Sarah Prout - Be the Love: Seven Ways to Unlock Your Heart and Manifest Happiness

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For my children: Thomas Anthony, Olivia Rose, Lulu Dawn, and Ava Moon. Thank you for being here. I love you.

Welcome! Id like to congratulate you for being here right now. I have a great deal of respect for your willingness to dive into themes that prompt self-discovery, healing, and personal growthand I dont say that lightly. I see you. Amid the beautiful chaos of life, seeking to belong, navigating relationships, riding the wave of different emotions, and everything else that falls into the magnificent spectrum of being a humanI see you, and I honor you in this moment.

The book you are now holding in your hands or listening to in your ears is a book about LOVE and how to claim the hidden powers of your heart. Its a love letter and an invitation written specifically with you in mind. The theme of love is woven throughout the narrative like fine golden thread, and this is why its so important to first define what love actually represents. When you search for the word love in the dictionary it states that its a verb (an action word) and that its an intense feeling of deep affection. Simply put, love is a feeling felt in your heart. The reason its so important to articulate this is because reality and relationships can be somewhat warped in the name of love. They can masquerade as attachment, control, and an endless thirst to seek love outside of oneself instead of from within. What you are about to read is the journey back to yourself and into your heart.

I have one very powerful intention for this book: I want you to be the love you wish to feel. Why? you might ask. Because the truth is that if you cant love yourself, honor yourself, and listen to your heart, then it becomes almost impossible to love others and to live a meaningful life filled with abundance, creativity, connection, and joy. Sadly, I know this firsthand because I have not felt worthy of love for most of my life. I was trapped in the seemingly endless cycle of seeking love, validation, and happiness from others instead of from within my own heart first. At times, Ive felt disconnected from my own personal power, and this book documents how I made my way back to a space of clarity, alignment, intention, and confidence.

One of the most powerful techniques to help me get back on track was using affirmations in my moments when I couldnt love myself. Affirmations help to amplify the energy of your thoughts so that you can create a positive and empowering boost when you need it most. The word affirmation originates from the Latin affirmare, meaning to make steady, strengthen or to fortify.

When you affirm belief in yourself and your desired outcome (either out loud, written down on paper, or silently in your mind), it leaves you feeling more confident, capable, and prepared for the experiences that unfold throughout life.

Alongside affirmations, I discovered these three potent core elements that can always return you to a state of love and of inspired action in your times of need. I call this the Be the Love philosophy: feel, heal, and reveal. The Be the Love philosophy is turning to your ability to guide your energy and wake yourself up to appreciation and the joy of being yourself. This philosophy is beautifully simple and effective when navigating throughout life.

1. When youre hurt: FEEL. Allow yourself to wholeheartedly explore your emotions and activate connection within your heart. You do this through first asking yourself how you feel, by choosing alignment, exploring truth, and being grounded in your body. Always check in to see if you are being defensive or reactive instead of open and curious. Feelings must be processed and honored to move forward in life.
2. When you can identify a need for change: HEAL. Embrace your imperfections, make peace with what is, and become more intentional in your life to take responsibility for your own emotional reactions and responses to people and experiences. This will contribute to your well-being and help you reclaim your happiness.
3. When you open your heart to all possibilities: REVEAL. Trust that you are always guided on your journey and have access to infinite wisdom and inspired ideas that will illuminate an empowered path forward. Your intuition will always be revealed when you lead with love from your heart.

Even if you choose to close the book at this point (and I sincerely hope that you dont), then it is my ultimate wish that you lean into just these three powerful elements with a sense of curiosity to understand how they have the power to radically transform every area of your life.

We begin with a call to your heart and set the powerful intention to create an emotionally safe space for our time together. Were going to accelerate, amplify, and expand your capacity to seek guidance and comfort within. What I call emotional alchemy is turning feelings and emotions into a more loving perspective, and its like learning a whole new language. It can be really liberating to remember to rise above fear and embrace love in as many different situations as possible.

The heart has been represented as a symbol throughout history to remind humans of their capacity to transform, feel, and heal. Your heart itself, in your chest, holds tremendous intelligence as a guiding force to navigate your journey throughout life. In a way, its like a compass of sorts. It can tell you if youre feeling good or feeling bad. It can open, and it can close. It can even break. The energy the heart contains is important feedback on a moment-by-moment basis to remind you of your own limitless potential if youre willing to tune in.

My intention here takes you on an emotional journey to transform your inner world first and foremost so that you can steady, strengthen, and fortify your emotional responses throughout life. This adventure begins within your heart for you to Be the Love You Wish to Feel. This means:

Be the change

Be the grace

Be the joy

Be the strength

Be the mirror

And, of course, Be the Love.

Love is the most important element because it can mean comfort, transformation, connection, medicine for the soul, a doorway to the divine, and so much more.

The exquisite subtleties that reside in this level of heart-based intention and awareness of embodying love will completely change the framework of how you live your life. To show you exactly how to do this, Im going to be sharing with you some of the most vulnerable and life-changing emotional experiences that have unfolded in my own life over the last forty-two-plus years. In truth, its been a really hard process for me to write this book because of the sheer level of emotional transparency required to share my story and map out my journey into tangible steps. It was such a great healing process for me as I hope reading these words will be for you.

My story to get here right now spans two marriages, ten pregnancies, at least five countries, several thousand buckets of tears, and an equal amount of excuses. Theres also been a lot of love, laughter, adventure, and joy that has coexisted with the grief, the loss, and the tribulations. Ive walked a challenging emotional path to get me to where I am today. Its a path that severely corroded my sense of self-esteem and the connection to understanding my true self. Ill be sharing so much more with you in great detail in the upcoming chapters of how I turned my pain into power. As one example, nothing is more heartbreaking than not having enough money to feed your children. I would feel helpless and hopeless on a daily basis. I went from living on welfare in 2009 as a single mother in Australia, to now running a successful million-dollar company in the United States. If I can learn how to manage my emotions and guide my energy in times of distress, then you can too. And it doesnt matter what has unfolded in your life to get you to where you are today. The key thing to remember is that if you live your life with self-love and emotional self-awareness as your North Star, then you will thrive. And Im here to show you exactly how to do that.