What's Your Choice

Written by Dr. Dorothy Martin-Neville

Thanksgiving has passed, the safety of travel is being questioned by most, and a new Covid variant has arrived.  Just another day in the neighborhood...

The real big question that I see hovering above all of this, however, is who do you want to be for the rest of this year? How do you want to live your life? A whole other level of questioning. 

We can focus everything on the outside world, politics, healthcare, business, the weather, and even friends or family, but for me, the question is what about that relationship with myself? It is easy to get caught up in decorations, gift buying or making, and potential family gatherings, or for some, friend reunions. 

Nonetheless, as the year ends, and Thanksgiving foretells that it is happening more sooner than later, it is time to assess who you were this year and who you want to be going forward. Your best self? Your most frightened self? Your depressed self? Your enraged self? OK, so… Now that that time frame is over, why did you choose to go there versus someplace else? (You do know it was a choice to pick any one of those states of being, correct?) Other options always existed but you would have needed to choose them. Don’t even try to pick “But I had no choice. It just happened.” Fantasy, darling, fantasy. 

We are beings with hundreds of emotions within us. Every morning we wake up with one closest to our consciousness and that is what we experience. It is our choice whether we experience it for a minute, an hour, or the whole day. Totally our choice. 

If I wake up depressed, frightened of the obvious failure or misery that is going to happen later in my day when I fail, miss something, or prove to be inept, I can get to stay there - or - realize that is one heck of a story I am telling myself. Maybe I should write a movie…

The saner option would be to acknowledge my great skill for drama and perhaps take a deep breath, put the tea on, feed the cat, and smile… Now with this gift of drama, the choice is to accept it as my fate or to simply say “RESET.” And decide to try a new story, one based in reality.

Since the failure hasn’t occurred yet, perhaps I could prevent it? Since the misery hasn’t had time to fully engulf me, perhaps I could look at why my fate is now so destined to live under a bridge alone and abused. Since nothing has been missed yet, perhaps I could double-check my schedule? Then perhaps look at my “ineptness” to see where I may or may not be lacking in dealing with the day’s events. 

Finally, that moment of depression may simply be the 13 yr. old within me who wants to be left alone, to sleep the day away, not care if I fail since I hate life anyway, and am inept? Who cares since I have no ambition and I don’t even want any so there…

As it usually goes, I start laughing at my craziness, and then I am stuck realizing that before I pour my tea water I need to pick another state of being. Joy? Faith? Humor? Outrageousness? Yup, today I am wearing my leopard skin print jacket. Look out world, the woman I want to be is back; it’s going to be one heck of a ride today so get ready.

Since that is all just another day in this household, as we end the year, and you review your choices for you this past year, what is your choice for next year? Who are you choosing to be each day? What energy do you want to bring to the world you create? You name it and it is yours! That’s the joy of the journey…. I love choosing joy!

Share this post:

Comments on "What's Your Choice"

Comments 0-5 of 0

Please login to comment