Life’s bumps and bruises cause in all of us a variety of responses some of which are healthy and some less so.

We can take what life gives us, learn from it, expand our minds to take it in, and open our hearts to accept what is. With this kind of openness we can be wise in mind and loving and compassionate in our heart.

We can also fight change, resist what we could learn from, argue to be right, and slam the door shut to our heart if we don’t like what is going on. This reactivity causes us to close down, be angry and too fearful to engage with other hearts and minds.

In an attempt to keep this simple, let’s look at two basic options you have in responding to life in this very dynamic and evolving world. You can either open up or close down.

You will moment to moment either:

* Close your mind to new ideas and thoughts or you let your mind evolve and expand.

* Protect your heart from hurt or more fully express your capacity to love.

Staying the same isn’t an option because life’s lessons are two powerful to ignore. They keep on presenting opportunities to learn and grow or to resist change and pull inward.

This can also be stated as living in fear or living in love. Your life choices are being run by fear or guided by love.

The fear choice is depressing, numbing, distancing, protecting and in general not having much fun. The love choice offers many gifts in a lifetime.

Here’s what can happen if your choice is to live in love and compassion:

As your heart gives, it receives
As you open, the universe opens to you
As you enter into more expanded states, your opportunities expand
As you express more, your depression dissolves
As you learn to live in the now, anxiety goes away
As you are open to receive, more comes your way
As your mind explores, you find your truth

If the positive benefits to being open are calling you, there is an uncomplicated way of guiding yourself in this direction:

First you bring yourself into awareness about whether your body is opening or closing, expanding or contracting. This expansion and contraction goes on constantly and can be observed and provide you with many insights. Your body speaks your truth.

Then you acknowledge that you are responding to your ideas, others, and situations either with openness or protection, with love or with fear.

With this awareness you can then choose to move towards what you feel open to or you can examine the reaction of closing and see what will help you move towards opening.

Sometimes your body and intuitive wisdom works as a warning system and those warnings may be just blocks inside or truly something to avoid.

Once you are at a level of awareness and choice the next step is moving toward the changes you want. Action speaks very powerfully at this point.

So instead of closing down, instead of becoming rigid in thinking or protected in your heart, you choose to be active in taking your life forward with openness and compassion.

Awareness, choices, and active change keep you learning and help you remain open and positive.

One further perspective on these two energetic choices – All the energy of life flows through these two choices. Love is by far the most powerful influencing force on the planet. If you choose love moment to moment you expand your energy and bring great light to your life and the world.

Living in love will change the world.