Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)

Rollo May
About This Quote

Dr. Paul Watzlawick, a noted researcher in the psychology of communication, wrote: We can have a choice about what we wish to do, even if we cannot control it. This is a very important concept. We can choose to do many things.

We can choose to be angry, for example, even if we cannot control it. We can choose to have a dream at night, even if we cannot control it. We can choose to experience the feeling of anger that is part of this freedom of choice.

The same freedom that allows us to choose our actions also allows us to be aware that they are choices and that the potential reactions they might engender are also choices. Our freedom to choose our reactions is not contingent upon our ability to force them on others or upon our ability to control them. Rather, these are choices which we make freely and consciously.

Source: The Courage To Create

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