Hey y’all. Welcome to More Lovin, the podcast that brings more laughter, light and love into everyday life. I’m LeAnn Austin, and around here, love isn’t just something we talk about, it’s something we practice through the More Lovin Method. Move. Connect. Love. Three simple choices that can change your day, and over time, your life. Let’s practice a little more lovin. Here we go.
Today’s episode #243: Love ~ More Than a Feeling
What if love isn’t just something we feel, but something we practice?
We usually think of love as a feeling. We fall in love. We feel love for our kids and grandkids. We feel love for our spouse, our friends, our family, but feelings come and go.
So what happens when loving someone is hard? What happens when we’re disappointed, angry, hurt, tired, or struggling to even love ourselves? Maybe that’s where love becomes more than a feeling. Maybe that’s where love becomes a choice.
Over the last two weeks, we’ve talked about the first two steps in the More Lovin Method.
Move. Movement helps us show up. Connect. Connection reminds us we belong. And today, we get to talk about the third step, Love. Because love is what gives both movement and connection their deepest purpose.
To me, love isn’t just a feeling. Love is how we choose to show up. It’s how we speak, how we listen, and how we forgive. It’s how we encourage, care, set boundaries, and keep showing up when things aren’t easy. And sometimes it’s how we choose ourselves.
I want to look at love in four places today. First: Love yourself. I’ve spent the last decade learning how to love and appreciate myself in a way I don’t think I understood before.
Letting go of the idea that I had to be perfect. Getting much better at focusing on what I actually control ~ me. And learning that my family’s choices don’t define me, diminish me, or determine my worth. That has been so freeing.
I’ve also learned to appreciate my body for what it can do instead of constantly judging it for how it looks. And here’s something I’ve noticed. The more compassion I have for myself, the easier it becomes to have compassion for other people. The less I judge myself, the less I judge others. Loving myself makes it so much easier to love other people.
So what does loving yourself actually look like? Listening to your body, giving yourself grace, honoring your needs, speaking kindly to yourself, setting boundaries, resting when you’re tired, asking for help, moving because you care about your body, and letting yourself be perfectly imperfect. What if the way you talk to yourself matters just as much as the way you talk to the people you love?
Second, love others. Most love isn’t grand. It’s ordinary. It’s listening, sending the text, remembering what someone told you, sitting beside someone who’s hurting, giving someone another chance, saying, “I’m so proud of you”. And sometimes love looks like telling someone the truth because you care enough to be honest.
Third, love through the hard stuff. Loving people doesn’t always mean we agree with them. It doesn’t mean we never get angry, that we never disappoint each other, or that we don’t need boundaries. And this is something I’ve learned that has changed the way I look at relationships.
Rupture and repair are part of healthy connection. We’re going to hurt each other sometimes. We’re going to misunderstand each other. We’re going to get angry, and we’re going to get it wrong. Healthy love isn’t about never having conflict. It’s about being willing to come back, repair, listen, take responsibility, and reconnect. Real love isn’t pretending everything is okay. Sometimes real love is being willing to do the uncomfortable thing because the relationship matters.
Fourth, love God and connect with what is bigger than yourself. For me, love ultimately comes back to God. Loving God, receiving His love, letting that love shape the way I love myself and the people around me.
For me, this brings me back to what Jesus called the two greatest commandments, and I think of them as three. Love God, love others, love me. Those three simple things have changed the way I want to live my life.
As I wrap up this series, here’s what I love about these three words. Move. Connect. Love. They aren’t three separate things. They’re connected.
We move because our lives are worth participating in. We connect because we’re not meant to do life alone. We love because that’s what makes all of it matter. Move. Connect. Love. That’s More Lovin.
So why does all of this matter? Because love changes the way we experience our lives. It changes the way we talk to ourselves, see other people, handle disappointment, repair relationships, and show up when life gets hard. And most importantly, love gives us a reason to keep choosing move and connect.
We move because we care about the life we’re living. We connect because we care about the people we’re sharing it with. And we love because that’s what makes it all matter.
Here’s your more lovin’ challenge. Choose one person and help them know they’re loved. Tell them, text them, hug them, call them, write them a note, whatever feels genuine to you. And also, do one loving thing for yourself because you count in this equation. When you take care of yourself, it becomes so much easier to love others too. Hmmm, something to think about and practice.
Over these last three episodes, we’ve talked about three simple choices. Move. Connect. Love. Remember, move helps us show up, connect reminds us we belong, and love reminds us what matters. And that’s the whole point of the More Lovin Method. Not perfection, not doing more, not becoming someone you’re not, just practicing three simple choices: Move. Connect. Love., again and again, one day at a time. Because around here, more lovin isn’t just something we talk about, it’s something we practice.
Before we go, grab one thing from today’s conversation and remember the More Lovin Method. Move. Connect. Love. Here’s to a little more love and a whole lot more lovin. You got this!
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. If you’re ready to put the More Lovin Method into practice and create more of what matters most in your life, I’d love to help you through one-on-one coaching. You can learn more at LeAnnAustin.com
Because around here, more lovin isn’t just something we talk about, it’s something we practice. Have a good one y’all.