The Freedom of Responsibility

In her book, Eat, Pray, Love, author Elizabeth Gilbert talks about being faced with life altering questions toward the end of her first marriage.  Juggling her responsibility to herself with her perceived responsibility to her marriage, to having a family, to living a life that didn’t seem to fit her and that she didn’t want, she notes a breakthrough that came to her when she finally sat down and did what most any good writer would do – examined the word responsibility and discovered another meaning through its parts.  Elizabeth writes:

“Oh, Lord–responsibility.  That word worked on me until I worked on it, until I looked at it carefully and broke it down into the two words that make its true definition:  the ability to respond.”

What a beautiful, empowering definition for such an often fearful and burdensome word.  Responsibility is a word that comes up often in my own discussions, both on a personal front as well as in talks with other friends, family and clients.  I’ve always tried to communicate the sense of power and strength that comes with responsibility, not because it is a burden of duty, a heavy thing to be carried on our shoulders whether we like it or not, but because it is ultimately an issue of choice.  When you are given the ability to respond to something, to anything, you are also automatically given the choice;  the choice of whether or not to respond and the choice of how to respond.

And what a liberating gift!  As vibrational beings constantly engaged in the creation of the experiences we have, the environment in which we live, the life itself that we lead.  Every single bit of our fundamental power lies in our ability to choose and then to respond.  Choice is such an inherent part of our physical existence that we can even choose to be blind to our ability to choose.  Even more so, we can choose to give up our right to choose… and that in itself is a choice we make.  The largest part of our stepping into the limitless power we hold as human beings is in the act of becoming aware of both our ability to choose and our ability to respond.  The whole of creation has always been rushing forward to support and assist us in the perceptions we have, and the choices we make, but when we begin exercising our ability to choose and to respond with deliberate focus and intention, then we are better able to work in tandem with the whole of creation to bring forth a physical reality that is in alignment with our own inherent abundance and wellbeing, our purpose and passions, our deepest desires.

When we’ve spent so much time being unaware of our conscious ability to respond, then it’s not always easy to begin becoming aware, especially with regard to our responses to our own internal, mental and emotional environment.  The latter though is where so much of our ability to mold and shape reality resides, and so for that reason, it can be of an invaluable benefit to us to begin being more aware of, and deliberately exercising, our ability to respond… our “responsibility”.  Are there situations in your life where you have been, either deliberately or by default, giving up your power to choose how to respond to any particular person, place, circumstance or event?  Can you identify the choices you have available to you?  What choices, and what modes of response, can you take that are in greater alignment with the freedom, abundance and joy that is eternally available to you?

Lastly, just as sometimes it can be of a huge benefit to deliberately exercise our ability to respond, sometimes the best response is to not respond.  And so if you are faced with a situation in which no response seems “right”, consider the possibility that it’s just that;  “no response”, or non-response, seems right.  Sometimes it pays to simply be still, be at peace… and do nothing at all.

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