The Power of Conscious Choice
What’s the difference between making a choice and making a conscious choice?
Everything!
There have been many times in my life when I’ve thought I didn’t even have a choice regarding tough situations I’ve found myself in.
Feeling like I was caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, I’ve struggled to surface from the claustrophobic freeze.
Resisting the Reality
Looking back it’s clear that I was resisting the reality I’d come face to face with which, for whatever reason, didn’t fit my perception of how things “should” be.
This unconscious reaction against a different outcome than the one I’d intended simply prolonged the process and added to the suffering.
I’ve had to go through this enough times to burn through the resistance sufficiently for greater awareness to cast a whole new light on the matter of choice.
Two Key Lessons
As a result, I’ve learned two key lessons on this topic:
- There’s always a choice to be made; not necessarily relating to what happens in your life but how skilfully you handle it.
- The real power lies in making conscious choices that are authentic to you and reflect what’s truly important for you.
So what does it mean to make a truly conscious choice?
Who You Are Being
It all comes down to who you are being in the moment you make the choice – what part of you is that choice coming from?
Are you fully present, aligned and connected with your authentic core (conscious)?
Or are you caught up in your conditioned patterns of thought and emotion which include your anxieties, fears and limiting beliefs as well as the unconscious drivers that demand specific results?
Practice Noticing
Truly conscious choices can only be made when you’re as free as possible from those habitual reactions that keep you stuck in familiar grooves and so often become the source of misery.
One way to approach this is to practice noticing who you are being before you make any decisions about your creative, writing and business projects or how you’re showing up with your family, friends and colleagues.
I recommend starting with minor, everyday matters and gradually work your way up to more substantial issues as you build your capacity for making conscious choices.
Three Conscious Breaths
You can become increasingly aware of who you are being at any given moment by using one of my favourite techniques that’s simple to do but immensely effective.
Pause to take three conscious breaths before you react to the content of whatever details are showing up for you at the time.
This practice interrupts your everyday thought stream and gives you the chance to check in with what you’re thinking and how you’re feeling; then you can ground and centre yourself before committing to something you may regret later!
You’ll find that the more you use this technique, the more effective it becomes.
So it’s definitely worth giving it a try to experience for yourself how transformative it can be to make authentic choices from a conscious and aligned state of being.
What’s your approach to making important choices and decisions? Please share your comments or ask a question below. Thank you!
