As we head into the weekend, I thought I’d give you a special video edition of our audio love segment. Here are a few songs that articulate a wide range of emotions that I’m sure we’ve all experienced at some point on our relationship journey. So enjoy the music, and have a great weekend.

I Love Someone Else

Stay With Me

I Miss You

Get Your Act Together

“Fear is a mind conqueror … Pain is only temporary.”

This singular phrase pushed me through the long days and nights in college spent enduring a grueling fraternity pledge process (shout out to the Nupes). It became a daily devotional for my life; but as soon as I crossed, I no longer needed it—or so I thought…

As I’ve matured though, I’ve come to realize that such a powerful mindset can and should be applied to your love life as well. Just two short years ago, I experienced a heartbreak that would bring my world to a grinding halt. I ceased to exist mentally, because there were so many questions left unanswered as to why this would happen to me. With so many women openly lamenting the lack of good men, why would someone just throw us away?

I couldn’t understand it.

Even when I moved past all of the question asking, I still allowed the fear of being hurt again to affect my interactions with new women. But then one day, a familiar friend returned…

“Fear is a mind conqueror … Pain is only temporary.”

It was in that moment that I stopped allowing the fear of hurt to control my life. In that same moment, I began to live again and began to rediscover the beauty and wonderment of love and relationships.

So what am I saying to you?

As you close the book on 2008, and look to a better and brighter 2009, reflect back on your interactions with the opposite sex. Has the pain of the past allowed fear to take control of your life? (Be perfectly honest with yourself.) That pain that you felt, though very real, was only supposed to be temporary. Don’t let fear make it a permanent fixture in your life.

The Final Fly Questions of the Year

How has the fear of heartbreak affected how you interact with the opposite sex?

What steps are you willing to take in the New Year to avoid allowing fear any power over your love life?

Click below to listen to Jazmine Sullivan’s “Lions, Tigers, Bears”