The Power of Choice

You may think circumstances in your life cause your unhappiness, but it is your own thoughts and choices that cause you to be happy or sad. If there is a hardship in your life, you have the free will to see the good in this hardship and fill your thoughts with this good rather than dwell on the negative aspects of it. This is not to say you are not allowed to feel sad, angry, or betrayed. It is healthy to express those emotions when they come up but it is empowering to transform those emotions and ask yourself:

What lessons am I learning?

How can this expand my vision?

How can I share my new knowledge with the world?

Have I learned anything from this pain I can share with others and maybe help them through their pain?

All choices have consequences. It is our willingness to accept those consequences that detemzines what we will do, and who we are in life.

If you are not choosing to do things for you, you will eventually deplete your energy reserves and your spiritual growth will diminish as well. I repeat. Choose wisely.

Journalling assignment:

Is there anything you would like to change or know you should change about your life?

Are you willing to change?
What will you have to give up in order to make this change?
How do you feel about the sacrifice you will have to make in order to change? How will this affect your significant others?
Is the change or the sacrifice for the good of all concerned?

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT : CHOOSING WISELY

For one day, pay attention to all the choices you make in your life. Every two hours take a few minutes and write down in a journal how you feel and why you are choosing to feel this way. Write down why you did what you did and why you chose to do it that way.

At the end of your day, look over your journal and reflect on the many choices you have made throughout your day.

What did you find?
Were you true to yourself?

Did you make choices because you wanted to or because you think you should have?

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT : POSITIVE CHANGE

Make a list of everything in your life you need to change and next to it write down how you plan to go about changing it.

Ask yourself:
What changed do I feel I need to make in my life at this time? What do I want to accomplish?
What improvements do I need to make in my life?
Am I ready to change my life?
Am I prepared to handle the responsibility this change will bring?

Make sure you are choosing these goals for you and no one else!

Do your family and friends have a different belief system about life in general than you do?

Do you need to break away from their tradition?

Will you feel guilty if you live a different life from them?

Do you feel you have abandoned them in some way?

Have they abandoned you for your lifestyle?

Can you learn to forgive yourself and realize that you need to be different for your spiritual growth?

Are you afraid of change?

If you answered yes, what exactly is it about change that scares you? Do you realize that growth requires a bit of risk?
Are you willing to take a risk to change?

Take from this list the easiest item you can change and start with t hat one. Keep in mind it is a choice that you are making and something will have to be sacrificed in order to accomplish your goals. Later in the course, after practicing, you will choose another item to work on.