Here is a minor shift in focus that can make a big shift in your life.  You can think, worry, fret and procrastinate about choices, big and small; but for less stress and greater success -- meditate on it!

This type of meditation doesn’t have to be deep, and doesn’t take training or even practice to use.  What it takes is a choice to pause before you act, and to seek perspective and wisdom from a clearer place.  

Most of us tend to direct our lives from our minds and our emotions.  Choices can often be knee jerk, split second reactions; or alternately we go around and around in our minds, digging a circular trench of thought and worry.  Such responses are often based on what has happened in the past.  Attitudes may swing between “this is how I always do it” and “I never want to do that again!”.  Basing our choices on the past, limits the opportunities we will experience in our future.  It is time to develop a new habit of thinking outside the box of our past, because the times are changing.  Something new is being born in our world and we can be a part of that very positive shift right now!  Yes, we have lots to learn from the past.  Because of what we have been through, we may now be stronger, more loving or more discerning.  But every circumstance is different, and so what has gone before doesn’t necessarily apply to our future choices.   It helps to take a fresh look at what is happening now, and how we want to respond to it; and to do so from a more intuitive place.

Within our hearts and souls we have a connection to a higher intelligence.  In order to benefit from that wisdom we need to pay attention to it; rather than only listening to mind and emotions.  So the next time you have a choice to make, take the time to access the higher intelligence available to you.  It doesn’t matter if the choice is small or large, the more you practice the easier it will become.

The key is to pause before responding.  Step back from the situation if possible, relax your mind, open your heart and surrender into the unconditionally loving core of your true self within.  From that calm center, invite love and higher intelligence to be present in and around the situation.  Ask that things work out for the greatest good for you and everyone else involved.  Ask that you be given inspiration about the most positive response or action to take.  

Then wait and see what comes to you; give it a few minutes or as many days or weeks as needed for you or the situation to shift into a better place.  Perhaps you may not even have to respond; sometimes just making the connection to the higher intelligence allows things to resolve.  Sometimes what you need may simply arrive at your door, unexpectedly.  Or you may feel a clear, open-hearted response that emerges from inside you, which guides your actions.  This response could be so appropriate that it surprises you, because you wouldn’t have thought of it before!  It could be something that perfectly diffuses a problem, or helps things to resolve in unexpectedly positive ways.   

Neither the rational mind, nor our emotional selves can see clearly enough to guide us beyond the experiences of the past.  But these parts of us can commune with our true selves, and be guided by that greater intelligence.  Each of us is an individual facet of the Oneness of all life, the spiritual source which we sometimes call God, or the Great Spirit.  We live within these bodies and souls, and our minds and emotions are tools through which our eternal spirit functions in the world.  We have a habit of identifying with our minds and our feelings, forgetting that we are so much more than that.  Meditating on your choices and responses to life is a way of remembering who you are and cocreating with God - a truly life changing and world blessing thing to do!