S5 Ep15: Accepting The Little Control You Have Over Anything Empowers You

Life is impermanent

Life is unexpected and uncertain. No two days are alike. Similar, maybe, but not the same. Change is the only constant in the Universe. That’s because the Universe and everything in it is impermanent.

Buddhism takes a deep look into the nature of impermanence. But outside the Buddhist way, it’s often disregarded, ignored outright, or denied. You strive to create things permanent and enduring, as does everyone.

The reality is that nothing is permanent. Nothing is enduring.

The meaning of life is to live

You are one of 8 billion individual people on Planet Earth. Every single person has one unspoken goal in life. To live.

Think about it. No matter who you are, where you come from, what you know, your goal in life is simply to live. You will go to great lengths to ensure that this comes to pass.

Everything above about what it takes to live is artificial. To live, all you truly need to do is breathe in.

All you can control is your inner being

Nothing at all in the entire Universe will give me control over any of the above. What I do and can control, however, is my reaction to it.

Specifically, my inner being. I control my thoughts, feelings, actions, approach, and intentions. What I do in the face of adversity, pain, suffering, frustration, and the like.

How is this an empowering realization? I can’t control anything external at all. I can and do, however, control my emotions, thoughts, feelings, and actions. This is empowering because it means I can shift my focus and stop trying to control what I can’t control.

What you do control is your thoughts, feelings, actions, approach, and intentions. However, it takes mindfulness and active conscious awareness to do this. The empowerment comes from this realization.

You are the only one in your head, heart, and soul. Nobody but you think your thoughts, feel your feelings, intend your intentions, and take your actions. These are all that you control. That’s a lot because controlling them determines what living looks like for you.

Real, genuine, actual living. Life can’t and won’t always be one given way.

Accept control of nothing and just live

Mindfulness lets you accept what you can’t and don’t control. Then, when you be here, now, you live. You’re alive. Your heart is beating, you’re breathing, and thus you’re living.

“Just live” looks small. But isn’t that, truly, the goal of every single being? Aren’t you on this Earth, here and now, primarily to live?

This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool:

Is there something outside of yourself driving you crazy? Impacting your mental, emotional, and spiritual health?

Take a close look at it. What is it? What impact is it having on you? Write this down.z

Here’s the question to ask and answer:

What, if anything, can you control about this?

Include everything you can think of when it comes to answering this. Then, take that information, and decide if said thing is yours to control at all and how much power, if any, to continue to give to it.

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Blogs: titaniumdon.com and mjblehart.medium.com

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