CHOICE –
The word that allows “yes”, the word that makes no possible.
The word that puts the free in freedom and takes the obligation out of love.
The word that throws a window open after the final door is closed.
The word upon which all adventure, all exhilaration, all meaning, all honor depends.
The word that the cocoon whispers to the caterpillar.
The word that separates that which is dead from that which is living.
The word no mirror can turn around.
In the beginning was the word and that word was CHOICE
~ Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker
Our ability to choose is essential to co-creating our experiences in this life. In its most simplistic sense, there is a creative power in the universe and it is constantly responding to that which we believe with conviction and bringing it forth into experience on some level. And what keeps the whole thing from simply mechanistic predestination is that each of us, as individualized points of awareness within the Allness that is God, has awareness and the ability to choose.
And one of the most fundamental choices we can make is whether and to what degree we will choose to resist Life or allow Life.
For a number of years, I studied the martial art aikido. Aikido is somewhat unique among the various martial arts in that the intent is not to meet force with force but rather to redirect the force that is offered and redirect it. The practitioner of aikido doesn’t resist what is but rather receives it and redirects it.
Here is a simple illustration you could experience for yourself. Ask a friend if they would be willing to do an experiment with you. Ask them to hold their hand up (like they were make a motion to stop) and tell them that you will push against their hand. Don’t tell them anything else. Then push against their hand. Every time I have done this or seen it done with someone who is not familiar with this experiment the result has always been the same: they push back.
I then stop and ask them why they are pushing back. I didn’t ask them to push back. They usually respond that they don’t know.
It has led me to the conclusion that people—at least the ones I’ve encountered—tend to resist. When life pushes, our go-to response is often to push back… to resist.
How does this show up in everyday life? Reflect back on a time that someone was angry at you and made an accusation or called you out on something you did. Was your first reaction to defend yourself or attack back? To defend your position and prove you are right? That’s resisting the situation. What if you instead said something like “Tell me more. I’d like to understand your point of view.” That would be receiving and redirecting what is.
Reflect back on a time you were inspired to try something new, make a change, do something outside your comfort zone. Was there a flash of “Oh, I can’t do that!” followed by a potential litany of evidence and all the reasons why you couldn’t (or shouldn’t) follow your inspiration?
That is resisting. Receiving (or “allowing” if you prefer) would be in remaining open to the possibility.
Now some might argue that sometimes we do have to defend ourselves, establish boundaries, and not all ideas are good ones that we should blindly pursue. There is a place for analysis and planning and rational decision making. Sometime “No” is the proper response. I agree. But how often have we already shut down an opportunity because of this tendency to resist? How often do we never even let it get to the place of consideration? How often do we resist life without even being conscious of it?
Numerous times during a day, I would wager that we each have an opportunity to shift our thinking to make a choice around where we want to put our attention and what we want to give our energy to. If we trust the innate goodness of life than we have to consider that that which is flowing into our experience is or can become part of our good. Even in those moments when Life seems to deliver crisis, there is value in consciously considering if resisting it serves our highest good. What would it look like to allow? To receive? What might happen if we reacted with “Yes” rather than “No”?
When we have developed the awareness and the presence to be able to consciously respond to each moment (rather than simply reacting out of unconscious habit), then we have activated the gift of choice in our life and we can fully participate in the process of co-creating the life we desire and deserve to live.
Peace, Blessings, & Joy.