“Every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.” - Oprah Winfrey

Love isn't just a feeling. In fact, often choosing love requires going against your feelings. Loving people don't always feel warm and fuzzy inside. They have just mastered the art of making active decisions, which are in accordance with the principles of love, and over time, they begin to feel more and more connected emotionally to what they have chosen rationally.

So, why then should we choose love in the first place, if we don’t feel connected to it? It ought to come from a longing of some sort, and longing, initially and essentially, is caused by suffering. A wise Thich Nhat Hanh once said that “there is no happiness without suffering.” So, why then shy away from our sources of suffering, if they are what truly implements longing and love?

One of the greatest joys of life is the freedom to make choices each and every day. Loving people have mastered building a willpower that is stronger than any emotion they will experience. So, if they experience rage, they choose to actively forgive the person they are angry with. If they feel anxious, they choose actions of courage. If they feel depressed, they choose to keep moving despite a lack of motivation. Over time, these people develop a kind of strength that enables them to have more commitment than they have fear.

This may be one of the biggest misconceptions about love: people think that because they don't feel connected to love, they have less of a capacity for it, which then convinces them that love isn't really that important or that it can't really do much for them. Don't be convinced by the lies of fear, but rather make active choices within your life to reinforce love. Because as soon as you start making choices, you start caring and caring eventually leads you to experience love on an emotional level.

Committing to actions of love will eventually allow us to grasp more fully the mystery of the energy that connects us all. It is our most efficient source of honest expression, true joy, and invincible resilience. It is an energy that is everywhere in and around us. We are vessels of it and simply have to actively commit to it each and every day.