Ja-lene Clark:
What Has Power Over Us

It’s hard to believe that it is actually 2012. I know many of us have been waiting with increasing curiosity to witness which predictions will come true and which ones will leave us disappointed. I’m not sure what will come in 2012 so I certainly can’t add to the list of predictions. I am 100% clear that things are changing and it is a most exciting time on planet earth. What I will share with you is not about the powerful predictions but about what has power over us.

The New Year is a powerful time, especially for me. My birthday is on December 31st so I naturally contemplate my own desires for the coming year. What is unique is that I am not alone in my contemplation…many others are thinking about the same things. We think about what we want to do to improve our life, our resolutions and wonder if we can keep them.

Just before my birthday three years ago, I was contemplating in my usual manner about the upcoming year. Not constantly...my thoughts would creep in with a little insight, something synchronistic a friend would say, an article online, or glimpses of my little wishes. One evening, while relaxing and watching TV, I scrolled through the channels and for some strange reason I stopped at Dr. G Medical Examiner.  In that episode Dr. G was showing the top causes of death. I knew what #1 would be — smoking. I had faithfully smoked every single day since I was a teenager. Yes, of course I knew it was bad for me. Friends, family and my doctors had encouraged me to quit, but I had grown immune to their urgings.  Sometimes it made me angry. I found it interesting that even if I were outside smoking in an approved smoking area, it was not unusual for strangers to come up and scold me for smoking. The strangers really bothered me. How could they feel like it was any of their business to tell someone they didn’t know that smoking was bad? All those thoughts and emotions were chasing around in my mind as I watched the list from Dr. G reach the #1 cause of death. She cut open the chest of a person, gasped, took a step back and put her arm over her mask. Dr. G said when she opened the chest she could smell smoke and that the smoke had permeated into all of that persons organs turning them gray. “What people don’t realize is that when you smoke it makes you ugly inside.”  That was it for me. I knew it was time to quit. That was the one single message that gave me a reason to go through the pain from quitting. I knew that if there was one thing that I did not want to be it was ugly inside. After I made the decision to quit, in that moment, I also had an incredible knowing that if I did not quit before my birthday that year I was in essence stating that I chose death. I chose life then. I choose life now. Now I am celebrating three years of life as a non-smoker and am enjoying the benefits.

I don’t want to be like the strangers who butted in to tell me how to live my life. That is not the point. I am not writing this to preach to you about the evils of tobacco. The idea I want to share is that for me smoking was an earthly action I did that made me ugly inside and had power over my life. When I let go of smoking, I healed and got my power back.

Ask yourself…What earthly action has power over my life? When you know make a commitment. It doesn’t have to start on January 1…you have not missed a window! Start when you are ready.

Tell your friends about this page:
del.icio.us Digg