This year’s Choose Love Awareness Month theme is Be an Illuminator, and it might be the most important skill we practice all year. The idea was inspired by author David Brooks, who describes “Illuminators” as people who help others feel seen, valued, and understood. They don’t just walk past people, they bring out the best in them.
At the heart of being an Illuminator is a simple truth: every person wants to love and be loved, see and be seen. That is real connection. And connection is not just a “nice extra.” Without it, we suffer. With it, we flourish.
How to Be Seen: Courage and Vulnerability
Being seen starts with courage. Sometimes we wear an invisible mask that says, “I’m fine,” or “I don’t care,” even when we’re hurt, stressed, or lonely inside. Taking off the mask doesn’t mean oversharing. It means being brave enough to be real, asking for help, naming a feeling, or saying, “That hurt.”
One of the most overlooked connectors is pain. When we share pain, not to compare it, but to connect, it builds trust and reminds us we are not alone.
How to See Others: Look for the Light
Being an Illuminator also means learning to truly see other people. Not just what they wear, how they act, or the tough face they might show, but the humanity underneath. Often, behavior is the outer layer. Underneath may be fear, sadness, embarrassment, or stress. When we learn to see that, we can respond with compassion instead of reacting with judgment.
The Choice Moment: Where Real Power Lives
We teach that every person has a superpower: the Choice Moment, the space between what happens and how we respond. In that space, we get our power back. We can pause, breathe, and choose the highest and best response.
The Choose Love Formula: How to Illuminate Every Day
The Choose Love Formula helps us become Illuminators in real life:
- Courage helps us be honest and brave.
- Gratitude helps us notice what’s good and what’s possible.
- Forgiveness helps us put down the heavy weight of anger.
- Compassion in action helps us include, encourage, and repair.
These aren’t just school skills. They are life skills, tools we can use in friendships, families, workplaces, communities, and every relationship we’ll ever have.
Your Challenge
Today, choose one person and help them feel seen.
A smile. A kind word. An invitation. A check-in. A restart.
Small choices create big change.
Because we are the ones who create the world we want to live in, and we can start with the choices we make today.
