Just keep your mouth shut!

Each day we face a variety of circumstances that we must respond to.  Many times, without realizing it, we resort to our “programming” which has been taught to us over the years, influenced by watching how our teachers, parents, friends, and family react to circumstances.  Most of the time, these programmed responses unintentionally limit our ability to consider additional possible ways to respond to our circumstances.

It takes a great deal of thought and practice to remind one’s self that we have control over how we choose to react to circumstances.  Many times, we want to let the automatic or reflexive behaviors take over, because number one, it’s easy to do, and number two, it likely will be accepted by those around us because that is how they likely would choose to respond as well.

The first step in overcoming this limiting method of thinking is to realize when you are resorting to automatic behavior patterns.  Many times, this comes to us as a critical thought that crosses our mind in response or reaction to something we saw or heard.  Simply realizing that the critical response is only one of many available ways to respond will open the door to considering other possibilities.

Once you realize the potential negativity that may result from actually speaking the critical response, you can then pause mentally, gather your thoughts, and then turn to considering a more positive or less volatile reaction to what you saw or heard.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to just keep your mouth shut! (I have a really hard time with this, because I find myself very impulsive).

"It is better to keep your mouth shut
and appear stupid than to open it
and remove all doubt." ~Mark Twain

Remember that we always have a choice.  We always have the power to choose how we respond to any given set of circumstances.  There is no race to come up with the fastest reaction or answer to circumstances.  If anything, time is our ally.  Let’s start with slowing down the automatic behavior pattern of critical responses.  In time, you can re-establish a new behavioral pattern of surveying your choice of responses, and then you can choose an appropriate (and much more thoughtful and respectful) response which will actually come out of your mouth.

It’s all about making simple choices which have very powerful results!

“The circumstances of our lives have as much power as we choose to give them.” ~David McNally

Best wishes,

-Victor