Exercising the Power of Choice to Create your Life

Posted On July 11, 2019 / Written by Dr. Linda Gadbois

The most fundamental way we direct the events of our life and create our own experiences is through the decisions we make that we then use our will in fulfilling by taking action on them. Many think that the power of choice only matters in the big decisions we make regarding what seems like the important issues we’re faced with, yet the fact is we’re always making decisions in every moment, both unconsciously and consciously, as to who we’re going to be. The future is created in the present. The past no longer exists unless it’s kept alive by continuing to think about it. Major decisions come as a natural progression of many smaller decisions we make along the way. All decisions come as an expression of our character and as the basic means through which we create ourselves through the type of experiences they produce that we play a part in initiating and cooperatively participating in.

When we practice the art of staying present in our life, and keep our attention on what’s actually happening as a direct experience, we can realize that the only “real time†is the present moment and that all future events come as the result of the decisions we’re making as to who we’re going to be, what we’re going to do, and what type of things we’re going to participate in co-creating in the moment. No one is ever really making our decisions for us, but simply act to influence us by getting us to agree and cooperate with them, or causing us to doubt ourselves and what we know to be true in favor of their ideas about things instead.

Three Basic Types of Choices

There are three primary forms of decisions: conscious ones that we make with awareness and in an intentional manner; unconscious ones that we do without thinking or that are emotionally based; and natural selection, or ones that come as a form of perceptual default based on our mental paradigm. One of the most basic types of decisions that we make all the time without realizing it is in terms of what we focus on, give our attention to, and think about consistently. Whatever we think about in a repetitive manner, we literally program ourselves with as a reality, and ultimately become through the activity we generate out of it. We can use the self- aware aspect of our mind to decide what we focus on and think about. We can learn how to keep our attention focused in the present and only think about what actually matters.

We’re making an unconscious decisions anytime we focus on the past and continue running the stories of our conditioning through our mind over and over. As we continue to tell stories about what happened to us in the past, and what it means about us as a result, we simply repeat the past in the present and create ourselves out of an unconscious state. When we allow our mind to wander in a random and habitual manner our thoughts tend to control us instead of us controlling them. Unconscious decisions are often made purely out of emotional states as reactions. As we go through our day, current events form a chain of association to similar events of the past, and we constantly go off into whole thought processes as memories that we consistently replay and tell stories about in a redundant manner. When we allow our mind to operate on auto-pilot without being self-aware and directing it in an intentional manner, we continue to live out of a primarily unconscious state.

Birthing New Realities

Choice and will are intimately connected because we always use our will as the means of producing the reality of our choices. Likewise, self-realization is what forms our awareness around our ability to make moment by moment decisions and then realize the outcomes we produce through willful action. We apply realization through our ability to recognize several options available to us in any moment, then imagining the reality our decisions will produce as an experience. Choice and will work “as†the Law of Cause and Effect. All action causes an equal or greater reaction of the same nature. As we make a decision, then take action on it, we act to birth a whole new reality. As we create the reality of our decision, we form new realizations about our self and life and begin living in a much more intentional manner.

We’re always acting to consciously and unconsciously produce our own reality while simultaneously experiencing ourselves “within†that reality as a certain “kind and type†of person. Choices, like all things, stem from our mental paradigm formed out of our conditioning as our fundamental means of perceiving things. Most of our decisions come as a form of perceptual habit that’s applied consistently while in an unconscious state where we lack awareness of what we’re actually doing in the direct sense. While many believe that choice is a conscious act, the fact is most of our decisions come unconsciously as what we choose to focus on, think about, and play out in our mind as imaginary scenarios and the mood that results from it. 

 Realization is important as the means for being able to make intelligent decisions by playing out possible choices to see what type of consequences they’ll possibly render. By playing out a choice as the reality it’ll produce, we can learn how to make good decisions that will bring the best possible outcomes. We can’t ever blame our own decisions and creations on other people who we imagine made our decisions for us by giving us no choice, or that put us in a bind, or that we imagine led us astray somehow, because intuitively we’re always “sensing things†as our feelings about it, and know right away the character and intentions of the person and what type of drama as a relationship and way of interacting that will result from it. Emotions that are intense can act to override and take control of our intellect. When we begin making emotional decisions we use our will to engage in co-creating the illusion inherent in the emotion.

