January 31, 2024
It is often said that if we give people responsibility, they will be empowered.
But you can apply this to yourself as well as to others!
When you take responsibility for yourself and your actions, you are empowering yourself.
The trick is, what about the things we're not aware of?
Well, we still need to take responsibility for those subconscious thoughts, even if we are not aware of them. They are 96% of your brain functions and largely dictate your behaviour.
For example, when something offends us, it is our subconscious mind that has made the choice to take offence.
This is even though we are not aware of that choice other than the emotional manifestation of it.
That's why most 'hate speech' laws are unenforceable. Judges would need to be able to read the mind of those who choose to be offended, as well as of those who 'created' the offence.
As in anything, some people will take offence and others will not. Who is to say what is 'the truth' or 'offensive'?
Offence is always taken, never given.
Blame vs Responsibility
An important point is that responsibility is not the same as blame or guilt, even though some dictionary definitions do equate the two.
Responsibility equates to 'owning' a thought or behaviour. Blame or guilt implies wrongdoing. All too often people 'blame themselves' for things that go wrong.
But in reality they are being unreasonably tough on themselves. A better answer would be to 'own' the problem and forgive oneself.
Victim Mentality
Many people been coddled into a 'victim' mentality, whereby everything just 'happens to them'.
For example, 'its his fault because he made me angry'.
They are easily manipulated by political activist groups into this victimhood so that they can be controlled by them.
They take no responsibility for their feelings.
Projection
Often people resort to 'projection'. This is essentially misinterpreting things inside the mind as coming from the outside.
Sayings such as 'he made me do it' are typical. Again, the person is assigning agency to an external source rather than themselves.
Other examples of projection include bullying and victim blaming.
Bullies project their own feelings of inadequacy and vulnerability to others - often in a violent manner.
They often blame their victims for their behaviour.
Accept Your Agency
If you accept your own 'agency' for the way you feel and act, it's not the same as 'blame.'
Once you do this, it allows you to move on and empower yourself.
However, to do this, it is important to be aware of the times you are triggered (or I should say, you 'trigger yourself').
This is often not possible when emotions are running high.
The way through this is to prepare in advance. Such practices that allow this are meditation and other forms of mental discipline.
Essentially meditation is a practice that over time allows you to be aware of you mental processes.
Even though many of the world's religions use meditation, meditation itself is not necessarily 'religious' in nature.
There are also many other health benefits that we don't need to go into here.
If you would like a way to meditate that is simple to implement and not necessarily religious, check out this website.
In Conclusion
As soon as we all break out of our mental straitjackets, the sooner we will be able to achieve our potential, which is 'humungous!'
If you take responsibility for yourself and your life, you will not regret it and you will thrive.
But don't take my word for it: ask Christy Whitman, who has an excellent video about it here: