{"id":38075,"date":"2015-02-12T12:09:57","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T20:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=38075"},"modified":"2017-06-09T18:21:12","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T01:21:12","slug":"the-illusion-of-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/the-illusion-of-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Do We Suffer from the Illusion of Control?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IllusionI wrote the second post for the “All About Eve” blog<\/a>, and as I was writing it, I was pretty sure that most of what I was writing was … well … not quite what I wanted to say. But I published the post late last night anway, and went to bed. <\/p>\n

When I woke up this morning, I knew where I had gone wrong, and am now writing this post…<\/p>\n

It is not that what I wrote was wrong<\/em>; it just was not helpful. “Eve” was grappling with issues of control, and I basically told her that she needed to get in control of her desire to control.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t make any sense does it?<\/p>\n

When we try to control our desire to control, all we do is amplify our sense of control. <\/p>\n

We often call it “letting go of control” but really, all we are doing is trying to gain more control over our life.<\/p>\n

Here is the vicious cycle that happens: A person recognizes that they are trying to control others. They see this as bad and feel guilty about this control. So they try to “let go of control,” but when they fail at this also, they now feel guilty about the control AND feel guilty about failing to let go of control. Now they have a double whammy of guilt, which only exacerbates the problem.<\/p>\n

You see? When we try to let go of control, we are trying to control control, and since we can neither control people and events, nor let go of control, we walk around in an ever-increasing state of guilt about how we are always trying to control others and how we wish we wouldn’t do this.<\/p>\n

What is the fix for our issues with control?<\/h2>\n

Well, this is where I don’t have many answers. I know for a fact that I am still trying to exert great control in my own life, and I become quite fearful when I see that I cannot.<\/p>\n

However, these wise words from Master Oogway to Shifu were helpful:<\/p>\n

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