We have this incredible power. But we so easily forget it. We get caught up in emotions. We react and blame the world for our experiences, our pain, our suffering. We forget we have the power to choose. Even when you feel pain, frustration, anger or sorrow, you can choose. You can decide to respond from a place of calm, serenity and with kindness, or not. Your responses – you own them. Those moments are yours. You are accountable for them. Your choices can soften the anger, fear, disappointment and sorrow that you feel.
Remembering your incredible power to choose allows you to see the world in a different way. From that place of remembering, all the positive and empowering choices emerge from the mental fog. You can choose to ask a question, solve a problem, call a friend, ask for a hug. You can choose to take a walk, go to yoga, meditate, count your blessings or eat a piece of chocolate. The power of choice is an amazing opportunity to take ownership of the kind of life you want for yourself, for your community, for your planet. What an incredible power that we so often forget about. Because, here’s the thing: we don’t have to do anything. We choose to do it. Everything we do is by our own choice whether we want to admit it or not. Greg McKeown, an author and leadership strategist, said, “The power to choose cannot be given or taken away, it can only be forgotten.” We always have a choice even when we think we don’t have one. We are always making a choice even when we think we aren’t making one. But, when we forget about this power, we become helpless and caught up in the mental fog.
So, how do you remember this incredible power of choice? You pause, you take a moment to turn inward to yourself. Learning to pause is the first step in the practice of presence, of mindfulness. You take one steady breath and follow it with another. You make a choice to do this and then you remember this incredible power you have. You’ve made a choice and, in that choice, you’ve remembered your incredible superpower. The next time you are overwhelmed, feel out of control, want to give up or rage on – take that pause, turn inward to yourself and, in the face of chaos, uncertainty, turmoil and confusion, you know you are standing in your own power.
I hope you make a choice to come onto your mat this week in any of our in-studio or online classes where you will have the opportunity to use your incredible power of choice — to pause and choose how to hold your body, where to place your mind as well as so many other wonderful choices.
With gratitude for reading my musings, Leslie