven’t found it.

So, to continue in the tradition of this past year, the tradition of my learning to believe my own words from The Love Mindset, words that say, “By serving humanity, I automatically serve myself,” here is what I want. I want two things.

1. I want you to receive my gifts, if you haven’t already. Please take the free book. There’s no catch, except that I get to smile, knowing that love is sweeping into more minds in this world. And, please watch the video of my facing a fear. It’s a gift from me to you, and for you to take it is a gift right back my way.
2. I want you to commit, for one day, to showing as much love as you can. To me, it would be the most amazing gift to know that June 1^st is a day when people don’t just celebrate my birth—they celebrate love. Because, one day, I’m going to die, but love will never die. I want to help make something bigger possible. I want to facilitate something more than just people crowding around me and my work. I want to make compassion a norm in our society, and I don’t care if I’m given credit. So, on June 1^st, please give me and give us that as a gift: show compassion, give forgiveness, be a love warrior.

The first one will be easy. The second, maybe not so easy! I have brainstormed some ways that you can celebrate a day of love, so you can have your eyes open when these opportunities come up:

• Spare a smile and a word of encouragement to someone in need—sure, money helps, but love is what really pulls people out of long-term poverty
• Call up someone in your family that’s estranged because they’re not kind to anyone, and give them some space to speak—you’ll be surprised how much this heals people, just to be listened to and accepted
• Share your thoughts about love and compassion on your social media page—tell people about what you’ve found to be important about connecting to others, even if it’s hard
• Do something random for a stranger—buy them a coffee, pay their parking fare, help them with their bags, give them your seat
• Tell the people who are important to you that they are—too often, we assume people know how much they mean to us, so take a moment to tell them how much they matter to you and to the world
• Give yourself appreciation for what you’ve accomplished in the past year—do what I just did and make a catalog of your accomplishments, and allow yourself to celebrate how proud you are of yourself
• Play with your kids
• Call your mother
• Play with your dog

Those are just my ideas, off the top of my head, but please don’t stop there. I hope you’ll join me in filling the world with love and compassion on my birthday. This is the greatest gift I can ask for—to know that I’m contributing to a world that is a better place for all of us.

If you’re with me on this, let me know in the comments and make sure you come back to let me know how the day went afterwards. Looking back on this will give me the best memories I could possibly ask for.

For my birthday, I want a more loving world. Thank you for giving that to me by giving, by receiving, by just being yourself.

Thank you for being such a valuable part of my life and such a valuable part of the world. I couldn’t ask for anything more than your open heart and open mind. Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

 

(Photo by YellowBecky)