Love in Action - WHY IT MATTERS TO ME

A Message from Our Founder, Gina Murdock

Love is a feeling, a concept, a way of being. What it means is fairly subjective. To me, love is the most important quality to nurture within ourselves, our family, community and world. As the founder of our Aspen-based non-profit Lead with Love I’ve spend a lot of time thinking about love, struggling to “live” the ideal of leading with love in my daily thoughts, words and actions. I don’t like using the word “struggle” to describe this endeavor of mine, but because we are wired for survival, literally, our reptilian brain is constantly fighting to win, to be right, and to survive even at the expense of others. And so, sometimes it feels like a struggle to let love lead and to override this wiring for survival and competition. It takes skills, tools and mostly awareness and a higher state of consciousness to look at things differently & lead from the heart. Leading from the heart means coming from a state of awareness or consciousness that acknowledges our inherent interconnection and the symbiotic relationship of all things. In Africa there is a term that I believe truly embodies this notion. Umbutu means “I am because you are”. I love this term and experience it in my daily life with my husband and interacting with family and friends and especially in nature. I know how each of us influences the other and how our mood, outlook, thoughts, words and actions deeply affect each other. I believe this is true from a micro level within ourselves and our homes, to a macro level, how we relate to all of humanity and the planet. I believe we are all one and that my wellbeing is tied to yours and vice versa, no matter where in the world you live.

I am affected daily by the news and often feel helpless at the scale of challenges we face globally - from the destruction of our planet to the exploitation of people and animals for profit. In the past I’ve been consumed with guilt and shame for not doing more to be part of shifting the world we live in from destruction to creation, from loss and struggle to joy and abundance…from fear to love.

When I moved to Aspen in 2009 I was elevated from more of a “survival” lifestyle - working three jobs and commuting daily up and down the valley - to a lifestyle of more abundance. While this was a wonderful transition personally, I suddenly felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. Now I could do more. I had more capacity and yet I struggled to find a way to channel the flow of caring and love in my heart into tangible action and impact. I felt I could never do enough. Through the last decade or so of turning toward the discomfort of my position in the world and my ability to respond to the challenges that broke my heart, I have learned so much about how and why it is important for all of us to do our part and what “my part” is.

The feelings of guilt and shame I experienced early on, and still do occasionally, led me to a place of inaction or action from obligation, anger, or upset. My intention now is clear. My intention is to be of service, to be led by a force larger than myself, and to be fueled by love, not fear.

Because of the inner work I have done that allows me to be led by love (and aware of when I am not so I can course correct!) I believe I am able to truly be of service. This has been a long time coming and a lot of frustration along the way to find acceptance & peace with what I do and what I choose not to do. It is the best feeling in the world to have a learning orientation to life and to ask, “How can I serve?” in my daily life and listen and act from that place. Sometimes this is simple and involves self care so I can “fill my tank” because I know I cannot truly serve others unless I am coming from a whole place, other times it’s writing letters, hosting calls or classes and working with others to create tangible change.

Lead with Love is the vehicle for this service and our intention is to build a community of change-makers dedicated to “being the change” in the world and leading with love. To that end, I am really excited to share our next campaign called “Love in Action”. This 1-hour, weekly digital meeting is a gathering place for change makers to discuss and share causes meaningful to them and to take action to support the vision of the world we want to see.

I am one that works better with others and I imagine others are too. Our goal is to take action, from our hearts, to create meaningful change toward a more just, peaceful, sustainable world. We chose four areas of impact for Love in Action: Social Justice, Environmental Stewardship, Democratic Participation + Civic Engagement and Child Advocacy.

I feel drawn to gather together, discuss meaningful and important causes, and to take action toward the world we wish to see, together. I hope you do too and this spreads like wildfire globally & we all commit to an hour (at least!) of inspired action each week.

Some history: This campaign is a culmination of years of civic engagement that started more than a decade ago when I was inspired by the yogic term “Seva”, meaning selfless service, and started The Aspen Yoga Society. For five years, when I felt the most alone and isolated in my new home of Aspen, I gathered alongside amazing volunteers from the Roaring Fork Valley yoga community to host events designed to bring awareness to important causes like Aspen Hope Center, ACES and Cambodian Children’s Fund, and to cultivate community. I knew if I felt alone in my new home others probably did as well.

Aspen Yoga Society led to the creation of Aspen City of Wellbeing in 2014 & our mission to serve the essential service workers of our valley knowing the wellbeing of one is connected to the wellbeing of all. After hosting our first Lead with Love Summit in 2016 we realized “Lead with Love” was the true calling and Aspen City of Wellbeing turned into a project of Lead with Love and continues to this day led by our amazing Wellbeing Director, Nicole Lindstrom.

As individuals and as an organization, Lead with Love has been taking action toward change for years. We created the Action Center at the last two Lead with Love Summits, a physical space for attendees to take their inspiration and put it into action, with the themes of give, volunteer, vote.

Over $5,000 was donated through microgiving, 102 people confirmed as registered voters, and 123 attendees pledged to volunteer.

We partnered with Unself, Dotopia, Give a Flake, and Yes on 2a as key piece of the Action Center in 2018.

Our 2020 digital Love in Action campaign starting July 15th is the next iteration of years of working together to make positive change. Even with the daily headlines full of so much injustice, polarization and fear, we can and must continue to spend our days with the dream alive in our hearts of who we really are and what we are capable of. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We can and we will lead with love not only in thought and word, but also in ACTION. As we gather together to perform actions that lead to more justice, peace, protection of vital resources on our planet and care for each other we can know that our life is an offering toward the dream that one day will become a reality.

-Gina Murdock, Founder, Lead with Love

THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU DO TODAY.

— MAHATMA GANDHI

Love in Action : Our Mission

To help participants enact quantifiable change + meaningful connections with others by providing a virtual meeting space and instructions for cause-based actions that align with Lead with Love’s values to shift culture from fear to love.

CHOOSE AWARENESS.
CHOOSE ACTION.
CHOOSE HEALING.
CHOOSE LOVE.

Love in Action : Brief Description

We believe our nation is experiencing a moment of reckoning that is compelling people to take action. With so many causes requiring attention and with our individualism still calling us to tend to our daily needs, many people feel confused about how to contribute, overwhelmed with where to begin and paralyzed into inaction.

The social networks have been hotbeds for involvement, but many people find they turn to these channels in moments of passive energy, and so miss the opportunity to take action in that moment.

Love in Action is designed to help participants join together to contribute to a movement supported by the organization and the community of participants. The Love in Action organizers will select a worthwhile campaign and provide participants with the following:

AWARENESS
1. A statement of relevance. Why this topic is meaningful and how it fits with our values system.
ACTION
1. Instructions on how to tangibly and immediately get involved
HEALING
1. A supportive virtual space for one hour each week to accomplish the tasks
LOVE
1. An opportunity for recap to share these accomplishments and to grow a network of engaged citizens shifting culture from fear to love.

Love in Action : Topics

In alignment with Lead with Love’s mission “to shift culture from fear to love” and the 5 pillars that uphold this mission (Heart-Centered Leadership, Optimal Wellbeing, Connection, Service and Joy), the Love in Action topics will be intersectional and address the following issues:

SOCIAL JUSTICE

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION / CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

CHILD ADVOCACY

Service

Be the change you wish to see by serving love instead of fear.

To support or help another and the planet knowing that the wellbeing of one is connected to the wellbeing of all.