Love

Theme Description
NEW This month
from the archives

What do we mean when we use the word "love"? Or when we talk about living a life full of love?

A big part of what we're describing is caring — and acts of caring.

Heartfelt attention is an act of caring. Listening is an act of caring. Acceptance and empathy are acts of caring. So are generosity, kindness, and service.

Love isn't only about offering care, though. 

It also involves allowing ourselves to receive it. To let ourselves be supported. To accept kindness. To recognize that we, too, are worthy of care.

Of course, giving love to others — and allowing ourselves to receive love as well — rests on a foundation of loving and caring for ourselves.

It matters that we actively offer love toward ourselves. Because it's hard to embody love outwardly when we're feeling depleted or overwhelmed or deeply insecure.

When I think about what the opposite of love looks like, a variety of words come to mind for me. But so many of them suggest to me a sort of closing down — an unhealthy kind of focus on self that shows up reflexively when we're not getting our needs met.

That closing down can be prompted by feelings of fear, shame, inadequacy, stress, hurt, anger, and so on. Genuine self-awareness and self-care allows us to uncover and address those obstacles to love — and to open our hearts back up again.

And I do think fundamentally that's what love is about — an open heart.

Loving and being loved means opening ourselves enough to feel caring, warmth, appreciation, delight, connection.

That's true not just with people. When we use the word "love," we're often referring to feelings about and relationships with other people. But just as often we're talking about other things...

For instance, I love my husband and my friends and this Joybook community. But I also love my garden and the way the feathergrass growing there waves gently in the breeze. I love playing my accordion. I love Scotland. I love the smell of rosemary. I love how journaling can reconnect me with myself, again and again.

So love describes our feelings about and interactions with other people, yes. But the word also applies to the places, experiences, activities, and moments that awaken our affection, appreciation, and delight.

Of course, we know that loving isn't always easy. To love is also to become vulnerable. We feel pain when we lose the people and things we care about — or when we see them struggling and suffering.

But backing away from love isn't the answer.

A life without love is a diminished life. Love helps us connect and belong. It helps us find and create meaning. It provides comfort and sustenance. Love brings us more fully to life.

So even when loving feels hard, backing away to avoid pain is not the answer.

Leaning into love is the answer.

And that's what we'll be doing together this month — leaning into love.

We'll offer it our attention and curiosity. We'll notice when and where and how it shows up for us. We'll notice what nurtures it.

And we'll be intentional about inviting a little more love into our lives...


Explore This Theme Inside Joybook...

New this month...

From the archives...

  • Journaling — The three heart-themed sessions from our Atlas of the Heart series (based on the book by Brené Brown) all speak in different ways to the kinds of topics that connect with this month's "love" theme.
  • Workshop — And continuing with the Brené Brown resources... Our workshop on "Shame Resilience & Wholehearted Living" was a powerful one that speaks to how loving and accepting ourselves as we are can help us open up more fully to others and to life itself.
  • Theme Page — The Connection Theme we explored back in February 2025 was relevant in many ways to the topic of love. Visit this theme page to see relevant replays, resources, and quick journaling prompts.
  • Or consider exploring other content from our Joybook content library with tags on topics such as love, connection, self-love, self-acceptance, joy, delight, beautiful life, etc.