Do Love = The Antidote

Driving along, I absorbed the statement. Initially I agreed, it was a sentiment I could get behind along with many others who are feeling sick about the divisiveness and animosity in the air these days.   But then, I felt anxiety building up inside me. To resist means to withstand the action or effect of something. In this case, hate, a word that means to feel intense or passionate dislike. Just as quickly as the initial message hit me, the negativity of the message dissipated the positive intent.

As a health and wellbeing coach, I have long studied and coached others on the power of the mind to influence our behavior. We have all heard the phrase, “what you focus on grows”. At a basic physiological level, the more we repeat our thoughts and actions, the more neural connections are formed in our brain to strengthen our beliefs and habits. Every time we do something, we reinforce the behavior or thought. Stop doing something and the action, habit or thought is likely to disappear over time (use it or lose it!).

Beyond this, the brain does not always process the modifying verb (i.e. – resist or don’t) and will focus on the main action. A statement like “I won’t eat all the cookies” might settle in the mind as “eat the cookies!” subconsciously making it more difficult to resist eating the darn cookies. In the case of the bumper sticker, my mind voice heard hate and the body responded accordingly – agitation and reminders of the reasons behind creation of the bumper sticker.

Two negatives do not equal a positive. The brain reads and processes the action at a subconscious level without interpretation. Two negative words evoke negativity at all levels. Alternatively, focusing on positive messages is a better path toward positive outcomes.

An antidote is born

And that is how Do Love was born. Two positives can create more positivity.

Action + positive action = positive response.

An empowering statement. A positive statement.

A statement focused wholly on what we need more of – love toward one another.

An idea that also reminds us to love and have compassion for ourselves too.