Life is a matter of choice. Every single moment that we are alive presents us with an opportunity to choose how we live.

For a large part of my life, I didn’t see life as a choice. Instead, I saw life as something that was happening to me. I felt hopeless and helpless. I was a victim of my own circumstances.

I was pregnant 8 times, and 6 of those pregnancies ended with a tragedy. I was so depressed that I wasn’t able to see that I had two wonderful children. Instead, I remained focused on the 6 I didn’t have. People started to look at me with weird faces, as if they were asking: ?What’s wrong with you? Don’t you see that you have 2 amazing kids?? One day I saw an ad in a local magazine and decided to join a meditation retreat. During the retreat, I started to heal my pain, and I met for the first time the concept of choice.

I got the professional support I needed and I started to change my perspective and my attitude towards my life. I stepped away from feeling like a victim and started to enjoy life more.

Steve Jobs said: ?You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.?

Looking back, choosing pain and suffering for years presented me with the opportunity to heal myself and then to help others heal. Through my own personal ?victim? experience, I learned how to help people out of ?victim mode? and into ?I choose? mode.

Pain is here to teach us something. And it is when we learn what it has to teach us that we grow.

Remind yourself that life is a choice. Play a little game with yourself and say the words ?I choose? as many times as you can throughout the day. Let’s say at least 40 times. See how it affects your day.

Say: ?I choose happiness? I choose healing? I choose love? I choose peace.? Be creative and ?fake it till you make it.? Make up new phrases that start with ?I choose?. Retrain your brain to believe that life is a choice.

There have been and will be times when you feel that you have made a bad choice.? The important lesson to learn is that you can choose to NOT beat yourself up about it and instead choose to accept it, let it go, and then make a better choice next time.

The Bottom Line: Awareness is the first step. Remind yourself that you always have the opportunity to choose and enjoy the freedom of making choices all the time.

Ask: How can I make a better choice right now?

Affirm: I choose my life moment by moment and I’m free.