Why is it Always Better to Choose Than Not to Choose?
Choice is how you can take control of your life experience.
Quite possibly the single greatest superpower that we have is choice. The rest of the animal kingdom on this planet largely have a very set life path. Survive, find food and shelter, propagate the species, protect them, and keep surviving. Simple, really.
Humans, however, have choices, like to merely survive or thrive. Some are the product of environment, privilege, birth, etc. However, most are inherent to all and are immaterial/intangible.
This is due to the perception versus the reality of control. The perception of control is all about outward appearances. People doing things, having things, and being things that makes them appear in control. Yet most of that is false, and not genuine control. Why? Because the only things we have genuine control over are our internal processes.
Specifically, thoughts, feelings, actions, intentions, life approaches, and so on. All of which are intangible and immaterial.
Why is this the only real control we have? Because we alone exist in our heads, hearts, and souls.
No matter your teachers, influencers, examples, demagogues, or the like. Only you know your mindset. What’s more, you and only you know your headspace/psyche. Ultimately, this means that only you know yourself.
You alone control your mindset
One of the biggest challenges we face as a society, as far as I can tell, is that we’re never taught to evaluate our mindset/headspace/psyche self. We talk about it, we reference it, but we’re not shown how to explore it, recognize it, know it, accept it, and/or change it.
This failure has led us to a far greater amount of disconnect than I think most people are willing to recognize or acknowledge. It’s also part of the massive mental health crisis we’re in the midst of.
The biggest takeaway here is that we have zero control over anyone or anything apart from ourselves. We can’t control other people, what they think, what and how they feel, what they do and don’t do, and so on. This can be especially frustrating when someone you care about does something you perceive as idiotic, hurtful, insensitive, and such. Moreso if they ignore suggestions, counsel, or advice you’ve given.
Then, to add insult to injury, self-care and working inside your own mindset is all-too-readily labeled as selfish. In the interest of avoiding appearing selfish, you ignore yourself for the care of others. Eventually, this leads to discontent and confusion because of change.
This is another obstacle in the way of assuming any control. Change is inevitable and the one and only constant in the Universe. It can, will, and does happen. All the time. Who you were is not who you are or who you will be. Sometimes this is in subtle ways. Other times in blatant ways.
This is why beginning with mindset is important. Because by recognizing and acknowledging your mindset – which only you can do – you can gain control of it.
How does that work?
Mindfulness to choose
What you have utter and total control over is your conscious awareness. However, this works only in the now, in the present. That’s where mindfulness enters into it.
To gain genuine mindfulness you need to know certain things, now, that only you can truly know. This includes what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, what your intentions are, your current approach to life and if it’s positive, negative, or neutral, and your actions and inactions.
The truth is that thoughts, feelings, intentions, approaches, and actions/inactions are most of what you can control in life. That’s because they belong wholly, entirely, unequivocally to you.
Too much of our media suggests that change comes from without. Someone influences you to change, something happens that causes you to change, or another external factor makes you change. While it’s true that external forces can influence change, change never comes from without and always comes from within.
That’s because you can and will only actively change when you choose to.
However, because change is a constant, you’re passively changing all the time. Yet if you aren’t regularly practicing mindfulness or living via conscious awareness, you might miss it. That’s the downside of living subconsciously via rote, habit, and routine.
What’s more, society likes us to live subconsciously. That’s because when you are subconscious, you’re far more pliable and open to suggestion. You’re not mindful or consciously aware and on autopilot.
Being mindful empowers you.
Choice is empowering
When you make active, conscious choices, you are taking control of your life experience. Via actively choosing, you make a decision and drive your life.
When you don’t choose, however, you cede your control. The universe will move your life, will you or won’t you. Others will sway you to their way of thinking, and because you’re not taking charge you find yourself down an undesirable rabbit hole. Worse, perhaps, you find yourself lost and uncertain how you got there, how to get out of there, and find yourself unhappy, depressed, frustrated, or some combination of these and other negative emotions.
When you are consciously aware you can practice mindfulness. When you’re mindful, you enable yourself to exist here and now, in the present (which is the only measure of time that’s genuinely real) to actively choose.
Active choice is empowering. When you choose, you are deciding who, what, how, where, and why you are. Ultimately, that is how you can take control of your life experience.
This isn’t perfect, of course. Partially, that’s because perfection (like beauty) is wholly in the eye of the beholder. Part of this, however, is because our present circumstances might limit our choices. Sometimes this leaves us with choices that are minimal, not ideal, and even between two evils (one greater and one lesser).
Still, choosing, even in that sort of circumstance, is better than not choosing. Why? Because even making little, seemingly insignificant choices empowers us.
Choice is like any muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. Small choices lead to more choices, bigger choices, and potential and possibilities that can’t exist if you cede your power to choose.
That’s why choice is empowering. Ultimately, choice is how you can take control of your life experience.
Recognizing and acknowledging that it’s always better to choose than not isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, and intentions to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that choosing empowers you and puts you in control, you can see how making more active choices for your life helps you to live it to the best of your ability. Knowing that mindfulness is active conscious awareness that informs who, what, where, how, and why you are, now, you can take control over your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. This is via mindful choices to choose from increasingly more options.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens more dialogue. With a broader dialogue, you can explore and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you are of yourself in the now, the more you can do to choose and decide how your life experiences will be. When that empowers you, it can spread to those around you to their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred and twenty-first (521) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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