Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

Life takes on a whole new flavor when we empower ourselves and accept responsibility for our actions.

When we learn to make our own choices and face the consequences of those choices, good or bad, we stop looking to others as caretakers or authority figures. We see that regardless of what another person says or does, we really are responsible for what we do.

It’s easy to blame other people for our behavior, and when you think about it, it’s almost preferable. Why take responsibility when we have someone we can blame our behavior or our attitude on? It makes everything easier for us, but it makes things a lot harder for the people we blame.

This is why making our own choices and dealing with the fallout ourselves is so important.

Most of us feel like we’re here to raise the collective vibration (thereby awakening the world) by living in love and embracing our creativity, and one of the best ways to consistently embody the love we want to share is to empower ourselves while doing what we can to make other people’s lives easier.

“We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.” – Steve Maraboli

Yes, we’ll want to listen to what other people have to say and take their advice in some cases, but there’s a difference between this and letting them make our decisions for us or blaming our bad choices on them. We’re all meant to teach each other, and it helps to have someone who can show us how our choices affect them (or others).

It’s healthy for someone to bring us down to earth every now and then, but we don’t have to give them so much authority over our lives that we refuse to make a decision before we run it by them or we blame them when we do something we know isn’t right or helpful.

We have the power to chart our path, and we step into illusion the moment we give that sacred power away to someone else. Yes, those of us who are in a relationship (for example) will have to embrace the partnership that comes with it, but that’s a completely different issue.

Couples are meant to make decisions together, but even in a relationship, we can make our own choices while hearing out our significant other if they have something to say. If we’re mentally, emotionally and spiritually mature enough, we should be able to accept when our partner (or someone else) doesn’t agree with a choice we’ve made.

In some cases, we might even be asked to modify our behavior or make different choices from what we’re used to, and again, if we’re mature enough, we can do this without losing our empowerment or fixing ourselves on the opinions of those who are close to us.

We can make our own decisions while accepting the opinions or decisions of another, even if their decisions directly impact our lives.

Overall, we have to remember to let our love flow unconditionally if we want to empower ourselves or enjoy life.

When it comes down to it, love and an emptied (yet still properly functioning) mind are all we need, and self-empowerment helps us realize the importance of open-mindedness and the ability to love the people around us without bias.

Love, self-empowerment and an unconditional expression of these qualities are all that are required to enjoy life, so let’s keep this in mind the next time we struggle with issues that have to do with our ability to make decisions and accept their fallout.

Let’s also keep in mind how powerful we are when we face the temptation to conform to the opinions or decisions of others, and most importantly, let’s recognize that with self-empowerment comes the responsibility to accept the consequences of everything we do.

When we can achieve this, we’ll no longer look to others to live life for us because we’ll have finally started living it ourselves. A great sense of freedom comes with self-empowerment and acceptance of the things that result from our choices, so let’s free ourselves from the self-instated limitations we’ve convinced ourselves are reality.

They aren’t, and we’ll continue to confine ourselves if we think any other way.

“Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees.

“Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here.” – Eve Ensler

Share this article freely.

I’m a twenty-one year old writer, musician and blogger, and I created The Culture of Awareness daily news site.

The Culture of Awareness features daily spiritual and alternative news, articles I’ve written, and more. Its purpose is to awaken and uplift by providing material about the fall of the planetary elite and a new paradigm of unity and spirituality.

I’ve contributed to numerous spiritual websites including The Master Shift, Waking Times, Golden Age of Gaia, Wake Up World and Expanded Consciousness. I can also be found on Facebook ( and ) and , and I write a paid weekly newsletter that you can subscribe to for $11.11 a month .