Have You Ever Asked Yourself: How Did I Get Here?
Updated: Oct 1
Have you ever looked around at your life and thought:
How did I get here?
Sometimes “here” is a place you worked really hard to reach. You can look around and think, Wow. I actually created this.
And sometimes “here” feels more like, Wait… how the hell did this become my life?
Usually, we didn't arrive in either place because of one enormous decision.
We got there through hundreds of smaller choices.
What we said yes to.
What we said no to.
What we tolerated.
What we kept putting off.
Who we spent our time with.
What we walked away from.
What we kept returning to even though something inside of us knew it wasn't right.
Of course, we don't choose everything that happens to us. Life happens. Other people make choices that affect us. Circumstances change.
But there is an important distinction between what happens to us and what we choose from there.
For me, learning to take responsibility for my own choices has actually been incredibly empowering.
Not because I've made all the right ones. I definitely haven't.
But because if I can acknowledge the choices that helped get me somewhere, I can also begin making different choices to take myself somewhere else.
And this is where awareness becomes so important.
Before we can change a pattern, we have to notice it.
Sometimes the body notices long before our conscious mind does.
Maybe your stomach tightens every time you agree to something you don't actually want to do.
Maybe your shoulders tense around a particular person.
Maybe you feel exhausted every time you think about a commitment you've been forcing yourself to maintain.
Or maybe something feels expansive, exciting or surprisingly peaceful—and that's information too.
We spend so much time trying to think our way through life that we can forget there is another source of information available to us all the time.
Our own body.
So instead of judging wherever you happen to be right now, get curious.
How did I get here?
And perhaps the more important question:
Where do I want to go from here?
You don't have to figure out the entire path today.
Just notice the next choice.
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