“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.” Thomas Merton

Why not? It is the dead of winter, and well, a love challenge may be in order. At the very least you may find love within yourself. To take on this love challenge you do not need to be in a relationship, relationship status not required. It is about intent, and that intent will be about love.

If you don’t have a current love interest, try some of these things on dear friends. Practicing love for thirty days. Some of these suggestions can take patience while others will show up easily. Take note as to what is less natural for you. Those are love languages you can work on to improve.

Be an active listener. It is wonderful to be heard and to give someone the grace to express their true selves. What a gift it is to freely express yourself without judgement. To show someone love is to hear them with tender and wise response. Empathetic listening, wonderful.

Offer quality time. Quality time is a strong love language for some and it can be a simple as a walk or just hanging out.

Gift giving. Wrap up something small, or a note with positive words. Cook someone a meal that is gift giving and acts of service. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, or so I’ve heard. Delicious way to feed and nurture the soul through the tummy.

Acts of service. Volunteer at helping someone or a cause you feel passionate for. Invite your love one, or a friend, to walk dogs with you at an animal shelter. My friend took her shovel to help dig through the mud in Montecito mud slides. That is acts of service, and giving on the ground level, wonderful.

Send a smile along with a hug. Hug from the heart to the heart. Physical affection is healing and wonderful. Hold hands with the person you love, again simple and heartfelt.

Tell someone you love, that you love them. Look them in the eye and speak it from the inside out. Life is short and if you make it a practice to show love in different ways it is like gold coins of the heart. Love will be returned to you ten-fold. Especially if you don’t expect it, but recognize and show gratitude for the love that will arrive.

Join me on the love challenge for thirty days!!!! WHY NOT? Write down each day some act of love you offered. Keep your love journal as record of your love efforts. This is not a competition it is a journey; it is a love journey. It is fun to think up new ways on a daily basis to show love to the same person or to many different loves in your life.

Read more about my love journey in “A Man for Every Purpose, My Naked Journey Searching for Love” on sale at Amazon. We are all on a love journey to some extent every day.

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My Mantra: “It is most wonderful to be on a love challenge for thirty–days, I am excited to see what unfolds”

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Katie L Lindley

Although I would like to say I am organized, focused and cookie-cutter, that simply would not be me. I am no different than any other woman in the world. I love to love, love hard, and, in the end, have learned to love myself above all else. So here I am, writing about the many men and the multiple purposes they have served in my life. Realizing that not one man on my roster had fulfilled every single one of my needs. Perhaps one man is not supposed to? I have compiled snippets of the men that have entered my world. In the end, they have shoved me towards my bathroom mirror, forcing me to take a better look at myself. Reflection is brilliant and the strongest guidepost into ourselves.

Working on the next book in the series “A House for Every Purpose, My Journey From Pillow to Pillow” revels a woman abandoning her home in search or her identity beyond men, motherhood, author.

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