What are the patterns we are bound by?
We tell ourselves stories and create a belief system that bounds our daily reality and decisions. We can empower ourselves by changing our thoughts and creating new possibilities.
In life there are stories and there are facts. Many people operate off stories; thus creating a false sense of reality. It is easy to get into a grey area by letting our emotions run us. Often we react to situations without stopping to think. If a situation arises it is easy to be swayed into a sense of panic. The best decisions are not made from this point of view.
How can we transform fear into empowerment? This is the question to ask yourself in every situation. Empowerment comes from your authentic voice. Some people have a mission in life and some will make decisions on behalf of others or a company. Empowerment comes from how you impact others, your community and/or the world with the decisions you make. It is not an ego-state of mind, but a committed place of being.
It begins with your inward thoughts.
When you wake up on a Monday morning what do you think?
Are you excited about your day and week or are you already in escape mode? Ask yourself if this has been a pattern in your life?
Are you unconsciously running from job to job or relationship to relationship? What would it look like if you were excited about your life, others and your work? Passion is contagious. How would you then affect others coming from an excited state of being?
Think who inspires you and why. Think of when you feel connected to another. Is it only due to what they do in life or how they are being?
How do you inspire others daily? How do you connect with others?
Our thoughts are powerful and will lead us up or down.
Once we are aware of this, we can focus which direction we want to go.
If a challenge arises we can see it as a problem or a solution.
How do you leave someone remembering you: did you come across as mindful, inspiring and passionate or defeated and victimized?
We affect ourselves and others in and not in our lives with how we think.
As the actions or non-actions that arise from our thoughts are either filled with integrity and commitment or manipulation and resentment.
You are only hurting yourself and will suffer further if you choose to be in a downward spiral. Most of this happens unconsciously and from a pattern.
How can we change patterns that have years in the making?
The first step is being aware and taking responsibility. If we have care and pride in the impact we have on others, it is more likely we will be intrigued to transform our way of being. It begins with you and your thoughts.
In World War II there were people in trains who knew they were not going to live. In the moments left to live they made a choice how they wanted to live the remainder of their lives. Some chose joy, connection and being grateful for what they had. Others chose to be in fear and sadness.
This is an extreme example but shows that we have the choice to decide how we want to think in different situations.
When someone asks you how you are, how do you answer?
Do you say I got a new car, a new place to live or a new job?
Or do you say how you are? In our society we are trained to prove to others who we are by what we are doing or what we have. This is not truly who we are.
When we begin to look at our core values such as passionate, inspiring or wise; we can ask ourselves if we are truly being whom we say. We can easily fool ourselves to say we are being a certain way.
It is part of human survival mode to justify being right.
The truth is most of us want connection, love, peace and inspiration.
We cannot have these if we need to be right or win.
We need to ask ourselves individually if we are creating this within and giving to others. It all begins with your thoughts and knowing how we can empower others and ourselves.
You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read. That is why you must look at the skies. That is why you must sing and dance and write poems and suffer and understand, for all is life.
-JD Krishnamurti