Volition and Stress

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What is Volition?

Volition is the exercising of one’s free will by making choices and engaging in conscious action. I say this to differentiate it from the state that we often live our lives in where we do not engage in the active exercise of free will but instead utilise a series of routines that have become so familiar as to be automatic. This can be seen when we do everyday activities such as making a cup of tea, we often do these activities while thinking about other things and needing to barely, if at all, engage any conscious awareness of our actions.

Unfortunately, what is a convenient faculty of the mind that allows us to efficiently utilise our brain’s bandwidth, also allows us to coast through our lives with every day feeling similar and meaning that we often have very little detail to our memories of these everyday occurrences. I know for certain that some years of my life felt long, and others passed by hardly leaving a mark.

This is why the adages that “life is short” and “life is long” are both true at the same time. For those engaging consciously with each moment and utilising their volition regularly, life is long. However, for those who do not make changes in life, challenge themselves to do things differently, or are content with the same routines every day, life is short.

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Why Volition?

Volition and the judicious use of it allows us to make dynamic decisions about our life, to change when things need to change, and to appreciate each of life’s moments as they arise. Through exercising our volition, we can live life more fully and take positive action to improve our lot.

It takes volition to do these things, it takes volition to commit to change. We can desperately want and be motivated to change, but these things only happen once volition is engaged. It takes motivation to seek therapy, but volition is what you use to follow it through.

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Stress and Volition

Volition is an important ability to consider when we talk about stress. Stress can make us feel like we are losing our volitional control and poor volitional control can make our stress worse.

When we are stressed, we feel like we are losing a battle in life. That we are using everything we have and are under threat of being overtaken. Returning to and utilising our volition to control the things we can control helps bring stress down. While understanding that there are things in life beyond our control, we have ultimate freedom of choice in how we think and how we feel.