The 5th Secret for Teens: It’s a 4 Letter Word But it’s Not #%&@

Oh #%&@

Ok, the 5th Secret is actually not that kind of four-letter word but let’s face it, we all have moments when pulling out that four lettered word seems like the only appropriate response to the situation (Just don’t tell your parents you curse…we like to think that you never do and never will and will also never admit that you learned it from us.) Anyway, I’m here to suggest that there is another type of response to those situations that also involves a four-letter word and that word is LOVE.

In fact the 5th Secret is very simple – Life is All About Love. 

Sound too simple? It probably also sounds very hippie-let’s-all-sit-around-in-a-circle-and-play-guitar-and-hold-hands-while-we-wish-for-world-peace too. At least it does to me. But that’s not the kind of love I’m talking about. I’m also definitely not talking about romantic love which is wonderful and important but I don’t expect you to romantically love everyone (plus it would be weird and I’m not sure exactly how you’d handle all those relationships and heartbreaks but I digress…)

So, back to love. I’m so sure about this secret that I promise that if you approach everything and everyone in life with love you’re guaranteed happiness.

Yes, I said GUARANTEED HAPPINESS.

Let me break it down for you.

In the 4th Secret we learned that you are Body, Mind and Spirit. That Spirit part of you – that light-filled, shiny, happy, universal, bubbly connected True Self that you’ve got bottled up inside – is connected to everyone else here on this planet. There is actually science and quantum physics to support this and I will definitely try to explain all that (once I figure it out myself) but for now, just stick with me and accept that we’re all connected. Even on a fundamental level we’re all just connected energy.

So, if you accept that we’re all connected then don’t you think we should at least try to like each other if not try to love each other? I don’t expect you to jump right on this love train but imagine just trying to just like everyone around you.

Let me give you some examples of what I’m talking about.

– Your little brother or sister is really really annoying you but you take a deep breath and decide that you’re going to just be nice to them and try to like them at that moment. They will actually respond to this and will likely settle down.

– Or picture yourself walking down the hallway in school. You see someone coming towards you who you don’t know but you decide to smile at them as they go by. All of a sudden you feel lighter, they smile back and feel better and neither one of you really knows why.

I could go on and on with examples like this but as humans we all react and respond to each other’s energy. Surely you’ve met someone and immediately thought “Ew…there is something I DO NOT like about this person.” That’s because you’re picking up something about their energy. But what if you decided to be open to them for a moment and to internally decide that you were going to just like them because they’re a part of this planet just like you are. You might find that the energy shifts.

So, here’s my advice. Start with “like” but move towards love. It’s really why we were all put on this planet. The more you can remind yourself that we are all connected and that, because we’re all connected, we should love one another, you will find that happiness and love just continually come into your life. It’s almost like turning on a faucet. It’s kinda scary how happy you’ll be. No really. Seriously.

Hopefully I’m not telling you something new and novel but I really can’t stress how important this concept is to not only your personal happiness but to the future of this planet. Someone has got to make this shift. Someone has to decide that they’ve had enough of fighting and war and poverty and crime and violence. Someone has got to start talking about and using love in their loves.

That someone is you.

Oh and lest you think that I’ve come up with this on my own, here are some quotes by people much smarter than me who also speak about love more elegantly and eloquently. The first is one of my favorites:

Quotes:

Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.  – Marianne Williamson

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.- MLK

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. – Lao Tzu

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. – Oscar Wilde

A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge. – Thomas Carlyle

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. – Mother Theresa