As of December 21st 2012 our planet has successfully entered a new era in the history of humankind. Usually referred to as the Golden Age or the Age of Aquarius, this  new paradigm entails our spiritual awakening to the concepts of love, freedom and self-empowerment.  The basic understanding characterizing this era is a liberating sense of Oneness, the realization that despite our diverse nature we are all connected to a single stream of God-consciousness that is wise, powerful and all-loving. The Oneness attunement meditation in my article How to Prepare For the ‘End of the World is a powerful tool to awaken yourself to the energy of this new paradigm, and my article A Whole New World: An Era of Love, Freedom and Self-Empowerment defines the three basic premises of the new era and provides a list of selected material that will help you explore these concepts in a deeper way. However, words don’t teach, it is life experience that teaches. Therefore, it is up to us individually to internalize these three concepts and incorporate them in our lives.

Starting with the concept of Love, I’ve came up with 12 simple ways that will guide you into infusing your life with the vibration of love, allowing you to, step-by-step feel yourself into the high-vibrational frequency that defines this new era.

1. Start and end your day in a state of appreciation. As soon as you wake up in the morning and before you go to sleep at night dedicate five minutes to count your blessings. The vibrational frequency of appreciation is in alignment with the vibration of love, and therefore, who you really are. Starting and ending your day in a state of appreciation sets the tone of your day and night to love.
2. Take frequent walks out in nature. Flowers, plants, trees and animals are more adept than humans to maintaining their alignment with Source energy; therefore, surrounding yourself with aspects of the natural environment ensures the cleansing of your aura from all negative energy. Visualize every piece of consciousness in the natural environment being a portal that spews out an infinite amount of positivity, facilitating an easier blending between you and You.
3. Smile. Smile at yourself, your friends, colleagues and strangers. Smiling is a simple yet powerful tool for transforming the moment-to-moment way you feel. Even if you don’t feel like it, faking a smile tricks your mind into believing that you are happy.
4. Give compliments. The new paradigm is based on Oneness, therefore, the understanding that even though we have separate bodies, personalities and characteristics, we are same in our core. We are all physical extensions of a single and loving source of consciousness. Genuinely complimenting each other provides a platform for experiencing our Oneness and incorporating it into our reality.
5. Nurture and pamper yourself every day. However busy we might be we can all find fifteen minutes every day to take care of ourselves. When we truly love ourselves we provide an example of how other people should love us. People who don’t love themselves enough end up needing other people to give them the love that should have already been there. The easiest way to boost your self-love is to consciously face yourself in the mirror and say “I love you.” Although hard at first, this powerful statement will help you identify the reasons that prevent you from loving yourself enough and lead you to a journey of finding genuine self-love.
6. Write a love letter to yourself. Self-love is different from narcissism. Narcissism arises from a need to prove yourself to someone else, therefore, it always has to do with self-doubt and insecurity. Loving yourself means appreciating the miracle that you are and appreciating yourself for all that you’ve done and all that you are.
7. Forgive yourself. Nobody’s perfect. We are all unique in our own imperfect ways and this is alright. Instead of criticizing yourself for past mistakes simply accept your imperfection and appreciate what you’ve learned as a result of that mistake. Consciously, look at yourself in the mirror and forgive yourself.
8. Think and speak in a positive way. An emotion cannot exist without a thought, and so the way we think and speak is directly related to how we feel. Visualize negative thoughts being drops of water. A few of them can’t cause much harm, but as the drops keep flowing they will eventually form an ocean of negativity that’s going to take over your consciousness and keep you in a prison of negative attraction. Therefore, choose your thoughts wisely and make sure they reflect love.
9. Clear your house from clutter. Everything in the universe is energy and energy has the power to interfere with us and influence the way we feel. Cluttered homes lead to cluttered minds that keep us stagnant and prevent us from growing and living life to its fullest. Therefore, make sure you throw away things that you no longer use to make room for the new.
10. Expose yourself to plenty of sunshine. The sun’s energy is important for supplying our bodies with Vitamin D that plays a fundamental role to our level of happiness. Statistics show that people living in sunny countries are generally happier than those who aren’t. If your geographical location prevents you from getting enough sunshine, simply visualize yourself bathing in sunlight; our minds can’t tell reality from imagination.
11. Distance yourself from all forms of negativity. If you are serious about making a positive shift in your life them you will have to make some necessary life changes to facilitate that. Prolonging your current lifestyle will only keep you stuck and prevent you from experiencing the love that you seek.  Therefore, make the conscious decision to distance yourself from people, circumstances, activities and events that maintain negativity in your life. This could involve releasing hurtful relationships, abstaining from watching the news or reading newspapers as well as refusing to participate in fear-based conversations.
12. Look around you for signs of love. Love is such an intrinsic aspect of our lives. We find it in songs, movies, advertisements, people, nature, our own houses. Make it your goal to purposely seek for these signs in your surroundings and when you do, stop and appreciate them. Love is all around us, we just need to notice it.