Teachers and Active Choices

Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live my friends. I am happy to see that you decided to stop by to visit with me. February 6, 2009 will be the 2 year anniversary of Second Chance to Live. During the past 23 months I have learned many different things about the world of the blog and how to be a more effective communicator on the world wide web. One of these lessons entails how I present articles from Second Chance to Live to you my reader.

In the early stages of Second Chance to Live I thought using creative titles for my articles was beneficial. I have since come to the realization that I need to be more descriptive in the titles of my articles. Consequently, I have decided to re-print some of my earlier articles under titles that are more descriptive of the content with in those articles. Some of the content from those previous articles may be changed or edited to enhance the content of the article.

Throughout my life, I have experienced many twists and turns. Many times, these twists and turns made little sense to me. Metaphorically speaking, I felt like a pinball ricocheting off a series of disappointments and resentments. This way of relating and reacting to my environment frequently left me feeling helpless. Although I spent much of my time and energy seeking to endure and survive my circumstances, I never felt secure.

Consequently, I felt like I needed to either defend, answer, or explain my existence.

When I got sick and tired of being sick and tired, I made some practical decisions. I decided that I no longer wanted to merely be a survivor, tossed about by my circumstances. I decided to embark in a new way of living. I began investing my time and energy into determining why I reacted to various people, places and things. I discovered that I was the common denominator in all these encounters.

Through my process, I came to accept my powerless over people, places, and things. Reality made something clear to me. Although I am powerless over people, places, and things I am not powerless over how I react to them. I came to realize that my reactions to people, places and things were active choices. These active choices remained embedded in my unconscious, until I decided to stop blaming anyone or anything for my choices.

When I chose to learn from my teachers, I no longer need to minimize anyone, including myself. I no longer need to remain in denial.

Although I may not like the people, places or things that I encounter — as I live my life — I need to remember that I have choices. I get to choose whether or not I learn from my reactions. If I choose to blame or shame someone for how I am reacting, I consciously choose to remain in denial. Blaming people or situations for how I choose to react to them does no one any good. Consequently, as I remain committed and open to learn from my reactions they become the teachers that empower my process.

In the process of being accountable to and for my reactions, I find a new freedom and vitality for living. The energy that I once used to survive my reactions is released to enhance my process — which empowers my ability to trust the process, a loving God and myself.

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