Choices and Decisions Empower Your Life
Any and all control comes down to making choices and decisions.
Many of the powers that be – specifically political, business, and some spiritual leaders – prefer that you feel disempowered. They want you to believe that you’re powerless, have no control over your life experience whatsoever, and that nobody but them (or their chosen affiliates) can help.
This message is spread far and wide and is constantly bombarding you. Nearly every advertisement is offering to sell you goods or services that will make you feel better. Pill, watch, diet regimen, car, or cleaning service, advertising offers solutions to what ails you, or more specifically, to the suffering you fear that will come from what ails you.
For the most part, the fewer choices and decisions you make for yourself, the more you cede your power. When you let others convince you to make their choices and decisions for yourself, if you don’t resonate with them, you’ve ceded your power.
Look at all the people who get buyer’s remorse over voting for a liar, purchasing the medicine but not reading the fine print, and expecting that if seen in a club drinking that alcohol, they’ll get laid – but then don’t. It’s all the same, as it’s all a result of not making your own choices and decisions by ceding your power to others.
To be fair, life’s not easy, and sometimes the choices and decisions available are between bad and worse.
It’s best when you make the call
Have you ever let someone else pick dinner and found you were stuck with something you didn’t actually want? Like, sure, maybe you had no strong preference toward one style or another, but didn’t express your desire to avoid one, either. Then, because you didn’t make your own choice or decision, you got stuck with that style you’re not a fan of. That’s a simple example of ceding your power.
Yes, I understand when people look at choices that are all bad. If you do not choose at all, however, you open the door to the worst. Let’s be honest, voting for nobody or a 3rd party candidate in a presidential election is ceding your power. You didn’t make your voice heard in any way.
No matter what it is, it’s best when you make the call. Don’t just let choices and decisions pass you by. Make them yourself and be empowered.
Why does empowerment matter? Because when you’re empowered, you’re more capable, awake and aware, and able to control your life experience. But, it’s important to note, this applies to only you and your life. You can’t impact anyone else or choose and decide for them. All the control you have in life is directly related to yourself. And most of that is inner matters connected to conscious awareness.
Yes, some things done by rote and routine are best done on autopilot. Some things, usually fairly minor daily chores, activities, and the like. Anything that can have greater repercussions should involve active choices and decisions by you.
You alone can make choices and decisions for yourself
The only person in your head, heart, and soul, is you. Only you occupy your mind, body, and spirit. For that reason, nobody else knows what drives you, makes you tick, makes you happy. Hence, nobody else knows what choices and decisions in any given situation are right for you.
Sometimes it feels like this is too much. For many, choices and decisions are overwhelming. But that doesn’t lessen their importance, nor the control they grant you.
What do you control? Everything inside of yourself. Your mindset/headspace/psyche self. Everything connected to your active conscious awareness.
This boils down to your thoughts, feelings, intentions, approach, and actions. These are pretty much the only things over which you have complete and total control.
It’s not perfect. Shit happens around you, to you, and adjacent to you that impacts you. And you have no control over that. But after it happens, you can choose to change or alter your thoughts, feelings, intentions, approach, and actions as they relate to that.
How? Mindfulness.
Mindfulness of your choices and decisions
Once again, we reach a place where I cannot understand the “anti-woke” sentiment. Seriously, you think being utterly disconnected and uncaring, unkind, and uncompassionate is somehow related to anything that causes grievances in the world? You prefer to be asleep at the wheel over driving your life? Because that’s what being “anti-woke” is.
Being awake and aware is how you can assert any control over your life. This, however, begins as an inside job. Awareness of yourself is the starting point to awareness of the world around you, and your place in it.
When you’re not aware of your own consciousness, you are ceding your power to both outside influence and inner demons. Subconscious rote, routine, and habit, unchecked, can and will drive your life to places you don’t desire to go. But it doesn’t have to be like that. You can take back the wheel.
This starts by taking stock of yourself, here and now, in this moment. That’s where mindfulness begins. By being in the now, present in this moment, you can look inside your mindset/headspace/psyche self and learn what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, your intentions, if your approach is positive or negative, and then make choices and decisions from there for how to take action. And if you don’t like what you find? You can change it.
As relatively simple as mindfulness is, nobody teaches you how to do it. Most distractions turn your attention outside of yourself. You, however, can choose where to look and then make choices and decisions based on your present, current desires.
Let’s address the elephant in the room.
This is not selfish
It is not selfish to practice self-care, i.e., setting boundaries, taking time for breathing and meditation, saying no to things for your wellness and wellbeing, and so on. This isn’t selfish because it does no intentional harm.
True selfishness involves malice of forethought. Someone who takes more than their fair share – knowingly leaving someone without – is selfish. This applies to the uber-wealthy businessman whose employees need food stamps as much as it does to that acquaintance who always takes three slices of pizza, knowing there’s only 1 for everyone.
You’re not selfish for making choices and decisions to direct your life. Yes, they might cause others to feel hurt because you’re not their doormat anymore, or you’re making a stand for your health, wellness, and wellbeing. Making choices and decisions to empower your life is not selfish.
And, last but not least, you are worthy and deserving of the control choices and decisions give you. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. You deserve to choose your own life’s adventure. Kick ass, take names, be bold. Use your empowerment like the superpower that it is.
Can you appreciate how choices and decisions let you build a better life experience in numerous ways?
This is the seventh-hundred-forty-third (743) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this philosophy because I desire to make a difference in the world and help as many people as I can to find their empowerment with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
Also, please check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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