There are 7,043,513,670 people living in this world. Based on the actions of a small fraction of that number, it’s possible that you’ve become less open to love.

When we come into the world as infants, we are open to unconditional love and trust. We know no different. Even as young children the walls start to come up, and then, by the time we are adults, we are skeptical, guarded and have lost faith in unconditional love.

• Because one person laughed at your artwork in grade school, you don’t create anymore.
• After getting teased or bullied by a handful of kids, you don’t trust your peers to support you today.
• Your first, second and third broken heart taught you to never to fully give your heart to another person.
• A bad diagnosis or poor medical treatment from one doctor made you question the performance and intention of all practitioners.
• Getting passed over for a promotion or being treated poorly by your boss caused you to dislike all management.
• Because one blogger didn’t reply to your email, they must all be too busy or uncaring to respond.
• One car cut you off in traffic and now your convinced that all drivers are bad.
• One whisper behind your back and today you question what everyone thinks about you.

Maybe it was worse than all of that. Perhaps it was abuse, or indescribable pain and loss that closed you off. While I don’t dismiss your suffering, I want to ask you to reconsider your reaction. Think about the layers upon layers of protection that you have added to your already thick skin to protect yourself from pain and disappointment. Maybe you saved yourself a little grief. But what about the love and joy and caring and graciousness that didn’t get a chance?

You can’t completely block out the bad stuff without walking away from the good stuff too.

You’ve been hurt and you’ve been hurtful. Today, give yourself a chance for pure, unconditional, generous love by being loving yourself. Open up, peel back the layers, and trust.

1. Kill your TV.
You don’t need to watch the news to know what’s going on in the world.

2. Read a book about happiness.
You can choose what information you want to consume. Start with something happy.

3. Volunteer.
The best way to stop thinking about your pain is to ease their pain.

4. Speak your mind.
Say I love you, thank you, and I’m sorry. Out loud.

5. Forgive.
Those people who hurt you aren’t thinking about you anymore. Why are you still thinking about them? Quietly forgive them and move forward with a whole heart.

6. Trust.
Don’t punish someone you’ve never met, because of the actions of someone in your past. Give people a chance to be loving. Give them a chance to love you and lift you up.

7. Choose love.
Surround yourself with loving people. Visit lovely websites. Work with people you love. Friend and follow lovely people. Support causes that you care about. Do things that make your heart swell.

Even if 1000 people have let you down, there are still 7,043,512,670 people out there. Despite what people did to you and what you see on the news, people are good. They are loving and deserving of your love and they want to love you right back. Look for goodness. Look for happiness. Look for love. It is everywhere.

Hello, I love you.