In many of my recent conversations with people I’m coming to the conclusion that control is a sticking point for us all – am I in control of my life? How much can I control? What happens when I’m out of control? There are so many questions and so many areas of our lives that revolve around this concept of control.
So who is in control of your life? You may think there’s a right or wrong answer to that question – maybe there is and there’s also our own interpretation of what that means. As a parent you may feel like your child is in control a lot of the time – activities, time and money are centered on them. Also at work you may feel your boss, company or organisation is in control – they dictate what you do, how you do it, even how you should feel about it.
For many of us we’d also like to not be in control sometimes – wouldn’t it be great to have someone else make the decisions and deal with the consequences of those decisions? Why do I always have to be responsible – you might ask.
For those of you out there that believe in a higher power you may be saying “well I’m not supposed to be in control – God is…. he determines the course of my life and my job is to be obedient to that course or not as the case may be!”
So many times I’ve observed that our struggles with life are down to control – lack of it, too much of it and just general angst about it. I wonder sometimes what life would be like if we could hold things in open hands – be able to loosen the grip we have on our lives, opinions, decisions, goals – how different would our life be? Would we be in any less control? Might we even be freer to see what’s important and to be able to hold other things in our hands too?
When I was young there was a story about how to catch a monkey. Apparently you put some peanuts in a jar and the monkey puts his hand into the jar to try and grab some peanuts. He manages to grab the peanuts but then of course as his grip tightens around the peanuts he can’t take his hand out of the jar. Only when he releases his grip is he free.
Who's in control?
What do you need to release today?
What is keeping you paralysed by issues of control?
How much more could you give if you could let go?
