So the research is in–not that we didn’t know it already.  When we feel love, we feel happier.  Dr. Barbara Fredrickson reports that you don’t have to be in a romantic relationship with one person to feel love. You can feel it for the barista making your coffee, whether you know her or not, and this is actually as “important to your health as eating well or going for a run” (The Oprah Magazine, February 2013)

So here comes the tricky bit: how can we love our pain?  I think Char’s response below is definitely the first step.  As if it were a person, we turn towards it with a smile of greeting an old friend.  “Oh, there you are,” we might say.  And gently, kindly ask what we can do for it.

“”When the brain registers love, it triggers the release of the hormone and neurotransmitter oxytocin” — Barbara Fredrickson, PhD and author of Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become