Why does the word ‘Choice’ often make us feel so trapped?

Today I find myself thinking about the word ‘Choice’. It is often used in common sayings including:

  1. It’s your choice
  2. You always have a choice
  3. The choice is yours to make

But yet it can so often make us feel so trapped and why? Because often we don’t take or make the choice that makes us feel empowered but rather, we choose based on societal expectation or what the crowd seems to be doing. And all of a sudden, you don’t ‘choose’, you ‘conform’ or ‘settle’.

Some examples of this may be:

  1. Waking up in a relationship that is loveless and where you have lost ‘you’.
  2. Working in a job that doesn’t excite you or utilize your skills, talents or gifts.
  3. Filling your weekends with activities that follow the pack instead of feed your soul.
  4. Really owning your life in general. Deciding where you go, what you do and with whom.

As Dan Baker observes, deciding to choose takes courage. It’s not easy and it’s not what the majority of people are doing. And yes…some people have obligations such as family and wouldn’t be able to walk out of their life and off to an island for 6 months but you can take charge of your life in little ways such as:

  1. Listening to your soul to really identify what makes you happy and doing more of that (every week).
  2. Analysing your relationships and culling out the ones that don’t serve you or at least distancing yourself from them.
  3. Choose how you fuel your body. Don’t just eat what everyone else is eating. Listen to your body and provide it the fuel to perform at an optimal level.

The practice of Self-Love can also be very powerful in helping you to understand and realize your right for choice. So many just don’t see that it is really their life and therefore what they do with it is their decision. Set boundaries to allow yourself time to find you and the strength to choose a path that serves you first and foremost. In doing that, you will find courage and strength that you never knew you had!

To an Exceptional Existence,

Lou

Twitter: E_existence

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