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S5 Ep7: How Do Choices and Decisions Tie Into Self-Awareness?

20m · Self-Awareness for Everyone · 12 Apr 09:00

Why are choices and decisions so powerful? What you’re never taught in school is how to be yourself. You’re taught to read, write, communicate with others, and be part of the machine of your given society. You’re never taught how to know yourself, basic psychology is only covered when you reach college (only if you bother with college and take any path along that line), and self-learning is not something you’re taught. The truth of this life is that you are not just a cog in the machine. Rather, you’re a human, being. You’re capable of some pretty amazing things. The gurus, demagogues, and supposedly elite of society aren’t better than you and me. They are not more worthy and deserving. They’ve just broken away from the herd, tasted power, and decided to hoard it for themselves and treat the rest of us like sheep. They’ve done what they tell you can’t and shouldn’t be done to maintain the false control and power they perceive themselves as having. Recognizing that you have the same power is imperative. Accessing it is easier than you realize. It’s simply a matter of employing active conscious awareness and making choices and decisions. Mindfulness is all about choices and decisions Leaving the rote, routine, and subconscious living behind can be done by working with active conscious awareness. To use active conscious awareness to make choices and decisions is a matter of mindfulness. To begin practicing mindfulness, you just need to be present, here and now. Action often implies the physical. The truth is, it’s not literally what you do as much as it’s choices and decisions that you make. If you’ve not been a regular maker of choices and decisions, you’d be amazed at how often you have opportunities you don’t consider. Even the most minor choices and decisions build strength to make larger and more impressive/more important things in your life. Actively choosing and deciding is how you can gain what little control over your life experience is available to you. Yet that seemingly little control is the key to being who, what, where, how, and why you desire to be. Choices and decisions empower you Most of the “power” claimed by leaders, gurus, demagogues, and the like is utterly false. The first step in taking the wheel to drive your life and choose your path is to exercise choices and decisions. Turn off the autopilot, and don’t let yourself follow rote and routine and habit. Instead, choose and decide things. Actively and consciously apply mindfulness to make more choices and decisions. This is the most empowering thing you can do for yourself. You are the only you that is, and you are not just here to exist and survive this life. You’re here to experience, explore, grow, evolve, and thrive. Choices and decisions are how you gain control on any level. You, and I mean you, are worthy and deserving of this. This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool: Today, take a moment to write down every choice and decision you make. No matter how large or small, write it down. At the end of the day, mark all the choices and decisions you normally disregard as unimportant or make almost entirely by rote and routine. Repeat this process tomorrow, and see if you add any new active, consciously aware decisions to your practice. Once more, at the end of the day, mark all the choices and decisions you normally disregard as unimportant or make almost entirely by rote and routine. Examine if this has a positive, negative, or neutral impact on your self-awareness. Continue to work with this as necessary. Author Website Email Instagram Facebook LinkedIn TikTok Blogs:titaniumdon.com and mjblehart.medium.com Cover artist Fe Mahoney: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TaliasInspirations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The episode S5 Ep7: How Do Choices and Decisions Tie Into Self-Awareness? from the podcast Self-Awareness for Everyone has a duration of 20:20. It was first published 12 Apr 09:00. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

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S5 Ep15: Accepting The Little Control You Have Over Anything Empowers You

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S5 Ep14: Discipline is Active Conscious Awareness in Practice

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S5 Ep13: How Reason is the Real Opposite of Fear

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S5 Ep11: Who Are You Competing With?

You’re only competing with yourself There are plenty of contests out there where it’s all about competing. Yet, aside from such intentional competitions, you’re not in competition with anyone else for anything. Let me repeat that for those in the cheap seats. YOU ARE NOT IN COMPETITION WITH ANYONE ELSE FOR ANYTHING. Unless you participate in a contest – a race, a fencing bout, any professional sport, a spelling bee, and the like – you’re not competing. You’re only competing with yourself Let’s go back to academia. The truth of placement in any given class has nothing to do with competing for grades between people (not in general). The only person you’re competing with when it comes to grades is yourself. The funny thing is, once you leave academia and move into jobs and “real life” situations, lots of forces tell you both blatantly and subtly about all the competition you’re in now. Except, the truth is, you’re still only competing with yourself. The lies of lack, scarcity, and insufficiency Have you been told that “they” are going to take your money, your job, your way of life, and worse? All of these messages are tied to lack, scarcity, and insufficiency. Here’s the most shocking truth of this. All of these messages are bullshit. The vast majority of what you’re told is in limited supply, is lacking, insufficient, or is otherwise scarce, isn’t. That’s because most of these notions are completely artificial. Maybe some tangible things are in short supply. But they can all be replaced by something else with no true detriment to anyone. The intangibles – including peace, respect, love, empathy, kindness, and compassion – are in more abundance than you can imagine. The only person to be better than is yourself Human beings grow, evolve, and change throughout their lifetime. It’s not really competing to improve who you are, how you treat others, and what you do or don’t do. Maybe some people want to compete with their prior self to make themselves even better. That’s not competing with anyone else but yourself. You can always win this competition, often just by showing up. This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool: The next time you’re not alone, like in a store, on a bus, walking down a street, in an office or classroom, or anywhere similar and mostly public, look around you. Notice the other people. Note how they’re the same as you. Observe how they’re different from you. Most importantly, become aware of these people. That done, ask yourself these three questions. ·Am I better than them? (Spoiler alert – no) ·Are they better than me? (Answer – no) ·Am I competing with any of these people? (Again, no) When you’re out and about in the world, and you encounter other people, randomly or otherwise, guess what? You’re not competing with them. What’s more, you’re not better than they are nor are they better than you are. Repeat whenever you find yourself thinking about competing with others outside of playing sports or the like. Author Website Email Instagram Facebook LinkedIn TikTok Blogs:titaniumdon.com and mjblehart.medium.com Cover artist Fe Mahoney: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TaliasInspirations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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