Recognizing Your Own Power

Sometimes it's easy to forget WHO we are and how much control we actually do have over our own lives.  We get lost in the tedium of routine and find ourselves sitting in traffic one afternoon wondering 'how did I get here?'

Funny thing about reflection, it can take you down a couple of interesting paths:

1. Shut those questioning thoughts out of your mind because you've already convinced yourself that this is all there is...
2. Linger on the thought and then blame a whole series of circumstances for your 'Now' and you get angry, maybe sad...
3. Allow the stream of consciousness to flow until you recognize the choices you've made but then stop short of deciding to DO something else...
4. OR you embrace the question and seek some alternative to to incite some measure of change in your life.

For me, I generally float through all of these depending on the amount of sleep and corresponding amounts of coffee/caffeine I've had.  And of course this is also directly proportional to the amount of stress I believe I am under .

It's in these questioning times that I think it's truly important to recognize WHY the question(s) are there skipping across our mind bouncing from memory to memory synthesizing past, present, and future.  All of us experience hurt, loss, distress, and other potentially destructive circumstances in our lives.  Often we can be wronged by others and the injustice of that can bring on even more questions...

The key I think is to allow ourselves to experience these emotions, to recognize the pain that comes sometimes from things out of our control and sometimes from things we create and then to figure out how to channel that energy differently.  It's not reasonable to try to NOT feel.  Denying them won't help nor curb the raw emotions under the surface.

So what to do?

WRITE.
WRITE.
WRITE.

Even if it is simply one word:  Anger.  Fear.  Sadness.  Hurt.
Even if it is simply one phrase:  I don't understand!

WRITE.

Write about where you are.  Write down what you feel... and then say it or read it Out Loud.

When you allow yourself to acknowledge the truth of where you are and dare to speak that truth out loud, it IS freeing.  The negativity you may be feeling can begin to be released; and that ACT alone triggers something new.  Something else.

When you DO this and purge those potentially negative thoughts, you allow for space in your mind to consider something positive.  For me, this is how I pray/meditate.  I talk it through... and amazingly, I've found we DO come through on the other side.

Here's what I've realized lately:
Negative circumstances CAN actually be introduced in our lives to force us to do something ELSE, something NEW... something BETTER.  We often are incapable of realizing the potential for this when we are in the middle of whatever IT is but I've experienced enough of these seasons in my life now to pay attention sooner.

So when those questions tickle your mind as you sit in traffic, consider your response... Consider the answer(s) to the questions.  Consider that maybe - just maybe - those circumstances you are in could be God or the universe's way of reminding you of your true passions.  Your true dream.  The Vision for your life.

In those moments, you may be being given a gift.  Choose to recognize this possibility.  When you do, your perspective WILL change and you'll be able to embrace your own power to make choices that could change your world for the better!

I know mine has...

     THINK.       WRITE.       BELIEVE.       ACT.