Can you control your own actions? Who is in Control?

[ChromAzonyx108]

You have very little control over other people's actions, but can you even control your own actions? An important question to ask yourself is ‘who is in control of my actions right now?’ Three culprits are body, mind, and ego.

Body

At times, people are controlled by their bodies, led by the nose so to speak. This is evident in addictions: caffeine, sugar, alcohol, chocolate, nicotine, etc. On a larger scale it could be gluttony. When you consume something, are you doing so consciously or is it a habit/automatic response to a situation? If it’s the latter then your body is controlling you right now. People may also be controlled by their bodies through lust.

Let’s take an example of bodily control:

• a person tries to quit smoking


• the body craves nicotine


• the person smokes a cigarette; relapse occurs

In this example there are three factors: body, person, and addiction. The body wants one thing while the person wants another thing. Even if the person really wants to quit smoking he may still find himself smoking cigarettes. When the person smokes, who is controlling his actions? Clearly, control has been relegated to the body.

Mind

Are you in control of your mind or is your mind in control of you? The first thing to understand is that you are not your mind. Your mind is a part of you but it is not you. And most of the time your mind is in control. This is evident in automatic behaviours - most of the time people function on autopilot and aren’t fully conscious of what they are doing; man is a sleeping machine.

A good example of how the mind can take control is shyness:

• a person wants to do something


• mental apprehension of how he will be perceived by others


• the person’s mind tells him to stay on the sidelines, thus suppressing action

Perhaps it would be better for the person to act and perhaps he wants to act but the mind is in control. What else is stopping him from doing something?

Ego

Your ego may also be in control of you. This can include your sense of identity and image. People become attached to their identities. But when you identify something, when you define something, you place limits and boundaries on that something. You say that you are this, this, this, and this. As a corollary, you are not that, that, that, and that. You encapsulate who you are. You do one thing and people say, ‘yes, that sounds like him/her.’ You do something outside your norm and people say, 'what is the matter with him/her?' But you don’t have to confine yourself to certain roles and behaviours. If you are worried about how others may react to your image then your ego is in control.

The movie “The Breakfast Club” is a perfect example of how the ego can take control of a person. Five teenagers identify as stereotypes but come to realize that they can be more than that; they are not limited to the roles that they identify with. You don’t have to pigeonhole yourself into certain roles, you can be what you want to be. You may argue that it is society that pigeonholes people into roles, which is partly true, but if you let that be the case then you are not responsible and cannot make changes. However, if you take responsibility then you can make changes.

Taking Back Control

So, how can you take control of your life? The first step is becoming aware of when you relegate control to the body, mind, or ego. How can you fix a problem if you aren’t even aware of it in the first place? Before taking an action, it is important to ask yourself the question: ‘who is in control of my actions right now?’ At this point you don’t have to make any attempt at taking back control. Just observe without judgement. Notice when your body, mind, or ego is controlling your actions.

The second step, taking back control, is more difficult. Complete control will not come immediately and may never be completely attained. You will have to slowly phase out certain actions. Progress can be slow and you may backtrack, but always remain aware of who is controlling your actions. Unconscious behaviour cannot continue indefinitely if you remain aware.

Lastly, note that it is okay to let your body, mind, or ego indulge as long as you do so consciously. If you purposely relegate control then that is top-down control whereas the reverse is bottom-up control. As long as you can take control as you will, then you have your life in order and the body, mind, and ego cannot boss you around.