Learning to Take Responsibility

Often when we begin on the path of personal development or spiritual growth, we start to look at the behaviours that we have been practising to this point.

We begin to see that our behaviours have caused us issues in our relationships with friends and family, and we gradually learn that we need to alter the way we are around others and with ourselves.

One of the most important lessons to come to terms with is the one which enables us to see that we are not the victim of some intricate, complicated conspiracy theory. The world is not designed to hurt you or harass you, and you are in fact a part of a much bigger whole.

Many people begin the journey feeling hard done to or picked on by the universe. When it rains, it is solely to spoil their day. When they do not get their own way, they chant in unison "It's not fair". When they get stopped by the police because they were speeding, it is bad luck that they got caught.

Learning to take responsibility entails also learning that life happens. It rains. Earthquakes happen. Cars crash. Fires start. People die. Life is not a conspiracy to inconvenience you, or to prevent you from having what you want. It is however, a constantly changing, dynamic series of events and occurrences that would carry on regardless of whether or not you were there.

Taking responsibility for your actions also involves a certain amount of growing up. Instead of thinking that it was bad luck that you got pulled over by the police, accept that you are responsible for driving within the speed limit, and that at the time you were caught, you were driving too fast.

Learning not to take life so personally and to see that events simply occur enables you to begin to understand that the event has no emotional charge, it is just raining, for example. Life just happens, and we react to it in our own way. It is not some convoluted attempt to make you miserable, it is just a canvas onto which we paint our lives. Choose not to see it as a personal affront, and life will become a lot more comfortable.

Taking responsibility for our reaction to life and also for our actions can be difficult to begin with, but as you begin to witness the way you respond to events, you can begin to become more aware of the part you play in the grand orchestra of life, and all that this entails.

Written by Caroline Nettle

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