The Power of Opposing Energies

Let’s talk about energetic forces.

I recently picked up this book called Conversations with God. The title of the book initially made me question the validity of its content. Religion doesn’t function as a persuasive force for me. However, I adopted the attitude of listening to opposing opinions to learn more about myself. And every time I have chosen this path, I have come out more open or more confident in my beliefs. So it would have been a disservice to rob myself of this learning opportunity. Anddddd, I loved every line of the book.

Every single line I read from Conversations with God was awe-inspiring. Religion was not its message. It promoted spirituality. The contents freed me and filled me with love. It moved me to be a more well-rounded person. And it was overall a wonderful and motivating read.

It discussed many laws of the universe. So I will create a series of posts on the book. The first law I’d like to share with you is the law of positive and negative energies.

Just like an atom, the universe and people have positive and negative energies. The way God describes it is that we can only know who we are (were - I will get to this in another post) once we know who we are not. An example from my life is, I didn’t think I was great at cooking or baking. I took it for granted. I also watched several Food Network shows and YouTube videos of people who were more skilled than I was. So I didn’t consider myself anything special. It wasn’t until I started talking about baking to my circle of friends and strangers that I realized, “Hey maybe I am better than average.” With that perspective, I upgraded my skill set, which encouraged me to get to the level of the bakers I watched. However, it took me 5 years to make a commitment to improve on it. What I lacked was the confidence to try something that required a learning curve. The curve scared me. Even when I had clear steps! I preferred to bake something simple or leave it to the professionals.

That thought process made me think about a common theme in Book 1 of Conversations with God. God says that humans operate from Love or Fear. Those are opposing forces. You know you love something when you are afraid to lose it. And you know you fear something when it threatens something you love. One cannot exist without the other. These are innate feelings inside of us and they can push us forward or hold us back.

Regarding baking, I loved it. But I loved my ego more. I was afraid of what critique or failing would do for my confidence. It wasn’t until I met someone who liked danishes, that I tried something outside of breads, cakes and cookies. The interesting part was that I was successful but was afraid to make it again! It’s a crazy cycle. Now that I am aware of how these primal emotions function, whenever I have resistance towards something I ask myself, what am I afraid of losing? Then I either create a more structured plan to achieve my goals to ease my fear. Or I walk myself through countless examples of situations I’ve survived when I thought my world was imploding.

Have you had a similar experience? Can you think of an example where Love and Fear presented itself, either paralyzing you or propelling you forward? Do you treat Love the same way you treat Fear, or are you more accepting of one over the other?

I’d love to hear about your journeys in the comments!