We live in a relative universe, which means that we only know something in relation to its opposite: we only know light relative to darkness; we only know tall relative to short; we only know good relative to bad; and so on. And I believe that God created the universe to feel love on an experiential level. Therefore, for love to exist, its opposite also must exist. I believe the opposite of love is fear. And fear can present itself in a variety of different ways, like anger, aggression, hate, and judgment. And all those negative feelings are just distractions to stir our focus from love.
Primarily, for me this is meant to be a perfect world! That is, in the sense that everything has its purpose. For instance, nature was created to support life. All the plants and their fruits were perfectly created to be our energy fuel providing everything we need to thrive in loving one another and fulfilling our purpose here. We must love and take care of nature and its plants and trees so when we feed from them, they will provide us all the nutrients we need not only to survive but to thrive in perfect health and strength.
Research has shown that when we eat cleaner, our thinking gets clearer, and we feel more focused and energized. When we lose focus and get distracted by unhealthy foods that lack the energy we need, our thinking gets foggy; we feel heavy, down, and we literally describe it as feeling “low on energy.”
I have noticed in my own experience how my thinking has become much clearer after I made the transition to eating clean. And believe me, it wasn’t easy! Coming from a rather unhealthy lifestyle, it was quite 
challenging to me to create new, healthy habits. However, it was all worthwhile—the mind fog disappeared, and I have never been so focused in my life! Surprisingly, I have also noticed how much more compassion I feel for the whole planet.
It’s always easier to feel compassion for those we love and keep closest to us, but now I am able to feel a different type of compassion.
It is a compassion for the whole big picture, everything and everyone. It is this feeling that everyone is part of me, and I am part of everyone. The sense of unity—the “oneness” that we hear all spiritual teachers talking about—now I understand it on a deeper level, and I feel like we are all an important part of the whole picture, the human family, which makes me feel deep love and respect for everyone and everything on this planet.
Additionally, sensing our environment to see how we feel about the people we’re surrounding ourselves with and the type of environment we’re submitting ourselves to is another great way to keep our focus on love and away from fear. When we pay close attention to the way we feel around certain people in our lives, we know deep within our core who is good for us to keep around and who we should let go.
People who make us feel exhausted after spending some time with them are clearly not bringing good energy to the relationship. It is very important to keep around us the people who make us feel re-energized and empowered after we spend some time engaging with them.
After I learned this process, I understood that some people came into my life to teach me what they have taught me and to learn what they have learned from me. Nonetheless, that does not mean they should stick around. Letting people go when it’s time for them to go can be very freeing for both sides and can contribute to the growth of everyone.
The same process applies to the environments to which we regularly submit ourselves to. When we go places that just drain our energy away, that is our bodies showing us that that is not a life-supporting environment. Unwanted jobs are the perfect example of this energy-draining situation. Sometimes we submit ourselves to jobs that only make us feel miserable about ourselves and our lives. It is important to acknowledge that those types of environments contribute greatly to the development of diseases related to stress.
When we lose focus and submit ourselves to stressful situations, it also increases the chance we will get distracted by unhealthy foods and substances and consume more of what makes us sick, again, stirring us away from love into fear. That creates a very unhealthy cycle that can be life-threatening. Acknowledging that is the first step in moving out of this type of situation.
By now, I have come across way too many cases of people who were sick or had some type of chronic pain for years. After they figured out what type of toxic and stressful environments they were submitting themselves to, and after working on getting themselves out of it, their health greatly improved; and they lived healthy lives afterwards. And that was very eye-opening for me! I started to pay closer attention and sense the places and people around me, keeping around only what is adding value to my life and acknowledging that the people I attract to my life are also looking to have value added to their lives. That became my main focus with all my relationships.
Most importantly, in order to keep focused on experiencing love and minimizing fear and distractions on our journeys, we should quiet our minds in order to listen to our intuition. Studies have shown that from an 
evolutionary point of view, we were all created with the ability to naturally “know” deep within us what’s best for our survival and wellbeing. The gazelle doesn’t have to walk up to the lion and ask, “Are you my friend?” The gazelle “knows” as soon as she sees the lion that she should run for her life! It is as if we have our own internal GPS showing us the direction to go and the right people to be around.
The problem is that we get distracted by so much noise and lose the ability to listen to our still inner voice, which is always whispering when we should say yes or when we should say no.
When we take the time to learn how to quiet our minds and just sit still, we are building one of the most powerful tools we can have: our own intuition, which is that “knowing” within ourselves of what is best for us. Studies on meditation have shown that the benefits are endless, from physical, to mental, to spiritual health, all showing huge improvements when we learn how to reconnect with ourselves and just listen to our higher selves’ wisdom.
I believe we don’t need to depend on anybody’s advice or opinions on how we should live our lives. We just need to sit still and listen, and we will always “know” what the right next step to take is. I know it can be very challenging in the beginning, but with good consistency and some practice, we can become the masters of our own lives and the captain of our ship, and we can learn how to navigate through our journey smoothly—just how life is meant to be.