“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” ~Jim Rohn

It was two years ago when I first felt and understood the true meaning of Responsibility, and it was about 8 months ago when I first learned a new way to look at it. Let me tell you the story.

Around this time of the year in 2008, and after a serious conversation with one of my sisters, I decided that I needed to take control of my own life. I really needed to understand what was going on in my life – why I was feeling unhappy and unsatisfied in the relationship I was in (yet again) and why I was always angry, negative, and losing my temper toward my circumstances; that was not how I wanted to be! I needed to understand why I was always living under someone else’s expectations – which I was never able to meet – and why I was never able to define who I was and what was what I wanted in my life.

It took a lot of commitment, time, energy, and resources to discover, but I realized that unconsciously and throughout my entire life, I was placing the burden of responsibility on someone else, anyone else, but myself: I blamed my parents, my mom’s mental illness (and its role in my family and in my life), my religion, my friends, my coworkers, my bosses, the superficial society I was living in (and, therefore, the inadequate men I met unable to connect with me at a deeper level), etc.

When I realized that the responsibility is not in others but within ourselves – a shift began to happen. I suddenly started placing myself at a 180-degree view and started to be the witness of my own experience. I began to be the observer of my own mind and emotions and began to truly understand that I was the one and only person responsible for what I have been attracting to my life. This was just the beginning of my awakening process.

It is important to understand that with every thought we have, with every word we say, with every feeling we experience, and with every action we take, we are co-creating, with Spirit, our own lives. Every minute, hour, and day – 100% of the time – we are choosing how we want to live. It is up to us if we want to do it consciously or unconsciously. It requires effort, focus, and attention from our part to become mindful of the situations and aware of our internal process. The practice of meditation can accelerate and propel this process.

For many years, meditation was knocking at my door. And even when I felt drawn to it, I never paid too much attention to it; I never did anything about it. It wasn’t until I read several books that mentioned the power that meditation can bring to our lives and help us become more peaceful, joyful, and grounded, that I made the commitment to practice it on a daily basis.

One of the many benefits that meditation has brought to my life is the ability to respond appropriately to situations – coming from my Superconscious Self rather than reacting from my subconscious bad habits. It helps me to constantly work on replacing negative attitudes with positive attitudes. I can’t say that I am a master of it. I am human. I’m still learning and practicing it every day.

This was the new way that I discovered to look at responsibility, and it has been helping me tremendously in my day-to-day activities, interactions, and relationships!!

Here is the practice: In any given situation that requires your response, take a moment to think it over instead of reacting from habit. Your responsibility lies in becoming aware of the unique response that is called for in that particular situation. You can ask yourself, “How can I respond appropriately to this particular situation?” Sometimes your response will call for actions, and sometimes it will call for restraint. Your responsibility will involve a conscious response rather than an unconscious reaction from your habitual tendencies. This requires mindfulness to see the situation clearly and learn to separate your responses from the situation itself.

We all have the ability to respond to everything, everyday, and in every moment. Your own internal guidance, your intuition, that little voice that calls for the Good in you, is the one that will give you the answer on how to respond…. Just be open to listen to it!

With Love and Light,

Gaby

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 7:23 pm and is filed under Inspirationals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.