32. Response

Thunder


In Between

Artwork by:

Meg Vellejos-McCoy at innerlifecreations.com.

Day 122 of 2021 and Day 1978 of her Daily Painting Practice.

Is your response to the challenge with an active exercise of your free will or are you choosing inaction?

It’s one thing to consciously decide to not respond and it’s quite another to avoid a challenge. In that avoidance, am I frozen out of fear or is the avoidance more consciously passive?

If I am frozen from fear and unable to respond, it is likely a subconscious trauma response. It is a safety issue. My Knight in Shining Armor, my Ego, stands at the ready, fully armed and in a battle stance, but immobile. WAIT! DON’T MOVE! This response is not an active exercise of my free will. This is a deer-in-the-headlights response.

Choosing not to respond is distinguishable from freezing. There is a thought process. I uncover the subconscious, passive not-choosing by asking myself: “What’s going on?”

I pay attention to all the ways I respond to a challenge, grateful for my ability to choose. I am careful to do the next right thing instead of avoiding the challenge or doing the thing I’ve always done.

If a challenge makes me so uncomfortable that I prefer to not address it at all, I know that is precisely when I need to step up and meet it directly with eyes wide open.