According to research, the average person makes about 35,000 decisions every day – that is a lot of decisions! Is it any wonder we can end up making emotional choices or decisions in our lives. However, it doesn’t have to be that way when we cultivate self-awareness and realise we have a choices.
What is a Choice?
A Choice is –
- “the act of choosing : the act of picking or deciding between two or more possibilities” – Merriam Webster Dictionary
- “an act or or the possibility of choosing” – Cambridge Dictionary
- “involves mentally making a decision” – Wikipedia
- “an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities” – Google
Making Choices
I used to think we made choices like the following diagram –
I now realise we have a choice between the stimulus and the response –
Realising this made such a difference in my life and I hope it can for you as well. Once I knew I had the freedom to choose, stopping and using HALT continued to support my wellbeing.
Cultivating Self-Awareness Using HALT
We can have a hard time acknowledging our limits or what is really going on. Instead, we often stay busy and keep pushing through to the next thing on our “to do” list. As we are doing this we often miss the signs of what is truly happening, forget about our basic needs and take the time we need to restore and rebalance.
If you find yourself on this familiar path, you may like to use the HALT framework as a personal inventory to truly see what is happening and start to recognise when you are the most vulnerable to making poor emotional decisions.
This means you can set times during your day, to ask yourself if you are –
- Hungry?
- Angry?
- Lonely?
- Tired?
HALT: An Invitation to Pause
HALT is an invitation to pause and check in with yourself. It is a chance to stop and ask –
- What am I feeling right now?
- Am I hungry, angry, lonely or tired?
Once you know your answer to these questions, you can then choose to respond with awareness instead of on autopilot.
Yes HALT is simple, however don’t underestimate powerful act of checking in and actively listening to the signals your body is continually sending you.
Over to You…
Remember – “Our lives are the sum of the total choices we have made” ~ Wayne Dyer and in each moment we have the freedom to make a different choice.
If you are ready to take yourself on the adventure of getting to know yourself (your true self), why not join the Toolkit? A place where I share tools, inspiration and ideas to live a courageous and openhearted life.
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