The Power of Choosing Love

Imagine driving on the street with your kids in the car. All of a sudden, the car in front of you slams on the breaks for no apparent reason. In fact, you can see that the driver is looking at his phone while driving. What would your reaction be? Will you hold down the horn and unleash a tirade of profanity? Maybe even roll down your window and show some gestures expressing how you feel? Even worse, leave the car and try to settle things with your knuckles? As if this wasn’t enough, you carry that anger through the rest of the day towards other people as well? OR, would your reaction be a little different? You can still feel the obvious anger rush to your head, but you react in a less harmful way. You still blow the horn briefly to let the driver know that he put himself and others in danger, then look at your kids, see that everything is OK, thank God for not getting into an actual accident and move on with your day.

Your typical reactions to daily hurdles depend on your mindset, your overall outlook on life. At the deepest levels, your actions can be traced to one of the 2 sources - love or fear. In the example above, it’s obvious that the person in the first scenario is living a predominantly fear driven life, while the second person could be said to live a more peaceful life stemming from love. How else could he/she get over that dangerous scene so quickly?

The fear driven life carries a certain set of attitudes towards other people. Here are some examples:

• They do not approve of me.

• I should be guarded. They probably want what I have.

• They can take what I have.

• They are out to get me, they want to hurt me.

• They think they are superior to me.

• I can’t trust them.

Want to know a secret? People who think they can be deceived, hurt, taken advantage of, treated unfairly, typically end up getting all those things because deep down they expect them. That’s their outlook on life. But here is what’s really profound. Human mindset is not irreversible. In fact, you can change what you receive by changing what you expect. I know this to be a fact because I made the mindset shift myself just a few years ago, and I know many others who have done the same. The change starts with letting go of fears and trusting your higher emotions, especially the highest emotion of them all - LOVE.

Let all your actions stem from love! How? The first basic premise is adopting as your guiding principle, that people are generally good in their core nature. The error stems from judging the people by the surface, not by the core. Start piercing through the surface straight to the core. I promise, you will find something good inside any person. When you have changed your outlook on people, on life to a more trusting, more giving, more loving one, then all your other attitudes will change. You will not need to worry about any ethics, moral standards, wright or wrong decisions. What stems from love cannot be wrong, unethical or immoral.

Now, let’s see how the examples given earlier can be modified by changing your outlook.

• Fear: They will not approve of me. Love: I approve of them. It’s not important what they will think of me.

• Fear: I should be guarded. They probably want what I have. Love: I will help them get what they want.

• Fear: They can take what I have. Love: I will happily share my blessings with them.

• Fear: They are out to get me, they want to hurt me. Love: People are good in their nature. There is no reason they would want to hurt me.

• Fear: They think they are superior to me. Love: My self-worth has nothing to do with what others think of me.

• Fear: I can’t trust them. Love: I trust people because of their basic good nature.

You may still feel skeptical. You may think: “All this feeling warm and fuzzy baloney doesn’t work in the real world.” To that I say the following. Go to the truly happiest people you know in person. The people that no matter what, always have a smile on their face, never complain despite the troubles. Many of them are also very successful in conventional terms. Go ask them, what’s their attitude towards other people? Chances are, they will affirm everything you read above. It can’t be any other way. To be truly happy, you must be in peace with the world and yourself. Think about it, how can you be in peace while living in fear?

Choose loving, choose giving, choose trusting, choose forgiving, choose peace. Note the word “choose”, because it’s a choice. No one, and I mean no one can affect how you feel, if you CHOOSE TO CHOOSE YOUR OWN FEELINGS. Start loving people and life today.