Self-Liberation
Freedom is our natural state. Freedom of heart and mind to feel, love, think, and create, without false restrictions. As it is, people are bored stiff—cramped, unhappy, unfulfilled—because they’re so limited; like a child who once ran and played in the sun and now lies in bed, his legs and arms all bound up. We bind ourselves in conscious or unconscious attempts to get out of things we’ve judged dangerous, bad, wrong, edgy, or more unselfish than we want to be. With those judgments, we reject life’s brightest possibilities, like love, passion, desire, excitement, need, creativity, boldness, over-the-top-ness, spontaneity, candor, and giving. Many people have even given up their honest thoughtfulness, and settled for the preconceived ideas of culture — so afraid to think outside the box.
The prison of “knowing” who you are
There are millions of possibilities for being, living, loving, responding, but we will only do what’s within the scope of who we think we are. We avoid the rest by saying/ believing “who we are” is incapable of it or unsuited to it. “I can’t dance.” “I can’t love.” “I’m not a passionate person.” “I can’t get along with others.” “I always mess up relation- ships.” Those are lies, but as long as we believe they’re true, they’re shackles. We’ve cut our options way down, because there’s so much our self-image doesn’t include.
An elephant tied to a lawn chair may be convinced he is trapped even though, in fact, he has one hundred times the strength he needs to walk away. Just so, we are already free of all the self-imposed limitations we buy into. We all have the power to break the chains that bind us—the habits, fears, and insecurities—but we don’t dare. We feel safer, more comfortable in the straitjacket of our limited lives; our mediocre loves; our “inadequacies.” But the heart rails against those limitations, and longs to live and give the very things we avoid and fear—and it always will.
Friend, you assembled a Frankenstein, an illusory self-concept—and now it’s holding you captive? Don’t spend the rest of your life tied to it, convinced you’re incapable of more or better. In your heart, you know that’s not true. You created it and bought into it; let it go! Withdraw your conviction from it, and you’re free. Free to be. Free to love. Free to discover the wonders and mysteries of life, not the least of which is yourself.
Free to love
Freedom is the freedom to love. You can’t love with self limitations binding you at every side. Letting go of your self-concept opens you up to infinite possibilities of being, responding, and relating. It gives you freedom, scope, range. So let go of who you think you are, and be free!
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