Thorny Choices
We haven't lost the power of choice,
it’s just that the choices are different than we might have hoped.
Good morning!
I am noticing this morning that I miss the moment when I get to insert your name here as I write. This was a sacrifice that I made in moving to this larger platform. But I sincerely hope that you will continue to read, to know that I am thinking of you as I write and to join me in my efforts to create a power-with culture together. It seems ever more critical that we connect and collaborate here and elsewhere to support the power of choice, to encourage all of our voices and to build our resilience.
As many of you know, the power of choice is a central tenet of my work and writing. No one can take away your power of choice. Perhaps you disagree. And certainly the elephant in the room here today is the recent supreme court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Still, I stand by my assertion that recognizing your choices in a given moment remains the way you can find health for yourself regardless of circumstance. I won’t say that in these times this is easy. Recognizing your choices these days can require a kind of superhuman effort to navigate a mine field without any equipment.
I sought guidance this morning as I approached this topic. Here is a snippet from that inquiry:
Ambition is revealed when we say whatever another person wants to hear, to gain their acceptance, or when we otherswise overlook evil. We must be consistently true to ourself.
Meanwhile, though I know in my bones and in my deepest being that the power of our choice cannot be taken from us, I also know that the current climate of our culture can be dangerous for the kinds of choices some of us wish to make.
Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose the choices, only recognize them. It is easy to think when the external world around us attempts to legislate to us about certain things, that the power of choice is diminished. I suggest, however, that that is not the case. The power of your choice rests on your ability to recognize the choices available to you. The choices can be physical, i.e. where to go or what to do. But the choices can also be mental, emotional and spiritual. The mental, emotional and spiritual choices are sometimes more difficult to discern, more elusive or more confusing.
It is also easy to think that those choices that don’t involve external action are not as impactful as the ones the world can see. But I disagree. The choices you make about how to relate with your experience on a mental, emotional or spiritual level have great impact. Sometimes that impact can reverberate for days, weeks, months or even years in fact.
Obviously, the same is true of the physical choices, the actions we take. These, too, can show results for all kinds of time frames. How then, and from where, can you discern your choices? How do you know which choice is the right choice in a given moment?
I know I have said this many times and in many ways, but it truly bears repeating. Your body is your most reliable indicator of the best choices. Your body does not lie. If you can bring your attention into your body awareness at the moment when choices become apparent to you, the right choice for the moment will be made clear to you. It may not be the logical choice. It may not be the choice your partner or friend would make at that moment, but it will be the healthy choice for you.
If you practice bringing your attention to your body in moments where you are not under duress, then when the pressured moment arrives, as it always will, you will be familiar with how it feels to be there. Even more, you will become familiar with the way your body speaks to you. Bodies speak in sensation. Sometimes that sensation is diffuse, perhaps hard to identify but as you become familiar with your own experience of different sensations they will certainly speak to you. Your own knowing will be revealed.
I know this might sound oversimplified, even rudimentary but I would ask you to consider how often you include such basic sensations in your choices. How often do you consider how your body is speaking before you speak? How often do you pause to assess the sensation you might be experiencing before you decide to act?
Your power of choice is intimately connected to your experience in your body. Without the wisdom of the body and its sensations, your choices are limited to what you can think or imagine with your mind. Yet, there is a vast world of choice available through the body, a world often ignored or set aside in service of outside imperatives.
There is no question that bodies are vulnerable, vulnerable to the actions of others, vulnerable to your own ideas and behavior. Vulnerability does not preclude wisdom, however, nor does it preclude the power that comes from your own knowing. The more familiar you are with your own body, the more intimate you become with your own sensation, the more available your truth will be to you, the more powerful your choices will be. Informed choice is our only option. Informed by both the internal and the external world. Yes, that external world is demonstrating its preferences, its ideas, its imperatives. And you still have the choice to honor and demonstrate the power of your choice, the choice that comes through your own imperatives, through the world of your own knowing, through the body truth.
