“Responsibility and action belong to different dimensions. The ability to respond gives you the freedom to act. It also gives you the freedom not to act.”
Sadhguru

I love today’s quote and also understand that it may be a little controversial and it will probably create different reactions and reflections. It personally makes me reflect on all of those moments where I have felt like I need to speak up or take action about a specific subject or situation because people are requesting that of me; whether that is in my personal, professional or social (media included) life. 

Feeling the pressure to act on something has always made me feel contracted and overwhelmed and in that state we can’t truly connect with the purest most authentic side of ourselves. So, most of the time we end up re-acting based on what other people are expecting from us which ends up creating a bunch of different ripple effects. This also translates to: we get knocked off our center and it takes us away from our alignment. 

A couple weeks ago a friend and I were talking about the transitions we are having with our businesses. Like me, she had been feeling a pull to change and she is finding herself in one of the most difficult places during this process. She knows she wants to make the change but she doesn’t know what she wants to do. Ah.. so many of us have been there, right? 

That was exactly where I was a few months ago so I had freshly experienced suggestions for her…I told her…”give yourself time to not do anything.” And look, I believe that pretty much every suggestion in the world is going to be life changing for some and it’s going to be bs for others. I have given and also applied a completely different approach in many other moments of my life. Which of course brings us once again to truly connecting with our authentic feelings instead of listening to what others tell us what to do. 

Now, what I do think, and I have mentioned this in a couple posts already is that there is beautiful wisdom in stillness and silence. It is the place where we can all go to connect with our truest self which is also the beautiful energy that surrounds us all and that carries the wisdom of the creation of this amazing universe. So, in a perfect world I would always choose to connect with myself and this energy before taking any action. I did not plan to be as poetic but I guess I went there.

Well, after I said this to my friend, she told me that she had been feeling a pull to do just that. Because, she was simply overwhelmed with over thinking the different options and scenarios she had for her next venture. And, this is when I think the power of Sadhguru’s quote is clear. For her, the responsible action in that moment meant that it felt more appropriate to not take immediate action. Taking responsibility of her own choice meant that perhaps she had to quiet the voices of her friends or family that were (without knowing it) making her feel the pressure to make a decision with the course of her business. 

And, of course, we can apply this to small or big situations in our life and really the most important reason I chose this quote is because we often forget that we are responsible for the actions that we take and the actions we don’t take. And, most of the time we take action because we feel pressure from those around us to satisfy their expectations and in the same way we don’t take action because we are fearful of the reaction of those around us. When we do this and the outcome of those actions turn out to be not what we expected we will immediately hand out the responsibility to those that had an influence in that decision. In my opinion, there is nothing more disempowering than making someone else responsible for my own choices.  

So, this is my loving reminder that most of us, specially if you are here reading this, have the freedom to decide what actions to take or not to take that will support our most authentic self. That is our responsibility, to fully embrace that freedom. It is not about what others expect from us, their hope for us, their fears, judgements, their views of the world… all that matters is how we truly feel and when we have clarity of that, the decisions that move us to take action or no action will become easier and easier every time.

Love, Nat.