So, how exactly does one get love flowing?  Very easily, because to get God's love flowing doesn't take a whole lot of effort.  Just a decision to perform an act of kindness.  Any act of kindness gets the ball rolling.  Just taking a moment to think loving thoughts about a friend or family member will elevate your mood, alleviate your pain and accelerate your healing.  What works best for me when I do this is to imagine seeing my friends smiling and happy with their loved ones.  Immediately I begin to feel optimistic, a grin forms on my face and I notice that my pain has significantly diminished.  Matter of fact, during my moment of kindness I become entirely unaware of my pain.  This was made clear to me on an evening I was to speak to a group and on the same evening stricken with an acute gout flare up.  The pain was so great my eyes watered as my foot touched the floor to stand at the lectern.  The topic of my talk was about my positive experience with meditation and its benefits, which is something I love sharing with others.  It was during this talk that I realized from the moment I began to enthusiastically speak to the group, and throughout the reminder of my talk, I was completely pain free.

Although it's difficult to choose to be kind to others when we are in pain and feeling sorry for ourselves, it is the most effective remedy.  For example, my first thought is usually something like, "I'm in pain.  I'm the one that needs love and attention, not them."  Even though thoughts like these seem justified, they cause resistance to the flow of God's healing power and only prolong my recovery.  I've discovered that any negative thoughts like those of of resentment, envy, jealousy, and anger cause the feeling of pain to increase.  The more negative I become, the more aware I become of my pain.  The good news is that the sooner I surrender to the positive flow of life I begin to heal.  We always have the choice to either express love and accelerate our healing, or continue to grumble and suffer.  Some tiny acts of love that have worked for me are, a 'hello', smile, and wave to a neighbor, a nice comment or 'Like' to a friend's on-line post, a short e-mail sharing my appreciation for something special someone did, mailing off a postcard to a friend with a funny drawing of mine on it, and a phone call to a family member to say, 'I love you!'  Any small act of kindness you perform will open the flood gates of God's radiant love coursing through your body and mind rapidly bringing about the positive changes you desire.  God can only do for you what he does through you.  Which is why I enjoy this riddle.

Question: What is the first thing that gets cleaned when you wash the car? 
Answer: The inside of the hose. 

During an episode of "Funniest Thing! with Darrell and Ed" titled "Don't Worry, We'll Leave a Light on for You," I shared how I drew a cartoon as a creative remedy to transforming a recent gout flare-up into something positive.  As soon as I began drawing it, and thought of the friends I'd share it with, I felt better.  Here's that cartoon including the helpful rhyme it inspired.   :)