How to Escape Self-Limiting Identification/Beliefs/Habits
We all want to be free, but many people have become so used to confinement, they’re afraid of freedom and what it might bring. Fear of that unknown is irrational, because what’s beyond the door is wonderful—wonders of love; freedom; connection with God; wild creativity; true competence; being yourself. And all the tender and heartfelt expressions you have bottled up inside—beauties to share if only you’d dare!
Stretch it till it breaks
To break free, you need to act outside your comfort zone—stretch, do things you wouldn’t normally do, or do familiar things with a new spirit or tone. For example: You think you can’t dance, but then one day you go out on the dance floor and cut loose. You’ve expanded your self-image to include a new possibility — dancing! You can do the same with expressing love, telling a joke, being honest, keeping commitments, or making sacrifices...anything!
Now: when you stretch a rubber band, it snaps back as soon as you let go. Similarly, when you stretch beyond your self-image, you’ll tend to snap back to your “normal” ways when you stop making the effort. With repeated stretching, the rubber band becomes loose and gets easier to stretch. But if you stretch it far enough, it breaks. So, stretch until your little old self-image breaks. After that, you no longer believe you’re the one you thought you were. You are the one who was unhappy in that cage, because your wingspan was too large for it. Now you’re free!
Self-liberation takes consistency and wholeheartedness. Most people approach their freedom quest like a casual hobby, but experience shows that won’t work. Someone who does a couple of jumping jacks each day never gets fit; neither does a person who runs five miles, but only once every two months. We need intense practice and steady commitment to succeed.
You can be free if you’re willing to boldly claim your freedom. You may tremble as you step into a life of higher love and greater freedom, but that will pass. There will be challenges, but none of them are insurmountable. You just have to stay committed, and they can be handled.
Freedom is for lovers!
For love’s sake, you would break free. We do for love what we would not otherwise do. We stretch. The heart needs and desires of the beloved are the best reason to stretch. And the true lover is the most likely to break free — because he cares. You are a lover. The one you are responds powerfully to life and people, but from within the box of your ordinary patterns, reservations, fears, habits, etc., you can’t respond honestly, and freely give the beautiful impulses arising in you. You know that. You need to break through to be true to you. Free of your self-image and all its moods and fears and objections, you’re free for good, and free to do good. Free for good, once and for all!
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