Why does a person do what they do? I know the question of why can often lead down a circumferential path but let’s just give it a go, for fun. Why do you drink coffee every morning, or walk in the shadows on a hot day? Given the choice of going to a familiar restaurant and eating food you have had many times and enjoyed or going to a new place serving unfamiliar food, which would you choose?
The answer is going to vary a lot by each person and reflects the person’s character. On a deeper level though the choices you make determine your experience of life and in turn influence future decisions. Often life is based on an experience from your past, so in effect the past becomes your future! This can be a very dangerous and limiting habit. What if instead you made your decisions based on the joy offered? By listening to your inner voice and letting your soul guide you the experience changes for the better. This is a practice of faith and demonstrates a belief in a benevolent world.
What if you drink coffee for the flavor experience and the pleasure it brings you and if it wakes you up then all the better? How about staying in the shade to protect your skin and stay cool? The other motivation might be fear of dying of cancer or getting sunburned. Fear is a dreadful feeling and poor for your health. The fear itself is the problem not the sun or coffee or any ‘thing’ outside you. How you think about things makes a difference in your experience of it. Thoughts are things, how you use them determines the outcome.
The ultimate reward for all you do is the experience or feeling gained. Giving feels good, thus it is a good thing to do. Swimming in clean clear warm water feels good, thus it is a good thing to do. Not all experience is going to feel good, but this does not mean the outcome will not be good. This is where listening to your inner voice, the soft quiet one, is your best guidance. The feeling good part is often another person’s experience as a result of your actions. It feels good to be a part of making another person feel good, even if it hurts in the short term. An example would be jumping into cold water to save a person’s life or running into a burning building to save someone.
As obvious as all this may seem, how often do you think about the feeling you experience when making a choice? How often do you think of other people’s feelings when you make a choice? Do the thing which feels right to you and consider others in the decision. This is what is called a win-win.
🙂 Sequoia Elisabeth
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The Enneagram is an awesome tool to develop self awareness, the ability to self reflect on the aspects of our personality that the undeveloped ego keeps unconscious to support it’s often dysfunctional agenda. The Enneagram, in my experience provides a process of growing up the ego so you can in fact make choices that are truly in your Highest expression. It is a spiritual path designed to celebrate the individual and connect to individual purpose and expression. I share Enneagram introduction classes to get you started. My goal is to awaken the memory and assist in growing up the ego to partner with the ego. Registration for the next series in June begins now!
You are what you think and say you are. My experience in choosing positive decisions, like most people has been a challenge. We are predisposed to making decisions based on self-preservation. This is exacerbated if we have had trauma in our lives. These types of decisions generally involve an “all or nothing” yardstick. At least for me, not always in my best interest.
The trick for me has been incorporating “mindfulness” into my decision making process. This sounds warm and fuzzy but putting it into practice is another matter. It’s not easy. It is something that has to be practiced in order to be effective. This take time.
For me, I have developed something I call my “decision horizon”. This comes into play first when a mindful decision is required. A decision horizon is the time between the awareness of an event and the perception of time involved to facilitate a decision. It’s basically a checks and balances system where I prompt myself with questions such as… Is this coming from a place of fear or faith? Am I angry or happy regarding this? How and where do I feel this in my body? etc.
Once I have all my facts, I enter into a place of quiet mindfulness to work on what ultimate decision serves me and my interests.
Defining how all this happens is easy.
Navigating it can be a n entirely different situation.