How much of our stress can be attributed to being ‘forced’ to do something we don’t really like to do? As we try to figure out what it is we’d really like to be doing, other voices around us keep nagging us to do things his way and her way. We hear how we must do this and that, and how we must do it in such a way – their way, not ours.
Nobody has the right to force us to do anything we don’t like to do. Even God gives us the power to choose between life and death, between good and evil. This is our freedom, and our freedom is our sole responsibility.
Much of our stress comes from the conflict between our freedom and between our desire for peace. We don’t want further arguments, and so we just say yes. We don’t want to displease anyone and so we displease ourselves until time comes when we’ve harbored enough resentment against the very people we tried to please. In the end, nobody really wins.
On the other hand, much of our stress comes also from the thought that we are being forced to do many things when we are truly not being told to do so. What we may have is a subconscious programming at the back of our minds that prompts us to take one obligation after another based on some prior experience we can’t even remember. Are we really being forced to dosomething? Or is it just our overcritical conscience that does that? Where is your guilt really coming from? Is it from the current situation? Or is it from the past where you failed to do something you felt you ought to do?
Release yourself from such kinds of stress. The current moment is already challenging enough, don’t take with you so much burden from the past or from imagined obligations. Do something not because you were forced to, but because you chose to. Or better yet, do something because you want to, because of love.
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"
One reply on “Who Has The Right To Tell You What You Should Do?”
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