Take Control of Your Life – 5 Practices That Help

Life's a journey.  Choose the paths that best serve you!

We are the gatekeepers of everything we put in our bodies.  We actually choose the food, the thoughts, the emotions, the exercise; everything that we put into and do to our bodies.  It can feel like our thoughts are random and outside of ourselves and that we don’t have any control over them.  It feels like our emotions are out of control and that they do whatever they feel like.  We even feel as if our food choices or the types of food we eat are not our own.  We say things like, I could never give up sugar or I have to eat meat every day, I hate vegetables, or I'm not pretty; and we take these statements as the gospel, like they came from someone other than ourselves and were given to us. 

It’s amazing to think that we have in many ways given up our say in our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health and well-being.  We say over and over to ourselves what is wrong, like there is nothing to be done about it.  We think to ourselves and reinforce a small aspect of our experience and make that “who we are”.  I am overweight, I have allergies, I am depressed, I hate so and so, I could never do that…whatever “that” may be; and once we label ourselves or our parents do or our friends or peers or a stranger; we make that a truth about us that is set in stone and cannot be changed. 

Thinking back I see how my OWN thoughts have reinforced my worst fears about myself.  I created a self-fulfilling prophecy that kept me stuck.  I told myself repeatedly that I am lazy, that I am not as good as others.  I told myself relentlessly that I can’t do what I want on my own and that I don’t have “what it takes”, and on and on.  The sad truth is that I believed it as if it weren’t me saying it, like it was outside of me and it were true. 

The truth is, there is NO inherent truth about ourselves.  It's all made up.  We truly have the capacity to create our reality – to “feed” our mind, body and spirit any way we want.  It seems like we’d be excited by that prospect, but I wonder if the enormity of what that entails seems too overwhelming; so little by little we put up roadblocks. But if we put those roadblocks UP, we most certainly can TEAR THEM DOWN!

Okay, so now what?  How do we begin to change our minds our hearts and therefore our lives? 

1. Well, you’ve already made the first step, you’ve become AWARE of the issue and have ACKNOWLEDGED that you WANT to make different choices.  Good for you!  Awareness will continue to serve you as you begin to WATCH YOUR THOUGHTS, FEELINGS and ACTIONS.  By simply observing ourselves, WITHOUT JUDGEMENT (by the way), we begin to see our patterns and what we WANT and are WILLING to work on.
2. Know that this is a life-long process.  Be patient.  It didn’t take you overnight to create these patterns, so patience, dedication and diligence are your friends.  Be kind to yourself; remember to treat yourself as you would your very dearest friend, or how you wish a dear friend would treat you. 
3. Feed yourself good thoughts, good feelings, good food; whatever it is that feeds YOUR soul.  Find books, blogs, friends, support groups, coaches, counselors, etc., etc.; WHATEVER it is that supports YOUR BEST SELF on this journey of life.  You ARE worth it.  You DO deserve the best and to invest in whatever makes you content, peaceful, joyful and fulfilled. 
4. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for your life.  Like I said earlier, whether you want to believe it or not, we created our lives up until this point.  That’s the good news!!  By taking full responsibility for everything in our lives, we EMPOWER ourselves to move forward with purpose.  When we give away responsibility to someone or something else, we lose valuable confidence in ourselves.  Full responsibility is the point of power that will free us to choose what best serves us!
5. COUNT and CELEBRATE your efforts, your willingness to try, and any and all successes.  We must build that MUSCLE of loving ourselves and to do that, we MUST pay attention and COUNT all the good we are trying to do. 

You CAN do this!  Good luck and don't forget to enjoy the JOY-ney!!