Thursday, September 24, 2009

Living Deliberately......


 
“What is the purpose of living deliberately?” When I think of this, it makes me instantly refer to a quote by Nathaniel Branden.

‘To live authentically, to speak and act from our innermost convictions and feeling. To refuse to accept unearned guilt and to do our best to correct such guilt as we may have earned. To be committed to our right to exist, which proceeds from the knowledge that our life does not belong to others and that we are not here on earth to live up to someone else’s expectations. To be in love with our own life, in love with our possibilities for growth and for experiencing joy, in love with the process of discovery and with exploring our distinctively human potentialities.’

So, what is living deliberately to me? First, let me start by expressing that mostly living deliberately is all about choice. Choosing to live your life, and not let your life be lived by what has been chosen for you. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well in some ways it is. At any given time in our lives, when we can sit down and ask ourselves the simple question. “Am I happy right now? Is this what I want?” You can ask yourself this question in reference to many things; job, spouse, family, friends, and so on. To live deliberately is to not live based on old patterns of the past, or the feelings of not being good enough, worth enough, or can’t, but to live by acknowledging those old patterns and saying to yourself, I am going to start a new and I can. We often let beliefs, some that we have been taught, some that are based on our experiences that we encountered in our life, or experiences that someone else encountered and we take on that belief as the road map to how we live. We use that belief to steer our car in a direction. Here’s a good example of what I am referring to: A parent that is afraid of the water, will sometimes unaware or aware pass that down onto the child. Then the child grows up never learning to swim because of a fear that his/her parent has. At some point the child can make a choice to either accept that fear and continue to live with never experiencing the joy of swimming, or making a choice to say; “ Hey, I really want to enjoy swimming and I am going to learn.” We often miss out on living our life deliberately by living it with the stale, old belief systems of others and our own and living it from a fear based belief. I can’t try that, because I will probably fail. That is not living deliberately.

So I challenge you to make a list of the things in your life you would like to change. Then look at that list and make another list of the things you would have to do, in order for that change to happen. Then look at that list again, and adapt the belief that you are capable of making that happen!!!


“Is life living you? Or are you living your life?”


“Effortless becomes effortless; when over-achieving ends.”


12 comments:

  1. "Karen, I found your thoughts and insight very inspiring, and have to admit that when reading the things you write, I found myself relaxing and feeling like I just got a message that I need to hear. You have a way of really articulating your emotions and experiences that I can understand and relate to."

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  2. This is such a comforting spot and I am so glad I found you! With all of the chaos in our world today it is wonderful to have a place to reflect, share, and just breathe. Thank you for creating such a peaceful retreat.

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  3. You are such a beautiful writer...as I sit here reading your blog...I've had many emotions; tears, laughter, happiness. You inspire me to look at life differently. I've enjoyed all your topics on this page and look forward to seeing more.

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  4. that was awesome, i love to write and see things as they are, beautiful, ugly, confused. life is for living and there are so many limitations from what is suppossed to be, we are not here that long, i am still in my prime, but i need to give and be loved by what i want. so cool

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  5. Wow, great job. What a delightful, breath of fresh air. You have given me much to ponder.

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  6. Awesome story on Living Deliberately...made me really look upon my life as many times I feel like I am always doing things others want or that I feel they want me to be doing vs what I really want to do. Very inspirational.

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  7. Great job! What a wide range of interesting topics and a very nice way of getting me to think about them. Good Luck.

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  8. You are truly an amazing women,I would love to say" that is the reason I married you", but that would be simply because I was and am still in love with you. Probably stepping on my tongue here but I want you to know I support you 100% and I am very proud of you and your accomplishments. Keep up the good work. Love Ya Me! I have never met a person so intuned with the spiritual feeling and thoughts of all others in my life. A true provider of wisdom and positive thoughts.

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  9. Have really enjoyed reading this great insight. After having years of counseling...this thought provoking magazine clip, or blog, has covered many aspects of what took me years to learn. I believe you can reach many in a positive way. Good Luck! P.S. Really enjoyed the little dog blog...very cute. Guess Who! ;-)

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  10. I don't think I am living my life the way I really want to. I find I am always complaining about my job and come home very frustrated. I guess I have gotten comfortable just doing it because that is what I am supposed to do. Think I need to make that list you talk about. Thank you

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  11. I am very proud of all your accomplishments and I am proud to be your husband and best friend. Love you. Keep up the good(hard) work. Enjoy everyone,she puts her heart and soul into this project.

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  12. It cannot be explained in any easier terms. You've laid out very clearly how we can claim our right to the joy of living deliberately. I love this post!

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