How do we find freedom?
We feel our way forward!
Why? Can’t we think our way forward?
Yes. However, there is no flow. It becomes a slog. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to do it the easy way and learn to allow things to unfold, rather than force and wrangle them into being.
What now?
Play more! Play from the heart.
Huh? What does that look like?
Joy. It looks and feels like joy. The trick is to use the mind to put that joy in motion. To do that, you have to take a step back for a moment. Begin with a feeling. How do you want to feel in 5, 10, 15, or 20 years time? For me, the answer is always ‘joy’. I want to have a good time, full of laughs; new and exciting adventures; treasured moments with family and friends. Joy.
Okay, so we have a starting point, but we can’t start from the end. We can’t start with how we want to feel at some point in the future. We have to start from where we are at now. To create joy in the future, you must find the joy in the now. It is all around you, or more accurately, it is within you. But how do you connect with that joy?
Each of us has a story that we tell ourselves about who we are. Who doesn’t love a good story right? It is in our human nature to be storytellers. It is a well-honed skill. In fact, it is so well-honed that we often can’t even tell truth from fiction. Rather than do some investigating to confirm the accuracy of our literary masterpiece, we will often unquestioningly accept it as truth.
Why?
No……it’s not because we are inherently lazy beings. We are afraid though. Afraid to know the truth because there is a great deal of personal power in the discovery of that truth. And responsibility, for ourselves. In the realisation and acceptance of the truth that we are all things, our story falls apart, along with all of our illusions.
Illusions? What illusions?
The illusions that we are somehow different from everyone else. The illusions that keep you separate. The illusions that keep you disconnected, mostly from yourself. The illusions that cause you to feel broken, inferior, alone, worthless, unlovable…….and more. These are the illusions we create for ourselves to protect ourselves – to keep ourselves safe.
Safe from the world around us?
No.
Safe from other people?
No.
Then what?
Safe from our feelings.
We tend to categorise our feelings as either good or bad. We try to avoid the bad ones and seek the good ones. That is understandable. However, feelings in and of themselves, are there to guide us. Two people can have the exact same experience, but feel very differently about it. Feelings are very internal, very individual. They reveal a lot about our true nature, if we allow them to. Unfortunately, we often try to cast the ‘bad’ feelings aside, not valuing the blessings they hold. They, like the ‘good’ feelings, are there to guide us. When we have an experience that brings a ‘bad’ feeling into focus, rather than casting it aside and ignoring it because it is too unpleasant, the kinder approach – the more nurturing approach – would be to allow the feeling to be. In allowing the feeling, we can then explore why it is there. What is it about that experience that caused that feeling to present? In exploring the feeling and learning something about yourself in the process, there is no longer a need to hold onto the feeling. You have got what you needed out of it, so now you can let it go.
That is freedom. The freedom to be – to be everything. To not hold back or hide from certain feelings because of what we might discover. To explore our feelings with compassion, love, and understanding…..recognizing and connecting with ourselves in a more open and accepting way. That is true freedom.
The joy comes from the same place. From being willing or open to exploring your truth without fear or judgement. It then becomes an adventure. You become an adventure. Full of new perspectives, insights, revelations, mystery, and the occasional plot twist that sometimes takes you by surprise! So I urge you to invoke your inner child and dive on in, with child-like curiosity and amazement, to the best story you’ll ever read. The story of you!
