You want to look better. You want to feel better. You want to do better. But can it be done? Is there a way? Are you stuck in your life? Is there anything you can do? Can you change the way things are?
Do you have a choice?
STUCK
Whenever we are confronted with difficulties in our lives, we can succumb to the circumstances, ignore the reality, or take some action. Very often, we don’t believe there is any action to take and think we don’t have a choice. We say things like, He is the problem. It cannot be changed. Someone has it in for me. We allow our minds to shut down possible solutions before we give them a chance to succeed. We think we have no choice.
HOPELESS
When I was depressed, I SO MUCH wanted to feel better. Day after day I dragged myself from this to that, unhappy every moment. The tears would flow. My hopelessness grew. I was tired. I didn’t think there was anything I could do about my terrible predicament. My mother had suffered from depression and now I had it too. After trying four different anti-depressants, my sadness returned. I believed this was the mud puddle I was going to live in because . . . that was just the way it was. I had no choice.
Until one day, I happened to come upon the first step towards healing.
CHOICES
What happened was I heard about the book, Potatoes Not Prozac, which promised treatment for depression based on nutrition instead of medication. It was a glimmer of light in the distant darkness. Far away, the possibility of wellness showed itself. Could it be true?
Did I really have a choice to heal from depression? Wasn’t it my genetics, my brain chemistry, and my level of stress? Weren’t these the things that were keeping me stuck in a miserable place? Could there be an answer within my control?
It seemed like a crazy idea to put this monster at bay by eating differently. But I realized I had a choice. Depression was either going to take me down or I’d fight it ‘til the bitter end. I could try this new method of succumb to my life as it was.
WHAT ARE YOUR CHOICES?
Is there something not working in your life? It could be something simple like not being organized to something more complex like a relationship that isn’t working. We all face challenges yet many times we get stuck thinking we have no choice.
What can be done? What choices do you have? Before you say nothing, face the reality of your predicament. Are you the first one to face this issue? Is there truly no solution?
Make sure not to limit your choices to ‘this or that’. There are always a multitude of options. So often, like me, we limit the possibilities to things we know, instead of to those things we need to learn.
Realize you have a choice. You always have a choice. You can choose:
what you’ll do
how you’ll respond
to do nothing
to ignore the problem
to blame others
to blame yourself
to give up
to make up a story to make sure your plight is unsolvable
to give up hope
to hang onto hope
to believe all the answers are known
to walk into the unknown to find the answers
WHAT ACTION WILL YOU TAKE?
It’s important to let you know any solution that hurts another person is no solution at all. You’re wired for love. When you hurt another person, you actually hurt yourself. A good solution will not cause damage in anyone else’s life. Growth, maybe, but damage, never. It’s also important to remember we are not responsible for other people’s choices. Just like you, they get to make their own.
Until you realize you have a choice, you will be stuck without one. Looking at your choices and facing the reality of the decisions you make will give you a clear pathway forward. If you take no action, you will stay where you are. If you try a solution, you may find the answer.
Realizing you have a choice is the first step. Acting on it can change everything.