Every so often I find myself “in love” with someone I work with. Now let me explain: I am not talking about a love that needs to express itself sexually or in intimate partnership. I’m talking about the love that comes with the recognition of an “essence connection” that holds the promise of destiny unfolding. It is the feeling that somehow this other person and I have a gift that we need to share with each other, a gift that, once exchanged, will leave us and others transformed.

I get this type of “in love” feeling with Sounds True authors, with business partners, and with co-workers (at the moment, I am in love with a dozen or so such people, just to give you the idea about what I mean here). I usually know I am in love when someone or something has captured my imagination – I daydream and swim in the feelings evoked. Internally, my code language for this experience is the recognition that I have “karma” with someone. What I mean by having karma is that we have work to do together, that something is wanting to be exchanged, something is wanting to be born through a joining of forces.

I wanted to toss out this topic of “Love at Work” because it is so often considered taboo to talk about Big Feelings in the workplace. And yet, it makes sense that if we are creative in our jobs and if we are bringing forth our soul’s gifts, we will of course encounter big feelings of love (and many other types of big feelings, by the way) at work. So I would like to break open this taboo and welcome eros, which is the life force itself, into the workplace, and proclaim that we can welcome these feelings of intense love in a way that is respectful, life-giving, and follows all necessary HR guidelines!

When we invite love into the workplace, our work world begins to sing with the fullness of life. Meetings become a chance to connect with people we love; new projects become a way that we can combine energies with others to magnify the potential of our individual gifts. We become available for real partnership, which for me only happens through a heart-level exchange. We also begin to acknowledge what I consider to be the real fuel for work life – relationships with other people which are overbrimming with shared heart in the context of a shared purpose.