Choices

Choices are fundamental to our lives. By choosing this or that action, we not only create our lives, but also affect the lives of those around us.

Most of the choices we make in our daily lives are trivial, having importance only to ourselves. What do I eat for breakfast? Do I listen to the radio in the car or not? Shall I go to the gym today?

While any of these choices, once made (either consciously or out of long habit), have consequences, the majority of them are not problematic in an emotional sense. They are simply decisions about how to live our lives. For the most part, we accept the outcome of our choices. Either we reinforce the validity of the choice, or if we see that a mistake was made we generally endeavor not to repeat it.

Emotions can be a useful barometer of the “rightness” of our choices. We can stop and ask ourselves, “How did this choice make me feel? Is this a feeling I want to have? Is it helping me or hurting me?” When we pay attention to our feelings, we can make our choices in a more conscious way.