|
Arete Warriors – spirit, mind, body strong
|
|
|
Your Path To Freedom
Dear Reader,
It is my mission to provide you with the keys to becoming spirit, mind, body strong. I want us to THRIVE, not just survive. The Untethered Soul by Michael Stringer explains how to achieve internal freedom.
Last week, in our first discussion we learned our inner voice is busy trying to “protect” us by managing the world & events around us to make them acceptable or favorable to us.
If someone does or says something that is not ok with us, our inner roommate chatters away making sure they’re proven wrong.
Fear is the cause of every problem. It’s the root of all prejudices and the negative emotions of anger, jealousy, and possessiveness. If you had no fear, you could be perfectly happy living in this world.
Our goal is to be so aware of the energies passing through us that we recognize fear coming, & instead of trying to fix things to prevent this pain, we look inside & discover the root cause.
What is this fear about? Why is it here? What inside me is not welcoming this event or opinion?
Then lean in to it. Relax & release.
True freedom is realizing this expected pain is not so insufferable after all. Not the absence of pain, but the willingness to endure it opening so it may pass on by & not be captured for future torment.
We free ourselves when we find ourselves. We must quit busying ourselves with preventing the “hurt” & instead look at where & why it hurts, & eventually, it won’t.
Who sees the disturbance? You! And the fact that you are seeing it, means you are not the disturbance!
When you feel pain, simply view it as energy. Just start seeing these inner experiences as energy passing through your heart and before the eye of your consciousness. Then relax. Do the opposite of contracting and closing. Relax and release. Relax your heart until you are actually face-to-face with the exact place where it hurts. Stay open and receptive so you can be present right where the tension is. You must be willing to be present right at the place of the tightness and pain, and then relax and go even deeper. This is very deep growth and transformation. But you will not want to do this. You will feel tremendous resistance to doing this, and that’s what makes it so powerful. As you relax and feel the resistance, the heart will want to pull away, to close, to protect, and to defend itself. Keep relaxing. Relax your shoulders and relax your heart. Let go and give room for the pain to pass through you. It’s just energy. Just see it as energy and let it go.
You can practice this 1000 times a day if you are mother or wife, if you drive a car, interact with other broken souls on a daily basis, or are experiencing a change in your hormones. 😜
You can also test yourself by taking away what seems to matter to you.
If you really want to see why you do things, then don’t do them and see what happens.
If you are someone who prides herself on always being put together, challenge yourself to go out in public without looking perfect.
Why is this hard? Where’s the rub? Lean in to it. What do you discover about yourself?
Can you imagine the freedom of not caring so much about how others perceive you?
If you are someone who never wants to stir the pot or go against the grain, try it once. Speak your mind & see what happens inside you.
Not how others respond, but how YOU do. Why is that so difficult?
If you overeat, smoke or drink too much, stop. Sit with the massive urge to do so until you understand what is provoking this behavior.
You will learn so much enduring this discomfort IF you do the work to investigate WHY you do what you do.
Stringer refers to this as dislodging the thorn. Instead of walking through life trying to protect the foreign body from getting bumped by any outside “threats”, let’s remove the thorn.
Without the thorn, you won’t have to always have your guard up, trying to prevent the hurt of it getting bumped.
It’s an exhausting way to live – always on the defense. Find & remove your thorns so you can actually be present & enjoy life more fully.
We don’t need more years to live. We need a willingness to experience the life we have before us.
The most important thing in life is your inner energy. If you’re always tired and never enthused, then life is no fun. But if you’re always inspired and filled with energy, then every minute of every day is an exciting experience. Learn to work with these things. Through meditation, through awareness and willful efforts, you can learn to keep your centers open. You do this by just relaxing and releasing. You do this by not buying into the concept that there is anything worth closing over. Remember, if you love life, nothing is worth closing over.
Choose to keep your heart open. Always.
Let’s Work – the exercise
Our happiness is completely up to us. There are no conditions we can set on it.
“I’ll be happy IF….” is not true happiness.
Continually executing the decision to remain open, choosing happiness, is enlightenment.
The only thing you have to know is that opening allows energy in, and closing blocks it out. Now you have to decide whether or not you want this energy. How high do you want to get? How much love do you want to feel? How much enthusiasm do you want to have for the things you do? If enjoying a full life means experiencing high energy, love, and enthusiasm all the time, then don’t ever close.
I challenge you to focus on remaining open this week, especially in the face of disturbance.
Choose to remain open & let the wave of emotion pass through you. Notice that you are the one observing it. Watch it come in, notice where it hurts & why, then exhale it on out.
Relax & release.