 In our modern society we entertain ideas like it’s “alright†to say no, as if you’re doing something wrong or that you’ll “make someone feel bad†by being true to yourself. We’re often taught to ignore red-flags that come as intuitive awareness in favor of the emotional illusion being unconsciously played out by others instead. Many stay in bad relationships for years because they feel they’re wrong somehow in making the decision to leave, and then become resentful, bitter, and depressed while imagining it’s the other person’s fault.

The Power of Intuition

Within the animal kingdom of instinct, there’s no such thing as illusions that replace objective reality. There’s no lying to yourself and others by presenting them with an illusion in place of truth, and there’s no manipulative and covert agendas being played out as a means of gaining control over others. As humans, we also possess an animal body and experience instinct as intuition and body consciousness. When we listen to our body (how we feel) and intuition (the awareness that comes from it) we always know the truth in any situation, and if we allow an idea to spontaneously arise out of our intuition as a mental impression, we can know the reality that will result from it.

Intuition as feelings is based on the energies at play that systematically produce patterns as the reality inherent in it. As we steadily move into a situation we’re constantly being stimulated energetically forming an intimate awareness around it that’s always connecting us to the truth about it. When we form an intuitive awareness around something, but then either feel bad or doubt our awareness in favor of a story we begin telling ourselves that either explains it away or justifies it somehow, and we keep moving into it instead of away from it, we make a fundamental error in judgment, and act to co-create an illusion in place of the truth. Naturally, at some point along the way what we knew from the beginning starts becoming evident, then we feel “disillusionedâ€, lied to, let down, and somehow betrayed by the other person, when in fact it was us who lied to and betrayed ourselves because we didn’t listen to what we knew to be true right from the start.

The power to self-create in an aware fashion comes by realizing that we’re always making the decisions as to what direction our life takes, what relationships we maintain, what environments we place and keep ourselves in, and who we are in terms of our character and morality. As we make decisions in a moment by moment fashion as to who we’re going to be and what type of qualities we employ as the means of creating our experiences, we are simultaneously creating our “self†in relation to everything else. We can begin realizing that we always have a direct connection inwardly to the truth that exists outwardly. All we have to do is realize it and trust it as the means of making good decisions. Once we realize that all of our mental and emotional pain and suffering is caused by our own hand through the choices we make and the actions we take based on our decisions, and how we use our mind to experience the reality of our choices, we gain access to a very fundamental power as the true nature and creative ability of our higher soul.

Our Higher Self isn’t separate or different from our lower soul that’s confined to our personality and our unconscious conditioning, but is what acts to produce the entire material reality of our lower soul “through†how it operates as the consciousness of the body. When we “choose†to embody and utilize our higher consciousness as the means of creating, we learn how to tune into and skillfully use our intuition as the means of always knowing the truth in any situation and begin creating our life in a self-aware and intelligent manner. When we ignore and subdue our higher, subtle awareness as our intuition in favor of surface appearances, we use the power of our will to form illusions in place of truth. As unconscious beings that lack true awareness, we’re always deceiving ourselves. In the ultimate sense all deception is self-deception. We’re only deceived when we first disconnect from our self in favor of someone else’s truth, and act on ourselves to cooperate in creating an illusion in place of what we know deep down to be true.

All betrayal comes initially from betraying ourselves by choosing to ignore what we know to be true and therefore real, in favor of a lie. We can only be lied to by another when we first lie to ourselves by going against our inner feelings. When we lose touch with our true self, which is only known intimately as our feelings and the awareness that arises from them, we become an inherent part of a grand illusion created by surface appearances and facades designed to mask the truth and engage in a primary form of self-delusion.

Whenever we allow someone to persuade or convince us to go against what we feel to be right, we make an unconscious agreement to participate in a very basic form of self-deception where we deny our self in favor of another that we believe knows better than we do. The “truth†is never something we have to be persuaded to believe, it’s something that comes from within as a basic form of “self-awareness†as to how we feel in relationship with the outer forces we’re interacting with. We’re always choosing both unconsciously and consciously in any given moment to either make decisions based on what we know internally or what we’re being influenced by externally. We’re always either allowing our Higher Self to show us the way and create through us, or allowing others to make our decisions for us where we lend our will to creating our life according to the illusions they produce. Either way, the choice is always ours.

Dr. Linda Gadbois