Ownership

I am rare from my friends when it comes to communication especially with emotions or feelings. I have no issue talking through situations or telling others that how a specific situation makes me feel. When it comes to this, I am definitely the black sheep out of all the humans that I hang out with.  However, it’s who I am and through it I am continually growing.

One way that I have been growing in this lately is through understanding the concept of ownership in relation to emotions, thoughts, and ideas. There have been a few scenarios this year where I have started to lose myself because of my lack of taking control or owning up my own situations. I am not just talking about my actions or how I have responded in a situation, but I am talking about not letting other people take control when it is not their place to be in control.

It is easy as human beings to allow others to take control in situations. We don’t like conflict and we don’t like to be in scenarios where we are uncomfortable. In some cases this isn’t an issue, but it definitely can become a problem. We let what others do or don’t do to us control the way that we respond or react. We don’t want to respond in a certain way because we don’t want to hurt them. We stop looking out for ourselves because it isn’t comfortable or because it challenges us and to be honest we would rather not deal with it. When we allow others to take control of situations and we don’t own up to what we should, we are no longer in control of our own emotions or feelings.

It might seem like an easy way out at the time, but the reality is that we are greatly disadvantaging ourselves from an opportunity of growth. We have to be real and we have to be honest about what is actually on our minds. Silence does nothing but sets us back and keeps us from becoming who we were meant to be. We learn and grow through community and community only happens through communication.

All these thoughts seem a bit jumbled and mix matched, but all I want to say is that our thoughts and emotions belong to no one else. We owe it to ourselves to take ownership of what is truly ours. No one else deserves to hold that over our heads. Here’s to being real and to being challenged.