1. Love

Yes, exactly, the obvious first: love.

It may sound simple, it may seem banal. But receiving and giving love – many people in our time fail at this.

Many of us suffer from our decisions. They are afraid, afraid of the truth, afraid of change, afraid of life. But fear has nothing to do with love. Love gives us confidence, courage, and self-assurance. No one who loves themselves harms others. No one who loves themselves holds back. No one who loves themselves wants to live in the shadow of others.

Love for ourselves and for other people not only makes us strong, it makes us invincible. We don’t stop when it hurts. We keep going and thus tread paths that no one has ever walked before. Love is our eternal companion. Love is not naive, it is not blind, and it cannot be blinded – that is our ego.

Those who love see EVERYTHING. They see the pain, the mistakes – and always choose love. We should not love everyone. Nor should we forgive everyone. But we walk OUR path – in love.

2. Growth

Growth is a crucial part of our lives. It is the reason why we are in this world at all.

We are not incarnated to live in our comfort zone. We are incarnated with experiences from previous lives. Some of them enrich us, others block us. The same is true of the people in our lives: some enrich us, others block us.

But other people’s bad karma must not become ours. We ALL have the task of growing from our experiences.

Growth brings change, and these changes require courage—which is often lacking. We prefer to stay in our comfort zone, but often become unreflective, stubborn, and unseen, becoming people who block others and ourselves.

Because resting on your mistakes ALWAYS leads to carrying these mistakes out into the world. How could it be otherwise?

3. Transformation

That is why transformation is so important.

Yes, we have painful experiences. Yes, we make bad decisions. But none of this has to determine our entire life path.

Only our will and our faith determine that. Negative experiences remain negative if we allow them to. But we can also choose to transform them – to learn something from every lesson.

MAKING USE of every experience is different from brooding over it or suffering. If we manage to transform the suffering in our lives into something that benefits us AND others, we have succeeded.

The suffering of the past no longer has power over us.

4. Joy

Those who have had traumatic experiences will find it very difficult to feel lightness and joy. We lack confidence because we are only trained to survive.

We have never learned to LIVE. Shedding one’s survival strategies, behavior patterns, and emotions like a snake sheds its skin becomes a lifelong task. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

If we are willing to grow and transform AND let go. By letting go of the heaviness of our experiences, we can feel lightness again. We can look confidently at ourselves, our present, and our future. We regain our trust—in ourselves, in our lives. Joy, contentment, wealth, abundance—these are our birthrights.

Unfortunately, we are too often surrounded by people who live only on the margins of their own abilities and worth. We see their darkness and are ashamed of our light. But that is not right. Because nothing can be created from darkness. It can only take, isolate, weaken.

Let us turn to our light, because we are all unique – we can never lose.

5. Gratitude

Gratitude is essential to our lives. A simple example: Do you give more to an ungrateful beggar? Someone who constantly whines, complains, grumbles, blasphemes, and speaks negatively about themselves and others – who would want to give this person even more?

Or should we rather be able to see the beauty in life? The gifts we receive every day? The happiness we have? If we look at ourselves and others with ungracious eyes, what can the response be other than to be viewed ungraciously ourselves?

Let’s stay with ourselves, let’s focus on ourselves. Let’s live in trust in God, trusting that we not only deserve all the happiness in the world, but have already received it. Then we are grateful and receive even more to be grateful for. Abundance begets more abundance.

Sure, life can be chaotic. But WE don’t have to be part of the chaos. We can stand aside and still be right in the middle of it. But we have to make the decision: What kind of person do I want to be?