Quote taken from the movie, The Answer Man:

Kris Lucas: Why can’t I do the things I want to do? There’s so much I know I’m capable of that I never actually do. Why is that?
Arlen Faber: The trick is to realize that you’re always doing what you want to do… always. Nobody’s making you do anything. Once you get that, you see that you’re free and that life is really just a series of choices. Nothing happens to you. You choose.

Where you are standing in your life right now, is a direct result of all of the choices you have made over the entirety of your life.

You choose.

You may not have chosen events that have happened around you, what family you were born into, what your financial status was, or other events that may have directly happened to you, pain or suffering that others may have caused you, people who may have come, or those who may have left you. You may not have chosen those events, but you chose, either consciously or subconsciously how you responded to those events. You gave those events meaning, and you chose which path you would then travel after those events.

You chose.

You chose then, and you choose now.

The choices that you have made were innocently made. They were meant to keep you safe, to keep you feeling whole, to keep you free from pain, and to keep you alive. But since when is safe, whole, pain-free, and alive enough. What about having life in your life? Where is the joy? The connection? The adventure? The passion? The creativity? The wonder? The abundance? Where is the thing that makes you so excited to wake up every morning and go take on your life?

Every single day you have the ability to choose something new.

A different viewpoint, a different attitude, a different emotion, a different meaning, or a different path.

You choose.

That change happens in an instant, but you still have to choose.

If you do not choose, someone else will choose for you. You will not be happy. Your soul will feel unsettled, as if something is not quite right, and you may not even be able to put your finger on what is the matter, but your soul will know. You will feel like your skin is itchy, or a little too big, or maybe your skin is too small, but your soul knows that you were not meant for this. Your world will feel as if there is something missing, or lacking, or lost, or sad. You may not know what that something is, but your soul will know. You might find yourself repeatedly asking yourself, “is there more to life than this?” “Is this it?” “Is this all there is?”

Your soul will start to send you messages, small, quiet whisper, to try to nudge you to choose differently, to live differently, to be authentic. To live the life that you and your soul were meant to live. To do the thing that only you and your unique, awesome, supah-powah self could do. The longer you stay away from that path, the sadder your soul will become. It will start to get louder, more persistent. It wants so desperately to get you to where it knows you are supposed to be.

The path that only you can walk.

The adventure that only you can take.

We will start to hear it, your soul, even if we do not yet understand it. Our soul’s voice may sound so foreign, that we will ignore it as not possibly being our voice because we are so unfamiliar with it’s sound. But there it will remain, no longer whispering, but now whining, and persistent, clinging to your leg as you try to walk on someone else’s path, holding on, like a child afraid of their mama leaving, desperate for your attention, yearning for your time, crying out for it’s need to be fulfilled.

You might find a moment of clarity, when you look around, in your life, and you do not recognize this life that you have created. How have you gotten here? You don’t recognize yourself in your surroundings. It is as if you let yourself be lead on autopilot to some unknown destination where the language is foreign, the food tastes off, and the room is always a bit too cold.

You realize that are uncomfortable. How long has this been going on?

This is a moment where your soul has finally gotten your attention, and you get to see this world you have created , through your entire history of choices. You finally see your world without the lie filters of “normalcy” and “settling” and “status quo” and “fitting in” that we have a tendency to look at the world through. At this moment, you have a choice to make. Do you decide to do what is safe, and slide those glasses back on, and keep on living the benign life that the world has laid out for you? Or do you choose something different? Do you choose to leave those glasses of lies, sitting on a shelf behind you; knowing full well, that at any time, if you really need to you, can always rush back to your shelf and put your glasses back on?

Choose.

You choose glasses free, and now glasses free, you take one step forward into your world, that world you have created. At first your world may frighten you, and make you sad, it may make you angry, it may make you feel resentful, this place that you have created. You might feel that where you are is not quite fair, that you deserve better than this. You see others who appear to be doing so much better than you, and it fills you with sadness, and maybe a bit of despair.

I am here to remind you that you choose. By making one choice at a time.

Make one choice.

Close your eyes. Breathe deeply, slowly, on purpose. In. Out. In. Out. Do this again and again, and think of nothing but that breath. Feel your heartbeat; consciously climb deep down into who you are. In. Out. In. Out. Move around in your subconscious. What do you see? Are there cobwebs? Clutter? Chaos? Do you need a deep cleaning? Start the process of cleaning your soul up, one choice at a time. Hug yourself tightly, be loving, and gentle, forgive, and be kind. Know that you are going to be okay. This process can be painful, slow, and lonely.

Choose to slough off one thing that doesn’t fit you, serve you, or fill you with joy! Be gentle with yourself, this is a process, but you must make the choice. You must take the action. After you have taken the action, sit with this new, fresh, clear space for a moment.

Close your eyes, and let that feeling fill you up. That feeling of, it was only one thing, but that one thing felt so authentically honoring to your soul, that you have a moment of clarity and peace. Your world is by no means perfect, and you may still not know where you are going, or even where you will end up. You know you still have such a long way to go, but you recognize that feeling of peace. It is a feeling that calls to you. It is a feeling your soul was born for.

As you start taking stock and cleaning up what needs to be cleaned, and you do the process of sloughing off one thing, and then another, and then another, you will start to notice that there will be rays of sunlight breaking through, here and there, and slowly but surely these rays will start filling your soul house with love, joy, recognition, and enthusiasm for what really has been in there all along, but hidden from mismanagement and neglect.

Soon, you will start to recognize your soul, as the powerful goddess that she is. She will no longer be a whining, child, hanging as a dead weight on your leg, dying to get your attention, but she will stand tall, and proud, and strong. The amazing Amazonian warrior that she is, and she will be standing right beside you, hand-in-hand. You will have empowered her to watch out for new and exciting paths for you and her to travel on.

You are a soul. You have a body. You only have this one vessel. You need to take care of her, and love her, and treat her like a sacred space. Feed her good, real, and whole foods. Provide her plenty of delicious, and refreshing water. Let her play in the sunshine, and dance in the rain. Give her opportunities to run, jump, swim, stretch, climb, swing, and twirl, every single day. Let her rest. Let her get quite and reenergize. Let her sleep, a deep, quality, and restful, healing sleep. Let her ask for help, and share her story. Let her connect with other soul sisters on a deep and meaningful level. You and she will be so much happier this way. You and she will be stronger, and have more energy, and you will have such a better ability to live the life that you were put on this earth to live.

What is your soul trying to tell you today? I dare you to stop, close your yes, breathe deeply and just listen for her whispers. She may need a hug, you may need to be extra especially gentle with yourself today, you may need a nap. Do one thing that moves in the direction of peace. That direction that leads you to healing, to wholeness, and to authentic you-ness. Only you can know what that is for you. You choose.

What will you choose today?

Here is to consciously choosing a Beautiful Creative Life!! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, choose differently!