This is so bloody hard for many of us. Taking responsibility for your actions means being brave and owning your shit. It often means saying you’re sorry. Or saying you were wrong. It may mean owning the fact that you hurt people.
Taking responsibility for your actions means moving past pride. It means being vulnerable. It’s ALL those things that it’s much easier not to do. But if you want to become the most ethical, clear, awesome version of you, it’s about taking up the challenge.
The right path often isn’t the easy path.
But it’s the honourable path.
No matter what you've done, if you want to move forward into a clear future, you must first take responsibility for the actions of your past.
Some people genuinely don’t believe they’ve done anything wrong – like EVER. There are people that always think someone or something else is always at fault. This is a different kettle of toxic fish and this post isn’t about those people – they’re stuck.
This benefit is about owning your shit and becoming free.
Everyone walks this path differently because we all make different mistakes.
Personally, I’ve never had a massive problem saying I’m sorry or that I’ve done the wrong thing. I like going head to head with pride, yes it’s hard, but it feels healthy and liberating.
I’ve never had a problem owning all my addiction-related issues and the awful, shameful actions that came with them. It was hell hard. But I knew it was the ONLY way I’d ever be able to move forward and heal.
Or in my case, horrendous bloody bad…
How mindful drawing teaches you to take responsibility for your actions.
Whether this benefit appears early on, or later down the track will be unique to you. The order these benefits arrive in is not going to be the same for everyone, but it will absolutely happen because of this: if you want to honour yourself – and honouring yourself is this practice is all about – then you own your shit.
You can only become free in the present by facing up to your past.
Taking responsibility for your actions is essential for moving forward in a way that is clear and ethical, not sticky and murky. It’s crucial to shake these shadowy spots off before you can begin to heal. It’s the only way to learn from what happened, so you can hopefully take steps to not recreate something similar again.
Every single human alive makes mistakes. It’s how we learn.
The way mindful drawing helps you to take responsibility for your actions, comes from the cornerstone of self awareness. Things brings about a number of other benefits, which at some point WILL lead to taking responsibility for your actions.
When you practice mindful drawing (or any other meditative practice), you become free of the constant narrative of your thoughts. You do this, by putting your full attention on what you are drawing – and you bring it right back every time your mind wanders. Gradually you’ll begin to observe yourself, and you’ll develop an ever-deepening awareness of what you need to do in order to move forward.
It will always be about taking some kind of action - this means doing less of something or doing more of something.
In your own time you’ll give these things a go, losing balance and realigning as many times as you need to.
This is
how
we
learn.
Gradually you begin to ‘see’ more clearly. You’ll begin to activate benefits including things like forgiveness of self. Acceptance of things that are in the past – all those things you may have done that you cannot change.
It teaches you that you are the creator of your future – that YOU hold the power to create your reality.
It teaches you that its okay to be vulnerable to say sorry – this does not mean you are weak – IT MEANS YOU ARE STRONG. And it’s actually damn liberating to put your pride aside. Fuck pride. And gradually, self love grows.
Self love is what makes you brave to do whatever you need to do – regardless of the response.
It teaches you to cultivate deep integrity to yourself.
It might take a few weeks or a few months, but this benefit will happen when it’s meant to. You might try to sweep it aside, but if it’s blocking you from moving ahead, then you’ll see it and you’ll own it. All of it. You will make amends if you can. You’ll take whatever consequences come, and you’ll try your best to use it as a powerful lesson to go on and create your future.
Some of the best lessons come from the worst circumstances – whether they’re caused by us, or happen to us does not matter.
They are all opportunities for us to grow.
You can’t change the past and that’s okay. Our past does NOT define us – it may define what others think about us, but that’s not our business anymore.
Our business is how we create our future.
We get the chance to become a new person every single second.
And when you realise what kind of a person you want to be, you do the hard thing.
When I faced my mountain of horrible shit I created because of my addictions, I realised I’d set everything I loved on fire. I destroyed it all. It left me with nothing but valuable experience.
But the day I owned it and took responsibility for my actions? I clearly recall the exact moment it happened: It was the day I felt a glimmer of love for myself, for the first time IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. I had a long road ahead, but I’d created the starting point – I was on the path.
When you take responsibility for your actions you can step into the future, clearer, wiser and FREE. I can teach you the way I learned – through mindful drawing. This is your game. You have the complete ability to create your reality.
