My Life is My Responsibility: Insights for Conscious Living

Until you come to the point of accepting responsibility for everything that happens in your life, you are not free.

When you refuse to accept that your life is your responsibility, you continue to blame someone or something else for everything that happens to you. You see yourself as a victim of fate, a tyrannical god, controlling people, and natural disasters. You blame your parents, the government, and any person who abused you in any way for how your life has turned out.

Accepting responsibility for your life is both confronting and liberating at the same time.

It’s confronting when you have experienced things or committed acts you would rather forget than take responsibility for.

It’s liberating because it lets you see that you are never a victim.

How do we go about accepting responsibility for our lives?

One way is to stop thinking of yourself as a human being with a limited lifespan and to see yourself as a spiritual being that chose to incarnate into the human form - for specific learning experiences.

When you look at your life from this perspective, you need to acknowledge that you chose your parents and the circumstances into which you were born.

From this perspective, you also come to appreciate that events happen for you and not to you. Things only happen to you if you see yourself as a victim.

Another way of looking at that is to regard all events as neutral – that is; they happen but they have no intrinsic meaning. The only meaning any event has is the meaning you give it. You are the one who decides whether an event is beneficial, disastrous, or of no consequence.

Accepting responsibility for your life means acknowledging that you have total control over the way in which you respond to any event.

That’s why you hear all sorts of gurus telling you that change begins within. They're telling you that although you may not be able to change the world, you can change the way you behave.

Accepting responsibility for your life also means you get to choose what you believe; instead of simply accepting what others tell you to believe.

Ponder point

So, who or what has control of your life?

You might think you are in control but, unless you’re willing to examine your beliefs and habits, you’re probably fooling yourself.

Actions to consider

Spend some time listening to what you say, and what you think but don’t say.

Take a look at how you react when people push your buttons.

Start keeping a journal to record your observations.