There are things in life we cannot choose, nor change.

Sometimes, these things are given, sometimes they are a consequence of choices we’ve made.

We were born and cannot change any of the circumstances of that birth.

As we grow up, we develop habits, learn to respond to situations, but also to evaluate ourselves within our context. It’s a natural reaction based on our need to belong to a group and experience ourselves as appreciated by that group.

It’s how the inner critic tries to keep us safe and support us.

But it also generates a lot of thoughts. Thoughts that pull us in a variety of directions while asking us to develop a solution to a problem the inner critic presented us with.

The only problem the inner critic doesn’t present us with is the question of whether we need to listen to him. And he is right, there are situations in which these thoughts are useful. They may pop up, disturb us, make us uncomfortable, but it’s their job. It’s how our mind captures our attention whenever it sees it as a necessity.

Our job is to choose what we engage with.

We cannot choose whether we have a mind or not. It is there and does what it is there for.

We thus cannot be free from it.

We are only able to choose our relationship with it.

The choice in relationship with it may best be described as one of deciding if we are our mind or if we have a mind.

In making that choice, we decide on the opportunity to figure out how to be free with what has been given to us. It also means choosing what could be our biggest responsibility. Deciding to have a mind means becoming responsible for how we react to the thoughts it shares with us.