The Most Important Choice You Make

Here is today’s multiple choice: How do you choose to feel?

Busy is a choice.
Stress is a choice.
Joy is a choice.

Choose wisely!

Today’s post is designed to empower you if you have been feeling a sense of fear and uncertainty lately.

In the wake of last week’s tragic events in Paris and Beirut, I found myself feeling a bit powerless.

I am really not a big TV watcher or media monger, but after a few days of watching closely I got sucked in. To all of it. I was officially ‘hooked in’ to every fearful idea that was being spread.

The overwhelm left me thinking, “Well what can I even do about any of this? How will I ever feel safe? How will we put a stop to this? It all feels so big!”

And while yes, of course, there are very real things that need to be done from a political/governmental perspective, I had this realization.

It is likely that today, from where I sit in my New York City apartment, and despite what I think I am capable of, that I, Erin Stutland, will not directly be solving the war on terror.

This is not meant to make light of the situation nor throw my hands in the air in resignation, but rather to own the very simple truth and reality of it all.

I am not saying that we should pretend it does not exist or even remotely close our hearts to the tragedy, heartbreak and injustice. There is so much we can do to make the world and better place, and by all means we must get busy doing it.

But, the actual war on terror itself? This is a really big, complex mountain that will require a multi-layered, long-term approach at levels of government that most of us will never even know.

So, how do I think that my fear and worry about it are going to actually help in any way?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this perspective is often how we approach our own personal “life mountains” that we are looking to climb.

We look at what we want to see happen, what needs fixing or changing, oh-so-big looming ahead and think, “Change my body? It’s just so much. I am so far gone. I don’t even know where to start.” And we crawl under the covers.

We look at our love lives and say, “How will I ever find my soul mate? Tinder? Bumble? Match? Fate? Ugh. It’s just so hard.”

“Start a business? That is so big and complex!  It’s too late for me. Screw it, I won’t do it all.”

While I am not trying to compare our life goals to terrorism, I will say that in both circumstances there are always pieces of the puzzle that we don’t have the answer to and don’t have a lot of control over.

The great news is that there is a lot we DO have control over, consistently and every day. And that is:

Ourselves.
Our minds.
Our thoughts.
Our focus.
Our attention.

It’s what I love about teaching Shrink Session. It is an approach that trains the mind and body at the same time to continually come back to the present moment and CHOOSE!

Choose your thoughts.
Choose where you focus your energy, right now.
Choose your next small step.
Choose to let love in.
Choose it again.
Feel positive.

And when we get better at making more empowered choices on a day-to-day basis, our lives simply become filled with more joy as we are guided in the direction we must step.