What does it mean to choose love over fear? It could mean opting for a healthy snack because you love feeling healthy, rather than because you’re afraid of getting sick. It might mean giving someone your undivided attention even though a long to-do list sits on your desk. Read these quotes to help you love your decisions, one at a time.

“All healing is essentially a release from fear.” — A Course in Miracles

All in all, the decisions we make may remain the same on the surface, but it’s the quality of those decisions, the underlying energy and intention of those decisions, that creates a new reality.

It’s WHY we choose to do what we do that makes the difference between feeling helpless and feeling empowered.

Take your friends, for example. Have you ever spent time with people because you felt guilty for not spending enough time with them? Or because you really wanted to?

When it comes to working, distraction seems to be the nemesis of productivity, but why can’t we just sit in the discomfort of doing the work without succumbing to the need to turn away? We don’t like to be uncomfortable, even though that’s where the breakthroughs happen. That fear of discomfort could be merely an offspring of a larger fear of not producing work that’s good enough, which probably has something to do with an overall fear of not being good enough.

Have you ever eaten a side of vegetables instead of fries because you didn’t want to gain weight, appear unhealthy, or ruin your diet?

And what about choosing something because you’re afraid of what might happen (even though you can’t be sure it will actually happen)?

Can we listen to understand without needing to force our opinion; even if we don’t agree, be open to another perspective? Of course, we can, yet that takes intense presence, compassion, and vulnerability. We must lose our fear of being wrong, of being perceived as weak or lesser than or something else.

The option of choosing love over fear is present in nearly everything we think, say, and do. It’s not an impractical thing to wonder how you can live from a place of compassion, desire, and hope rather than insecurity, guilt, and resentment (just a few examples of love vs. fear).

We know the difference. We can feel it immediately and see its resounding impact. It takes clarity and presence, though, in order to even understand the fear.

If we don't acknowledge the source of our decisions, we neglect our own power to make a qualitative difference in our experiences.

The following quotes double as examples of how we can choose love over fear in any situation, and how critical our awareness is in the process of healing our fears and living intentionally.

Making conscious choices means we make them on purpose, with full acknowledgment of where they’re coming from and where we’re hoping to go. That beats blindly reacting to stimuli and hoping not to experience what we fear (like, discomfort).

Choosing Love Over Fear: 15 Quotes to Help You Love Your Decisions

1. “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.” — Mahatma Gandhi (attributed)

2. “Try not to confuse ‘attachment’ with ‘love.’ Attachment is about fear and dependency, and has more to do with love of self than love of another. Love without attachment is the purest love because it isn’t about what others can give you because you’re empty. It is about what you can give others because you’re already full.” — Yasmin Mogahed

3. “Until you get comfortable being alone, you’ll never know if you’re choosing someone out of love or loneliness.” — Mandy Hale

4. “If you knew the secret of life, you too would choose no other companion but love.” — Rumi (attributed)

5. “You are being presented with a choice: evolve or remain. If you choose to remain unchanged, you will be presented with the same challenges, the same routine, the same storms, the same situations, until you learn from them, until you love yourself enough to say ‘no more,’ until you choose change. If you choose to evolve, you will connect with the strength within you, you will explore what lies outside the comfort zone, you will awaken to love, you will become, you will be. You have everything you need. Choose to evolve. Choose love.” — Creig Crippen

6. “It is common to say that we are doing something out of love when we are actually doing it out of fear. Love and fear are complete opposites. So be honest with yourself, are you doing it out of love or are you doing it out of fear?” — Teal Swan

7. “If you want the moon, do not hide from the night. If you want a rose, do not run from the thorns. If you want love, do not hide from yourself.” — Rumi

8. “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” — Joseph Chilton Pearce

9. “I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can product learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.” — Folorunsho Mejabi

10. “I choose love over fear, always. I’d rather burn in the fire after touching something true than not feel anything.” — Victoria Erickson

11. “I’ll choose honest over perfect every single time.” — Rachel Wolchin

12. “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” — Nelson Mandela

13. “To love someone fiercely, to believe in something with your whole heart, to celebrate a fleeting moment in time, to fully engage in a life that doesn’t come with guarantees—these are risks that involve vulnerability and often pain. But, I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude, and grace.” — Brené Brown

14. “In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” — Abraham Maslow

15. “If you want to tap into what life has to offer, let love be your primary mode of being, not fear. Fear closes us down and makes us retreat. It locks doors and limits opportunities. Love is about opening to possibilities. Seeing the world with new eyes. It widens our heart and mind. Fear incarcerates, but love liberates.” — John Mark Green

. . .

Tell me:

Which of these quotes is your favorite?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I’d love to know!

With love,

Jen

P.S. Wake up and choose love before anything or anyone else has a say. Get my book Morning Affirmations to start your day with intention. It'll make your whole day better, brighter, no matter what happens.