The Power To Choose
Like It Or Not, You Always Use Your Power To Choose
If you could have superman’s powers, would you take them? “Much is expected from those with much” would get pretty real in life if you did! We sometimes forget (or deny) how much power we have over our own lives, usually just when we need to exercise that power.
So take a moment now to think about your own power to choose. Do you believe you control your destiny or is everything up to chance?
Certainly, we have no control over how the universe works – but we are a part of the universe. We got here somehow, and we have to deal with our place in it, for better or worse. And we have the power to choose better!
Seeing The Power To Choose
We are constantly hit with messages telling us how we should live and what choices we should make. You’re reading one now! Questioning our own choices and doubting our power doesn’t mean we are weak, any more than seeking information to make better choices means we are foolish.
The quest for wisdom is honorable and necessary to live a good, full life. But we also have to admit that, sometimes we know the best way to go, and must find the strength to do what we know is right.
Read that last line again. As human beings, we can find amazing resilience and strength when others rely on us, or when the unexpected forces us to choose a difficult path that we would normally avoid at all costs.
Practicing The Power
How much of what you think is influenced by things you can’t control? Emotional responses to unpleasant moments can damage an otherwise good time, changing the course of an entire evening, or life.
Think of a luxurious dinner party, in a lovely garden setting. Everyone’s having a wonderful time, until a lone wasp happens to evade security and buzz on to the scene. Just one panicked move can set off a chain reaction that ends up wrecking a host’s or caterer’s reputation, not to mention everyone’s night out.
Similar chain reactions take place in our minds almost constantly, as we take in new circumstances and information. Unlike random dinner guests, though, we have power over these internal reactions.
You’re in charge of your mental environment, no matter what happens outside of yourself, or how much control you believe you have. When someone is rude to you in traffic or at the store, you choose either to let it disrupt your day or to let it go and continue doing what you need to do.
Imagine how important that wasp would feel after all those people gave it the power to do so much damage! Do you want to give that kind of power over your life to a rude stranger?
Executing The Power
The next time you meditate (if you don’t meditate, start meditating), take special notice of your physical comfort. If you get an itch somewhere, take a moment before moving to scratch it.
Then make a conscious choice to scratch it, or don’t scratch it at all, and let it go away on its own. We do so many things automatically, whether to relieve a discomfort or communicate with others, it’s amazing how enlightening it is to stop and try something else.
You can’t stop an asteroid from hitting our earth. You can decide how to spend the time you have before it does.
Mark Schneider
After a full, but empty career of writing, editing, producing and directing, Mark has settled into a life of sharing and learning, hoping to make many experiences into a teachable wisdom.
What do you want to believe? The power to choose is both wonderful and terrifying - this is a space for clarity and self-discovery. Thanks for visiting!
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