Choices--Conscious Or Not, We Must Choose

It's all about choice. Conscious or not doesn't really matter. Well it matters in the sense that the opportunity we've been given to live a human life is a real gift and the potential that is possible for us is phenomenal if we live this life to the fullest. So when it comes to our choices, obviously the more conscious they are, the more able we are to serve our life's purpose. I see intention as playing a big part here, probably as the most important contributing factor. If I intend to be an aware, enlightened human being, if that's my focus in this life, I will be much more capable of making conscious choices because there is a direct correlation between awakened awareness and conscious choices that are in sync with my life's purpose--the reason I came here to work/play/have a life to begin with.


And I would suppose that everyone comes in with a life's purpose-- be it enlightenment, love, sex, money, peace, war, excelling in the physical strength and Olympian possibilities of the body, or the more charitable goals of Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, etc. The more aware someone is to who and what they are, the better their ability to make choices that further their purpose for being here in the first place. Without a strong intention there is more tendency to get distracted along the way. And this isn't bad, or wrong, it's just being off course (without judgment for that). It's OK to go off course. Because we have choice, otherwise known as free will, it's a valid choice to lose sight of our course or change our course, and there is no rule that we must stay on track with our original choice, the reason that we came here.


The thing is, people go unconscious for various reasons. And when we are unconscious we obviously make unconscious choices. If I'm an awakened aware person my choices are going to be conscious ones. It seems to get a little tricky here with young children. It seems to me that children have this incredibly keen radar. Children come into this world with strong intention for their life's purpose, knowing what it will take for them to fulfill their goals. They know exactly what they want and they go after it. Mostly I think parents get in their children's way, due to the parents lack of trust in their child's inner guidance system which helps them make the appropriate choices for their life. Parents think they know more about what's right for the child than the child does. I don't believe that at all--well within reason here, sometimes a parent does know that the child needs broccoli and rice for dinner rather than a chocolate bar and that an afternoon nap when they are overly tired will really give them a better perspective but there is the tendency to take this basic knowledge of that's why I'm the parent and your the child way too far. Also, the way parents often use their parental authority to coerce their children to submit to their will, to what they believe is best for their child is over the top. Not that all parents interfere with their children's growth in this way, and some interfere only minimally. In fact, I'm truly impressed with the parenting skills of so many parents I know and I see their children as incredibly fortunate and blessed. Frankly, I'm often envious of the natural parenting abilities that so many possess. I seem to have acquired many of these abilities over time but unfortunately I did not possess them when they were the most important--when my children were young. In the big picture, I fear there are many more "off course" parents than "on course" but I'm lucky to know some very together ones. Bottom line, what I think children need more than anything else is love. When big love is offered children seem to make it through and thrive in spite of whatever parenting style is perpetrated against them. But I digress.

A lot on unconscious parenting influences children to go unconscious and lose touch with their own inner guidance system. When that happens we lose awareness and it's very difficult to make conscious choices. But we continue to make choices because that's what living life is all about. And some children who for whatever reason are able to maintain their strong intention, just whiz through life barely slowing down, shrugging off the influence of their parents and anyone else who tries to get in their way. They have this tenacious will, this conscious intent that keeps them on track doing what they came here to do in this life and nothing or no one is going to stop them.

But many of us flounder as children and young adults. Would I have chosen to get pregnant, married and have a baby at 16 if I was in touch with my inner guidance system? Would I have chosen to drop out of school and stay in abusive relationships with the men who fathered my children? Would I have made some of the choices that now, years later, still make me what to hide my face in shame? Some of these choices I think I might have made regardless, others most definitely not, but I was only where I was at the time and choices are like breathing, we can't live without them. We just do the best we can with what we've got and sometimes we hit the mark and sometimes we miss it. Sometimes we make choices by default--we choose by not choosing, by letting others choose for us or we just sort of let life happen to us. But that's a choice too. Underneath all the choices through, the self is always there in full on awareness and its influence is always available to us, at least to some degree.

So when I ponder age, emotional maturity and a person's level of awareness in regards to a choice being conscious or not, well yes, I do think these factors come into play, but ultimately in the big picture it doesn't really matter. We have to make choices, conscious or not and we do the best we can. Sometimes we fall victim to our choices, sometimes others fall victim to our choices but what else is there to be done? There is ignorance and there is evilness in this world. We are born into the families we are born into and here we are. Our families do the best they can and sometimes it's just not good enough to save us from the pain of being human. Our parents will influence us in the ways that parents do, as society, religion, astrology, numerology, coffee grounds, tea leaves and chicken bones do and we will live our lives, staying on track with our life's purpose as much as possible. Our true self never abandons us, it is always here clamoring for our attention and we will intend and desire and make choices ultimately based on that self.