Being in a state of love is an absolute necessity if you want to be connected to the energy field which is responsible for the fulfillment of desires. The quality of being loving is not the same as being love, and neither does it have the same effect.

You might say some of the most loving people you've ever known hardly manifest their desires or live the good life. It's important to note that just because people seem loving doesn't mean they are in harmony with the energy field. They may display the outward appearance of lovingness but it's possible their loving behavior is motivated by, insecurity, fear, a desperate need to be loved, pity, manipulation, or control of others, to extract reciprocity, or gain favor or a host of other things which have nothing to do with love. There are also some people who are masters at the conspicuous display of generosity and kindness, which may be done for the admiration and applause of people - and not born out of genuine love. And then of course, there are those who are fundamentally loving, but their prevalent thoughts center on low energy emotions such as shame, anger, guilt, fear, frustration, resentment or judgment. In all of these cases, the individual is no being love but simply going through the motions of love, thereby never really connecting to the energy field.

The best way to connect to the energy field and remove the obstacles to the awareness of love's presence within one's self is by doing the following powerful exercise I call Love's Pathway:

1.) Close your eyes and breathe deeply 3 or 4 times, while saying the following to yourself: I am the full expression of God's love. Just as God is love, so am I. I am love.

2.) Hold in mind an image of someone you love. This could be a family member, a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other. Then imagine yourself putting your arms around that person in a loving embrace while simultaneously saying "I love You" in your mind. Hold on to this feeling of love, allowing it to spread throughout your entire being.

3.) While holding on to this feeling of love, silently say to yourself, "I feel love." After a few moments mentally say, "I feel God." Then finally in your mind say "Thank you," allowing the feeling of gratitude and appreciation to wash over you.

4.) Remain in this state of being love for a few minutes, imagining the love in you radiating outward in an egg shaped sphere of vibratory energy that flows out onto all people, encompassing the world and the universe.

You may repeat the process, holding in mind the image of another loved one in the next cycle. You can do, as I do - and practice several cycles, going through every member of your family in succession. Or you can choose to do just one cycle - holding in mind thoughts of the person who naturally and strongly causes strong feelings of love to be generated within you.

The profound effect of the above exercise cannot be emphasized enough. It may seem disarmingly simple, but it awakens in you feelings you didn't know you had. You'll learn the secrets of your heart, and the extent to which you can love another human being, and truly love yourself. It will also magnify the love you already have for those you love and create a deeper bond between you and them.

Allow me to walk you through the various stages of the exercise, and what each step accomplishes.

1.) When you breathe deeply 3 or 4 times, this allows you to center yourself, silence your mind, and remove all extraneous thoughts and feelings in preparation for the exercise. As you contemplate on the truth that you, as a human being, are the full expression of God's love, you gain a newfound view of yourself that defies description. You'll feel a dismantling of your self imposed imprisonment of pride and the ego based emotions of resentment, fear, doubt, worry, greed or hatred.

2.) When you hold in your mind the image of someone you love, this immediately puts your body in a state of strength. The science of applied kinesiology, pioneered by Dr. George Goodheart in the latter part of the 20th Century, shows through muscle testing that certain stimuli increase the strength of certain indicator muscles while other stimuli would cause those same muscles to weaken. Emotional stimuli, such as picturing someone you love, provokes a demonstrably strong muscle response when compared to negative or neural stimuli.

When you imagine putting your arms around a loved one while at the same time silently saying, "I love you", and then allowing the feeling of love to spread throughout your entire being, this act of loving another human being allows you to spontaneously detach from your identification with the ego momentarily because you are focusing on your loved one. Since at that very moment, you're loving someone without condition or expectation of reciprocity, you step outside of yourself and transcend the ego for the time being.

Different people have different triggers that cause them to have deep feelings of love. Many of us respond to the sense of touch - therefore, envisioning a loving embrace or a gentle caress is just the key. For others, the deepest feeling of love is triggered when they hear the words, "I love you." In this step, feel free to add whatever it is that causes you to have deep feelings of love.

This is the emotional phase of the exercise. It allows you to start with the feelings of love that you're already familiar with, and use them as a catalyst for accessing the deeper dimensions that reside within you.

3.) When you say to yourself, "I feel love" it brings crystal clear realization something inside of you, your true loving nature, is finding full expression. When you say, "I feel God," a shift in awareness occurs as you realize you've found the bridge - the "wormhole", if you will - between emotional and spiritual dimensions, and you've opened the doorway to God through love.

When you say, "Thank you," it is an expression of profound gratitude and appreciation for the spiritual vision to see who you really are, and to revel in your boundless capacity to love. By being love, you connect to the energy field from which everything, including the manifestation of your desires, originates.

4.) When you remain in the state of being love and imagine radiating outward, you raise your frequency of vibration so that it ultimately becomes a vibrational match to the energy field, which means you've realigned yourself with the field.

Conscious connection to the energy field can happen in a split second. Many people are able to catch glimpses of this connection for brief moments - or maybe a few minutes, hours or days - when they are in an altered state of consciousness, or when they are experiencing a spiritual epiphany or a religious experience. It's characterized by that sublime, surreal feeling that everything is right in the world, that one has access to all the wisdom in the universe, and anything one sets out to do will meet with success. While it's wonderful to experience that euphoric feeling of being of being connected, unless you can sustain that state longer than just a momentary period, it's nothing more than a spiritual "high" which will do little towards the fulfillment of your heart's desires.

When you awaken to the full realization you are love, and practice the Love's Pathway exercise regularly, you perpetuate that state - and it becomes the "normal cruising altitude" of your life. That's when miracles begin to happen, and you experience the definition of self - realization referred to by Swami Paramananda, as follows: "Self - realization means that we have been consciously connected with our source of being. Once we have made this connection, then nothing can go wrong."

There are many ways of arriving at that conscious connection with the energy field. Often, it takes a lifetime of spiritual agony and suffering, combined with the performance of traditional spiritual practices. The recovery of millions of people from the incurable malady of alcoholism, for instance, follows a spiritually based pathway called the 12 step program. Indeed, most people who have been cured of alcoholism using the 12 steps espoused by Alcoholics Anonymous (and embraced by other groups like Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous) attribute their sobriety to a transformation of consciousness they call a "spiritual experience." The spiritual experience involves, among other things, asking a power greater than themselves for strength and guidance, and daily prayer and meditation to improve conscious contact with God.

It should be noted, neither medicine, psychiatry, nor any branch of modern science, has ever been able to bring about the recovery from alcoholism the spiritual truths of the 12 step program have been able to accomplish successfully. Likewise, neither positive thoughts and feelings, visualization, affirmations, and any other techniques currently taught in conjunction with Law of Attraction will ever wield the manifestation power of the spiritual truths contained herein. Consciously connecting with the energy field through love is the accelerated method - the sudden emergence into higher awareness, which dramatically shortens the time it takes to manifest desires. When you cast a pebble of love in the ocean of life, the ripples you create will return to you in waves, according to your heart's desires. If you cast no pebbles,,there will be no waves to propel your heart's desires and enable them to arrive at your shores.

Let us daily increase in: wisdom, love, gratitude, reverence, healing, peace, joy, happiness, laughter and prosperity.