“I am responsible for creating my reality” is a powerful motto and belief.

It speaks directly to any feeling of powerlessness we might be holding inside of ourselves.

It encourages us to do something to create a better life for ourselves if we don’t like our current circumstances.

It creates a sense of personal efficacy and conscientiousness towards our daily lives because it points us to where we can create positive change.

Yes, we do have the power to set in motion many things that can influence – positively or negatively – certain outcomes in our lives. But many circumstances are outside of our control and even run contrary to our volition, actions and desires.

Hurricanes and tornadoes.

Childhood abuse.

Cancer.

The death of a loved one.

Multiple Sclerosis.

Long-standing systemic and cultural biases.

Emergency cesarean births.

Heart attacks.

Influenza.

Chronic Illness.

If you’ve ever asked yourself why you created or caused these things to happen to you, or if you feel guilt and helplessness because they did, it’s a sign that this belief is operating on over drive and you feel responsible for things you did not create.

Our immediate thoughts and actions (or inactions) do not create everything that happens to us. Some events happen with or without us, sometimes even in spite of us.

I experienced this first hand when I was giving birth to my son. All of my focus, will, and intention was focused on bringing him into the world and being his mama. Regardless, my body was moving steadily towards death. It was a deeply humbling experience that took me years to heal from. Just imagine if on top of my already arduous healing process I blamed, berated and shamed myself for creating it.

Believing that you are responsible for creating everything in your reality causes harm to your vitality and overall health. Feeling like you should or need to take responsibility for things that were most certainly out of your control invites in the energies of helplessness and shame – both of which block the expression of your life force, which in turn negatively impacts your immunity, overall vitality and joy.

It’s not up to us to be solely responsible for everything that takes place in our lives. But it is up to us to go through what we experience without having to judge it, shame it, or make up a story about it.

Here is what we ARE responsible for: our internal state.

We’re responsible for how we relate to the things in our lives. We’re responsible for how we feel in response to our outer circumstances. We’re responsible for the thoughts, ideas and feelings that float through our minds. We’re responsible for how we choose to respond to whatever presents itself in our lives.

Years ago, one of my mentors said, “You’re not responsible for what happens in your life. But you are responsible to it.”

The best way to be responsible to your reality is to cultivate an internal state that witnesses and engages fully with your experience in the world.

This means learning to create an inner state that takes you toward greater vitality, beauty and freedom by nourishing your Heart-Mind – your beliefs, the stories you tell yourself, your confidence, your attitude about life, and more.

We are multi-faceted, beautifully complex beings that are influenced by all that we’ve been, all that we’ve done, all that we’ve interacted with, all that we’ve believed, and by countless factors in the past, present, and future of our environment.

Our health is heavily influenced by all of this, and as such, it’s why we must tend to and nourish ALL of who we are. It’s the only way we’ll ever create true vitality, beauty and power – and that state of true, Transcendent Health.

So let go of feeling overly responsible for the things that show up in your life. Instead, focus on who you are being in response to your life’s circumstances.

Do you like how you’re showing up in your life? Is how you’re responding creating more vitality and flow in your world? Or is it taking you in the opposite direction?

With love and Transcendent Health,

Alicia