Fear or Love

Fear or Love? That is the question...

 I've always been incredibly intrigued by what motivates people.  I heard a statistic about motivation.  The statistic claimed that we are motivated 80% by our emotions.  That leaves a whomping 20% left to the demise of our analytical and logical mind.  Hmmm, what does that mean? 

Don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements & the Mastery of Love) distilled our emotions into two root emotions- fear or love.  It's really that simple.  When I factor that perspective into my hobby of anthropological voyeurism,  I'm really intrigued.  Either that person is picking their nose out of fear or love, right?  I suppose they could be motivated by a fear of looking stupid because they have a booger in their nose.  Could nose picking be motivated by love? Please excuse my silliness.  Sometimes I just can't help it.

The first question I need to ask is whether or not we are aware of our emotions.  Can we switch into observation mode (the O in SOLA) long enough to wave at our emotions as they float down the river of time.  Or do our emotions get hung up on a branch of our consciousness eventually clogging up the natural flow of the present moment?  When we lose the natural flow of the present moment, our motivation turns from love into fear. 

I'm digging all this stuff up and tossing it around because the last 6 days I spend with people who are truly motivated by love.  I lived in Moab in a house with people who work for SPLORE.  SPLORE is a nonprofit organization that brings life changing outdoor experiences to people with disabilities and/or special needs.  Our days were long and packed full of hard, physical labor.  We were preparing to take 30 volunteers down the river on an overnight white water rafting trip.  The manual labor for this kind of a trip is amazingly strenuous.  However,  because the motivation behind all of our efforts was pure LOVE,  our energy sources were plentiful.  In fact,  we had a blast! 

The lessons that I take away from my week of fun hard work and love is that I always want to be motivated by love.  More importantly though,  I want to be self-aware (the S in SOLA) to check in with myself to make sure that I am motivated by love.  Love flows in the present moment.  It's bright, light and peaceful.  Fear definitely gets hung up on the branches clogging up the flow of the present moment. 

I constantly have to remind myself in this world of multi-tasking and overstimulation to stay self-aware. The more self-aware I become the obvious the shift from love to fear becomes. Sometimes it actually feels like someone turned out the lights.  Where did the love go?  Darkness is fear.  Love is light.  God is love and God is light.  These are truths that have motivated some of my most favorite "servants" of all time spreading a message of love and fulfillment through servitude.  

The SOLA process is really about this concept.  S= self-awareness-- let's slow down and be aware of our thoughts.  O= observation-- let's observe those thoughts without attaching emotion to them  L=  The BIG Grandaddy LOVE-- no-brainer there and A=acceptance-- can we practice this process without having any judgment towards ourselves and others.  These little tenets can help clear out the branches that contribute to the clogging of our consciousness.  When we're clear, we get the flow of light, love and the beauty of the present moment. 

Amen!