Did that make sense?
Yes?
No?
Maybe?
Read on.
I was out with 2 of my good friends today for cake and coffee and one of them complained about falling asleep after a long day's work when in reality that person wanted to go out and have fun regardless of the exhaustion. Reality is, it is a CHOICE.
We CHOOSE how to shape our lives consciously or unconsciously, and most of the time we are so unaware of the choices we make or have made that we turn towards the external circumstances and point fingers.
See, this is where the whole "be aware and present" thing comes in. Being aware or present means being fully alert of your thoughts, your emotions, your surroundings, your breathing, your physiology, and how you process information from any external stimuli. When you allow your senses to be fully alert of the present moment, when you allow your mind to be aware of your thought process, when you allow your body to take in every breath and enjoy it as you let it in and out and notice the time lapse between each breath, when you allow your thoughts to submerge into emotions and feel every single thought as part of your reality while you are alert, then you are present. Being present means that you are not in some other dimension such as The "What If..." or The "I should have..." dimensions. They are merely mental representations of thought which do not even exist! They are mind made up stories which your conditioned mind is kicking you straight out of consciousness into unconsciousness. Presence/Awareness is the key to become fully conscious of the choices you want to make. I'm talking responsible choice making.
Here's a good way to become present: Choose any object in front of you. It could be the laptop screen, the word "word", your pen, your phone. Whatever. Now focus your attention on it for a few seconds without judging it. Make sure you disassociate that object from its form. It's just... There. Now once you have done that, divert your attention into your breathing and notice how it is so smooth through the rise of your chest and fall. Do that for a minute. There! You just become present. At that moment, you were actually disassociated from any external factors that may affect your thinking or emotions. It is, by all means, meditation.
It has struck me that every single thing that happens in our lives is a RESULT of a choice we made. Uncle Newton was not high on coke when he coined the law "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". Orly? You don't say!
Seriously.
Imagine your choices as pathways into your future. Blue phosphoric in colour. These pathways will remain on a straight line until the next choice that you make. As you can imagine, these lines are NEVER on a straight line. They can be zigzagged, taking a detour to the left, squiggling, circular, or they can even intersect. Now let's add more colour to this movie! Let's say the conscious choices you make change your blue pathways into green, and the unconscious choices into red.
Got it?
Awesome!
Now I want you to draw the blue straight lines and visualize each and every choice you have made today whether it was a conscious one or an unconscious one. And as you remember each choice, I want you to change the colours and directions of these pathways accordingly. Notice how your choices, whether conscious or unconscious, could cause your pathways to intersect, separate, or even shape them into the weirdest shapes ever.
This is EXACTLY how the choices we make impact our lives. We are so unaware of their results that we actually decide to point fingers to the external world for the same regardless of whether the results are good or bad.
We can all decide, but we do not necessarily choose to go on with a particular decision. Notice what is happening here? We have the ability to choose NOT to choose! If such a thought takes place in your mind, then you are heavily impacting every single possible circumstance or situation in your life. I kid you not, this shit is for real.
If you choose to wake up for Fajr prayer and end up waking up at 8 am instead, then let's face it, you CHOSE to wake up at 8 am regardless of how tired you were. Reality is, you are not that tired. You just chose to sleep with that thought in your head.
"I have to wake up at 4:30 am for prayer!" Complained the body to the mind.
"I hear ya. Let's see how things go" Agreed the mind with the body.
"Yeah but, that's not usual right?" Continued the body to question the nonexistant moment.
And then, you sleep. And you wake up to turn your body at 4:25 am.
"Oh I'll just wake up a few minutes later. 5 minutes won't do any harm." Silenced the body the mind.
And then.... You woke up at 8 am.
This is called a conscious choice. You were AWARE of that choice and its process.
You ever wake up in the morning with excitement and your mind shouts with enthusiasm "Alright let's do this! Time to wake up!" and your body just responds with "No we're not" in utter bluntness?
If you were aware of such a dynamic, then you just became consciously aware of that choice.
An unconscious choice, on the other hand, is one that takes place when you are in that other dimension. I say dimension because it DOES feel like a different portal or pathway into nonexistant time, thoughts, or emotions. That dimension will blind you. It will compromise your healthy and present mental state like a radar gone haywire! A good example is stress. A state of mind in which most of us cannot handle and sink into so deep that we cannot make any proper choices.
If you can become aware of any external situations which might affect your state of mind, then you can be fully in control of your choices. If you fall under the spell of stress, then you are choosing to become stressed. Stress does not control your mind. It does not have a mind of its own. Your friends, family, the driver in the car next to you.... Whatever. These people or things have no control over your choices or state of mind. YOU are the one who chooses to make them affect you. YOU are the one who chooses to make them enter your world.
Does this make sense?
One of the good techniques that has worked for me is that whenever I am about to perform an action, good or bad, is to give myself a few seconds of self talk. "It's all about the choices I make". If you continue to remind yourself and your mind that there are consequences to every choice you make, then you are creating leverage towards what you're about to do. That leverage will help you make the right choice consciously. Try it!
Another one that I use is that I ask myself "how is this serving me towards my goal(s)?". If you could reach deep down into yourself and see how congruent your choices are with what YOU want, then you are in for treat! You are making healthy choices. Congratulations :)
Always remember that what ever choices you make, there is an impact, may it be big or small, towards the way your life will be shaped. Be conscious as you make your choices that will empower you towards your success!
