We are faced with choices and decisions every day. Often, we wonder whether the choices and decisions we have made are the right ones. Have you ever wondered whether there is a fundamental guidelines in decision-making? Is there a fail-proof way of making decisions?
Well, in the spiritual sense, there is.
The best way to know whether you have made the right decision or not is by looking at the motivation behind the choice you made. When you distill all the complicated mental processes to their fundamentals, you will realize that all our decisions are driven by two basic and opposing emotions – unconditional love and fear.
We always make choices that we hope will eventually help us to attain our desires, wants and needs. In other words, we look outward for things to fulfill our desires, wants and needs. However, all our desires, wants and needs are ultimately meant to give us happiness. So the end goal is happiness.
Happiness, however, is not to be found from anything outside of ourselves. Happiness is our nature, our essence and can only be realized from within.
The question, then, is how do we realize this happiness that is already within us?
The answer is that in order to experience the happiness already within us, we need to remove all fears that are blocking us from experiencing the joy and happiness we already are. As Rumi said, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it”.
Once you have understood this, the answer to the above question becomes obvious. How do you know if you have made the right decision? You will know whether you have made the right decision or not when you are able to identify the motivation that drives you to make that decision – was it unconditional love, or was it fear?
Each time you made a decision out of fear, you have made the wrong decision, for you have not only perpetuated that fear but strengthened it. Remember that whatever you focused on becomes stronger. So, by basing your decision on fear, you strengthen the fear in you, and that will ultimately lead to unhappiness instead of the happiness you seek.
Likewise, each time you made a decision out of love, you have made the right choice, for in this instance you have perpetuated and strengthened love. As before, whatever you focused on becomes stronger, so a decision based on love strengthens the love in you. This will eventually lead to happiness.
Making decisions in this way not only benefits you but also everyone else. It benefits society as a whole since there will be greater love and lesser fear.
From the spiritual perspective, it is easy to see how all these made sense. After all, as a spiritual being, you are meant to manifest love. So, every decision that is based on love has got to be the right decision.