What Do You/Can You Truly Control in Life?

The illusion of control can be broken by mindfulness.Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Our collective consciousness is full to overflowing with false notions of control. From the fictional, where powerful sorcerers can control the masses with magic, to reality, where politicians strive to control the masses with fear, the notion of control is incredibly convoluted.

The idea that someone can control someone else is the main issue. That’s because, in truth, nobody can control anybody else. You have zero control over anyone else at all.

Beyond people, we have even more limits on what we can and do control. The weather? Traffic? The stock market? War? We control none of this. Not even a little bit.

Unfortunately, the collective consciousness is one of fear. That fear is not the healthy, useful fear our ancestors needed to survive. It’s fear of intangibles and things that might potentially hurt or harm us. More often than not, the truest fear is the fear of suffering when “X” comes to pass, or “Y” happens.

The amazing technology that interconnects us instantly across the globe also distracts and disconnects us. Rather than build bridges and expand knowledge, it’s too often used to divide, conquer, and create echo chambers of disinformation. Much of this is where the illusion of control is most abused.

How do we break this cycle? By becoming more aware of our inner beings.

The power of active conscious awareness

All human beings exist in three states. Unconscious, which is how your vital systems functions work. This includes your circulation, nervous system, and all the other automated elements of you that your brain controls.

The subconscious is where you create rote, routine, and habit. It’s how you automate the minor, repetitive elements of life. Your subconscious mind is also where your beliefs, values, and memories live.

For the most part, your subconscious just is and stays buried beneath the surface unless you choose to access it.

This is where your conscious self comes into play. Your conscious mind is here, now, paying attention to the world around you. But it’s also accessing your inner mindset/headspace/psyche self. This is your awareness inside and out, in the moment.

Active conscious awareness is when you are being present, in the moment, and looking within while observing without. This, in turn, shows you what you can and do truly control.

While the answer might seem to be very little, it’s actually everything that matters.

Photo by Darius Bashar on UnsplashWhat do you/can you truly control?

The short answer is you, yourself. You can control who, what, where, how, and why you are. At least, at your core, inner being. Other factors outside of yourself – such as family, environment, community, and the like – are matters of happenstance and circumstance that you might need to overcome limits of to assert control.

However, your inner being, and what makes you, you, is utterly under your control. To gain this requires you to employ active conscious awareness. Mindfulness is not some hooky-spooky BS. It’s self-awareness. With it, you can control your thoughts, feelings, intentions, approach, and actions.

This begins with questions that include,

What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What are my intentions?Is my approach to this positive, negative, or unset?What are my actions?

All of these can only be answered here and now, in the present moment. Whatever the answers you come up with are, they’re not written in stone. This is your inner dialogue, your ultimate isness. Ergo, you can change it to suit yourself better.

You alone control your thoughts, feelings, intentions, approach, and actions. Yes, others can influence you and suggest, cajole, and push you. But in the end, you ultimately choose and decide.

It might not seem like much control, but it’s everything.

Change begins with you

Do you know why there’s an anti-woke movement? Because a group of people who want to have control over everyone else want people to be asleep and unaware. People who are not actively consciously aware are easier to influence, sway, and take direction.

Those people would be removed from power if reason, logic, and mindfulness were used more regularly to overcome fear. The opposite of fear isn’t courage, it’s reason. Reason is how you know that the thing you fear will overwhelm you – and cause horrible suffering -might be scarier than the actual suffering you could endure.

You can’t make anyone else be awake and aware. You can, however, lead by example. Face fear with reason and share that. Be mindful and let people see how that keeps you focused and in control. Make an effort not to spread the fear, uncertainty, and pain. Speak truth to power.

You alone can choose and decide for yourself. Change begins with you, and that’s what you can control for yourself. It might not seem like much, but it truly is amazing and empowering.

Recognizing what you can and do control isn’t hard

It’s all about practicing active conscious awareness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and the positivity or negativity of your approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that you can only exert control over yourself and your life, you can employ active conscious awareness to do that. Knowing control is something you can choose via active conscious awareness – mindfulness – of your choices and decisions in life, you can use this to control your inner being. That allows you to live more fully and in control of what you can and do control.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity — from the vast cylinder that exists between them — shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself opens the way for a positive approach and attitude via your actions. This can lead to realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the six-hundred-first (601) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, reblog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published fiction and non-fiction.

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