Healthy Decisions and Life Choices

Healthy Decisions and Life Choices

Someone once wrote: “wrong choices of the past may feel like failure – turn failure into fertilizer and use it to grow”. We can’t change our past but we certainly CAN change our future.

The blessings of Motherhood surprised me in my early forties and changed me profoundly. Generationally we want to give our children everything and especially that, which we might not have had ourselves.  I promised myself and my unborn child, that I will teach her the Life Skill of making Healthy Choices .  My early adult choices were mostly impulsive, throwing caution to the wind – with negative results.  I also made decisions based on what I thought was expected of me, by my parents or society – with equally negative results.   

Our Emotions are the real driving force behind our thinking.  Our decision making is profoundly influenced by the circumstances of our life and then of course our life is profoundly influenced by our decisions. The ability to make healthy decisions  and choices is vital to a life moving in a positive direction instead of sliding out of control. 

On a scientific level it is obviously not a simple matter.  Many areas of the brain are participants in each individual’s capacity to make healthy decisions.  The ability to reason with logic is a big part although the emotional centres influence this process and complicate things.  The logical part of the brain needs to measure how it FEELS about the decision before being able to finalize the process. 

Aristotle once wrote:  “Anyone can become angry.  But to become angry with the right person to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy.” In other words, our rational brain needs to communicate to our emotional brain so that a healthy decision can be made.  This is a very individual process and can be completely different from one person to another.  The question is: are we in touch with both areas and allowing this process to take place in order to reach the correct conclusion

We all make poor choices, however, to repeat the same mistake is regrettable. If we can learn from each other, we could make a lot of LIFE COMPOST. As Oprah says:  One thing I know for sure:  We don’t know what goes on in the private lives of even those closest to us.  Therefore we can’t stand in judgement. Each one of us has to take responsibility for choices and live with the consequences. It is a VERY important Life Skill and responsibility to learn how to make choices that are right and healthy for us as an individual, which in turn has an effect on community, country and the planet.

With our INTEGRITY in place, our individual Spiritual/Religious Convictions, our upbringing, our parents and teachers, as guidance – we are all challenged every day to make a CHOICE, even if it is seemingly unimportant.  The answer lies in getting out of your head and into your heart.                  The TRUTH lies in the HEART.

 Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing. --Oscar Wilde