I usually know upfront when I have too much to share and that it should be done in stages. This was not the case with my last post. ‘What I know for sure’ has become part of my gratitude meditation. It’s also motivating to acknowledge that I have made progress; to not only focus on what I have yet to realise, achieve or change.

 

So, in no particular order, this is part two of what I know for sure. Doing it is something else altogether. But we live and learn. However, when I slip back into old patterns and realise the trigger on my own, I get a childlike excitement. Baby steps.

 

You are responsible for you

 

Someone posted a meme on Whatsapp the other day. It was an image of a large light brown dog – looked like a guide dog – with a leash and strap around its neck. But instead of the strap being held by a human and the dog leading the human or just walking along together, the dog had the strap in his or her mouth and was walking alone. The caption was something along the lines of “When you realise that no-one is coming, and you have to do it on your own”.

 

Yes. No-one is coming to get you. No-one is coming to save you. Even Jesus will not save you, until you have the realisation that you are responsible for you, first and foremost. You are a Divine soul having a human experience. That means that you have autonomy over your life, you get to decide.

 

Many religious institutions want us to believe that our lives have been pre-ordained, “written in the stars”. Then why are we here? Are we pawns in God’s game of chess? Is She moving us around for her entertainment? Really? That’s exactly why some people ‘accept their fate’, and remain victims. We have free will. We have the power to choose.

 

You are what you eat

 

Eat in this instance refers to whatever you consume. Food, what you read, spend time on, feed your mind, who you spend time with, and so on. We are a direct result of the thousands of choices we make each day, consciously and unconsciously.

 

When you make bad choices, you can’t expect a good outcome. My kids are learning that a bad choice doesn’t make you a bad person. There’s no attachment to the choice which helps remove the guilt. If we aren’t making mistakes, we aren’t growing.  Another thing that my kids grasp already. How freeing to know that mistakes are par for the course. Who told us to strive for perfection, again?

 

When you start to make choices from consciousness, you immediately evoke a state of presence and power.

 

We are not meant to struggle

 

Modern living has us on ‘the grind’. Multitasking is one of the biggest fallacies of human existence. Some of us were even told that it’s a skill to be listed on our CVs. Gosh. I’ve said it before here. Men don’t multitask.

 

Am I saying that we sit back, with no ambition or motivation? No. The ‘struggle’ is the internal dissonance, that monkey chatter in the mind that holds us hostage. The struggle is created when we want to be somewhere else instead of here. The time is always “quarter past now” according to Eckhart Tolle.

 

My heart skipped with joy on our recent holiday, as we were taking a walk in nature, my 8-year-old said, unprompted, “It’s always good to be in the present moment”. Yes, wise one.

 

Living in the present is the antithesis of multitasking. Someone else on Whatsapp (can you tell it’s my channel of choice?) recently posted a video of Shonda Rhimes, scriptwriter extraordinaire, giving a speech where she shares a ‘secret’, that there is no such thing as balance or ‘having it all’. If she’s writing a smoking hot script, she’s most probably missing out on her child’s first swimming lesson. She gives a few examples. And she’s made peace with it.

 

When we deal with what is in front of us, in the moment, one thing at a time, it actually makes us more productive and creative! So, if a job or anyone expects you to multitask, show them where to get off.

 

We are intricately linked

 

Finally, the devastating floods in my home province of Kwazulu-Natal in April 2022 are still weighing heavy on the people in the region. Not even a year after the destruction of the violent looting and unrest in July 2021.

 

The scenes from these two recent moments in history make this prolonged health pandemic feel like a trip to the gynae. Somewhat uncomfortable but a necessary inconvenience with some long-term benefits.

 

We are living during a time of trauma and change. People’s lives are uprooted instantly in unspeakable circumstances. Whether you’re sitting in Sandton, Soshanguve, Seattle, or Seoul, we’re connected through energy. What happens in one part of the world has an impact on the other. What happens to others happens to you.

 

But it all comes back to the individual. Change starts with me. Change starts with you. No clichés. Just fact.

 

Pic credit: @robynwrites