As we find ourselves spending more time having to navigate fears or concerns about staying healthy, along with the realities of job or career anxiety, I'd like to offer some time tested solutions. Using them will help you to continue to create your days feeling stable, strong, confident, happy and able to move through the challenges ahead, whatever they may be. Below are the top 5 reasons self-honoring choices are so powerful.
Reason #1: Self-honoring choices take us out of the past, out of the future and put us squarely into the present moment; where ALL the power lives.
In my book, IT'S TIME FOR A YOU-TURN, I explain the powerful importance of a connection with Self-honor. This is actually done very simply by asking what I call, the "bridge" question: "What is the most self-honoring choice I can make right now?" Then just pause and stay aware. This question is deceptively simple. However, it will create an inroad to powerful solutions that come from your intuition, or the deeper part of you, where wisdom and honor originate. These solutions are always timely and tailor made for you. Coming into them via the present, you have an access point. In short, the present is where the all the power is because it is the only moment you can actually take action in, unlike the past or future. The more often you ask, "What is the most self-honoring choice I can make right now?" the more you will be activating a valuable inner connection from which the answers become progressively more efficient, effective and profound.
Reason #2: Using Self-honoring choices will drive you toward living your life with more intention and skill.
Now that you know how to cultivate a powerful answer, it would be wise to activate that power with intention and skill. As you connect and act upon the information you "receive," from the bridge question, you begin living with greater personal power. This is because by listening within, we actually leave less room open for the ego-mind to get busy creating scenarios that may be generating thoughts, emotions and actions that are counterproductive to our happiness, our confidence, our health, our faith. You've likely experienced, at least once, mental churning that goes NO WHERE. We can easily interrupt that unproductive cycle with the bridge question. Here you can also begin to notice what mental habit patterns are your defaults—and then from those places—ask the bridge question to be directed elsewhere. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to discover that negative habit patterns emerge more readily when we are not living intentionally or skillfully. Self-honoring choices are the seeds of skillful, intentional living, guiding us to a higher quality of life.
Reason #3: Self-honoring choices inevitably create more peace and energy.
How? Every single self-honoring choice you make will actually create a small boost of energy, and energy IS power. This is because self-honoring choices come from you highest good, and are also for your highest good, and this is a natural way to experience more peace and energy. You will feel good having made one of these choices, and another and another until you feel as if each one is slowly and consistently dropping vital essence into your energy "bucket." As the world and its infinite circumstances are presented to us, some which lift us up, some that steal our precious energy, we can move forward with more stability being less negatively influenced by the constant changes. You will feel confidence using this powerful tool to refresh your energy and will have greater control over big energy drains. The more you repeat this process, you will be developing positive changes very naturally, and with less and less effort. You may realize this little practice proves to you that energy is infinite and you now have a way to access it, in any moment, on any day, in any circumstance. That's power. Period.
Reason #4: Self-honoring choices build self-reliance.
What is self-reliance made of? Have you ever really thought about that? It seems to be a combination of building your personal capacity in four areas; mental/intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical. A person is well-rounded in life when they attend to all four. A simple self-honoring choice can have a positive effect on each one of these areas. The process starts with one self-honoring choice that directs you to think a positive thought, which would activate a positive emotion, from there, naturally initiates a more positive action that is uniquely right for that moment. Self-honoring choices can direct you to choose an activity like moving your body instead of sitting still and ruminating about things you cannot control. A single self-honoring choice might direct you to go outside, listen to some powerful music, take a break, really dig in to a project, or simply take a moment to stop and appreciate the sacredness of Life. After all, you are a multi-faceted being who needs a variety of things in order to feel balanced, joyful, successful, strong, and happy. Being able to respond to life with this type of clarity will surely grow a greater sense of self-reliance,
Reason #5: Self-honoring choices increase your happiness and help clarify your purpose.
Clarity of purpose is powerful. It clears the lane of distractions so you specifically know what to avoid and what you need in order to complete your task. This feels good! The better you get at taking the self-honoring cues from your inner self, the more clear, alive and energized you will feel. When we feel this way, our choices and decisions are so much better and powerfully positive than when we make decisions when feeling frustrated, confused, down or angry. Feeling good, generally means we are more aligned with the deeper self. The closer we get, the more often we align, the more clarity we receive and the more purposeful and powerful we become. Clearing away the old, less productive thought patterns and replacing them with self-honoring ones, we naturally find ourselves moving forward with a greater ease and sense of purpose that is supported by our ever-growing clarity. From there, we almost can't help but build and enjoy a more consistent sense of satisfaction in life. Better yet, we may even realize that there is no limit to the amount or depth of meaning and purpose that we can create in our lives. Regardless of circumstances, we begin to understand that the road to what we are after no longer moves outside of us, but arises from within. That's power.
And that is also, the YOU-TURN. Coming back to deeper Self, in every moment that we can through the bridge question, helps to cultivate true freedom in the greatest sense of the word. This is simply a wise way to live. Build on those moments of self-honor until you feel a real momentum. It's easy. It's free. It's available to everyone. I hope you will ask yourself, at least once today, "What is the most self-honoring choice I can make right now?" And start embracing your power that is quite literally just waiting to be discovered.