Today we ask that you look at the choices you make, and consider whether these choices lead you towards love, or fear.

Ultimately, every action you undertake is rooted in love or fear.  Often there is a mixture of both — a confused muddle of motives.  But one will be the primary motive.

Do you work because you love what you do?  Or do you work because you fear what would happen if you didn’t work?

Are you in a relationship because you love the person you are with?  Or are you in a relationship because you fear being alone, or fear the loss of security being alone would bring.

Do you parent your child from a place of love, or from fear for the child’s future and potential integration into society?  Do you love your child for who she is, or fearfully impose your needs on the child?

Even the smallest choices are based in love or fear.  Do you eat the food you eat out of self-love, or because of a kind of fear — drinking caffeine because it energizes you so that you can force yourself to work more, for example?

Do you exercise because you love how it feels to your body, or because you fear gaining weight or experiencing physical deterioration?  

Again, the question is what is the primary motivation.   Is the primary motive love, or fear?

The problem is, the fear path never leads you to a good place.  It will never give you what you really want.  

Because what you really want, of course, is love.  Everyone wants love.

But making decisions out of fear always leads you away from love, not toward love.  This is always true.  When you do things out of fear, you are leading yourself further and further away from what you really want — which is love.

So when looking at your decisions, be very honest with yourself.  How many of your choices are fear-based?  If the majority of your choices are fear-based, then your life will be full of suffering.  That is the tragic irony of fear-based existence.  You believe that fear-based decisions will ease your suffering, because they temporarily make you feel more secure.  In reality, they only increase your suffering.

If you truly wish to suffer less, then live life from a place of love.  Love yourself.  Do what you do from a place of love, not fear.  This does not mean you need to radically change your life.  It does mean that you need to consciously shift your primary motivation for doing what you do from a place of fear, to a place of love.

All myths, stories, and fairy tales deal with this central conflict between love and fear — showing characters who must face their fears, and act from a place of love and authenticity.  When they do, they meet with a happy ending.  When they give into their egocentric fears and make poor decisions, they may suffer a not-so-happy fate.

Which ending would you like for yourself?