Hello and welcome to the session.
I invite you to take a seat or lay down and gently close down the eyes if you wish.
Take three deep slow breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth and then to just gently scan your body and relax any muscles that are tense,
Releasing your jaw,
Dropping your shoulders,
Unclenching your belly,
Just dropping any tension and just breathing slowly and deeply and allowing your body to become fully relaxed in this moment,
Noticing physical sensations of your body on the chair or on the floor and how your clothes feel against your skin,
Just the temperature of the room.
Take another slow and deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth,
Begin the process of opening your mind up to receiving the wisdom of the question,
Kind of approach the question with flexibility,
Possibility,
It's an idea that we're embracing potential,
Not limiting ourselves,
Coming to quick judgments to block off the flow of thoughts,
We're tapping into the deepest parts of ourselves,
Our intuition,
Our wisdom,
Our ancestors,
God,
The universe,
The muse,
Whatever it is that we draw our strength and guidance from,
We're inviting that energy,
We're welcoming it and asking it to allow us to embrace the question fully and freely.
In a moment,
I'm going to ask you the question twice,
We're just going to sit with it and allow whatever to unfold in our minds to unfold,
What if you were to accept full responsibility for absolutely every aspect and outcome of your life?
What if you were to accept full and absolute responsibility for every aspect and outcome of your life?
So,
This concept of taking extreme ownership of every outcome and aspect of my life is initially confronting,
It almost borders on insulting,
Because I can look back at my past and immediately recall the pains,
The tribulations,
The trauma,
The broken expectations,
All of the things that went wrong,
That shouldn't have happened,
That were unfair,
The geopolitical strife,
The inflation,
The job market,
The technology,
The changes,
The chance,
The happenstance of my birth,
All of these things that I'm not responsible for,
That I didn't choose,
That I just had to accept and process.
How then am I to accept full and absolute responsibility for every aspect and outcome of my life?
But whilst I wouldn't have chosen those decisions,
I am the only one that is living my life,
And I do have choices.
I can't choose the environment that I'm in that easily,
I couldn't choose the one that I was born into,
Nor my parents,
Nor the religion or society or language or time or anything,
But I do have a choice in my mind as to how I respond to them.
Two people faced with the same challenge can respond differently internally and potentially have different outcomes,
But I think this question delves deeper than just that,
It makes us consider agency,
It puts us at the forefront of our lives,
Because in each and every moment we have a choice,
Should I eat the chocolate or not?
No one forces that food into my mouth,
Should I do the exercise or not?
Should I do the self-care and the meditation?
Do I believe in myself,
And if not,
What can I do to start believing in myself?
Do I try or capitulate when under pressure?
Am I educating myself?
All of these questions make me wonder how much of my life I'm accepting,
And how much of my life I'm proactively trying to change,
But beyond all of that,
Beyond everything,
The real and ultimate truth is that it all ends up on me,
The buck stops with me,
And whilst I would love to have more support,
And whilst I wish certain aspects of my past were altered or changed or never happened,
And whilst I'd love to have more different or other things,
This life,
My life,
Right now,
Is what is happening,
And I can choose to accept that and own that fact and take action from this place,
Or I can choose to blame the other,
The thing is,
I know what blaming the other does,
I know what life I'll end up with,
It's basically this one,
And if someone pushes you down onto the ground and walks away,
You can wish and hope and pray and demand and yell and whatever else that that person comes and picks you back up and helps you out,
Some might,
But if they don't,
Are you just going to stay on the ground,
Or eventually are you going to pick yourself back up,
Dust yourself off and get back to it,
And I understand the murky waters that this question makes us wonder,
Which is why I invite you to be open to it,
You may have been injured physically or mentally,
Things might be irreparably different because of the actions and events of people or things outside of your control,
There is no denying those facts,
But you in this moment have choice,
You could choose to do one thing or the other thing,
The way I'm starting to look at life is going okay,
I accept this is where I am,
This is where I am now,
What is the best choice I can make in this moment,
Regardless of my past decisions,
Regardless of the actions and events and things that took place that I didn't choose and didn't want,
What can I do now to better myself,
And part of that I think is accepting total and complete responsibility for my life,
Because whilst it feels perversely good to blame other people,
Ultimately that blaming of other people doesn't change my own existence,
I can point the finger squarely at people responsible,
But doing so doesn't do anything to make any difference in my life,
It comes down to a matter of forgiveness,
Which is so terribly hard,
Or at least a matter of letting go,
Or even just accepting that anger,
That upsetness,
That annoyance,
That pain,
That resentment,
And stepping forward regardless of it,
Because people will always let us down,
Life will have bad turns,
Chance will go against us,
Things will happen,
But all we can do is choose our responses and persist,
So I wonder,
What would happen if you were to accept responsibility for absolutely every outcome and aspect of your life?
Well done,
This brings us to the end of our session,
At the bottom of your screen,
You'll see an option to view the classroom,
Or to ask a question,
Well before moving on,
I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights,
To read answers from other people,
And to hear my replies.
Remember to start and end your responses with session 8,
Or to restate the question,
So we know which question you're referring to,
This is an opportunity for deep learning,
Further introspection and insight,
So please don't miss out,
I look forward to seeing you in the next session.
This track was taken from the course,
Discover Your Divine Purpose,
This track was taken from the course,
Discover Your Divine Purpose,
It's out now on Insight Timer,
And available via my profile,
I invite you to join in.
