Everyone wants freedom. Freedom from the outer-world strains of job pressures, relationship difficulties, financial issues or health concerns. Freedom from inner-world feelings of insecurity or oppression. In many people it is a combination of these desires. Whatever the case, whatever the stressors, every soul longs for freedom to experience love-to love and be loved.
Our true nature, the aspect of us that is the beneath the mind and emotions, is free and unencumbered. It is our innate knowledge of this deeper state which informs us a better state is possible. Yet we are conditioned to believe that our mind, not our nature, is telling us the truth.
Herein is the real issue we all face. Our vibrant, free nature is overshadowed by the loud voice of the mind. The mind limits us because it is a filter. It is not a source of love or happiness. That source is deep inside us. If the mind was the source we would not be grasping for more. We would not have thoughts such as, "If I have a relationship I'll be happy", "If I have more money I'll be happy." Thoughts like those point out that freedom is not in the realm of the mind. The mind can only grasp at ideas of freedom. True love and peace are found away from the mind, in the realm of the heart.
Love and Peace have always been within us. We've always been free, yet many people don't recognize this because of the overshadowing mind and its hunting nature. It is kind of funny really; we are searching for what we already have, what we already are. To find what we already have, we must stop searching and recognize it. This is a simple idea, but a challenging task. And before we can recognize our true nature, we must recognize the barriers to that true nature.
There are 2 Giant Barriers that block our experience of freedom.
They drain away precious life force, taking people away from their intimate experience with love and peace. They are habits that dampen aliveness and fuel illusion. They lower your state.
As these barriers are challenged and removed, energy that has been drained by these habits realigns and moves in the direction of raising your state. You begin to experience more freedom and connection with the love and peace inside of you.
#1 Evict Your Victim
Have you ever considered yourself to be a victim of life's circumstances, a victim of others or a victim of your own mind? If so, you are not alone. While most of us don't like to admit it, we all feel a little tortured by life at times. We have moments of feeling like a victim.
Most of us know what it feels like to have no power in a situation. Imagine calling a financial institution or the DMV, only to find yourself dealing with a system that seems designed to frustrate you. How do you handle this inside yourself? Do you feel angry or powerless? That is a common course that we take. Many of us become habituated to this response as the only option. Overtime, we become chronically powerless.
Chronic powerlessness, also called victim-stance, drains a huge amount of our life force. We find ourselves at the effect of life rather than being the one to create our experience of life. We feel that some force outside of ourselves always has the upper hand.
Often, victim-stance becomes ones identity. Victims visit and re-visit self-pity; feeling sorry for themselves, complaining and then gossiping about their 'woe is me' misery. They usually project an element of blame and drama. Victim-stance becomes both a coping mechanism and a communication style. They blame events, situations, others or themselves. In their world, people are often harsh, scary or unfair. Bad guys and good guys, villains and victims inhabit the victim's world.
It's true that we do not have control over situations and other people. What we do have control over is our attitude. If you are experiencing regular bouts of self-pity and blame, know that victim-stance is running your life and that you have surrendered your power. Shift your attitude to begin aligning with your true nature.
It is critical that you stop dwelling on the past. This is the trap that you must escape if you want to regain your power. It doesn't matter where the pattern of victim-stance began. The past is what must be surrendered, not your power. Understand that these two things are at odds with each other. If you dwell on the past, you will not be in your power.
Choose to evict your Victim: Give up these four tendencies
- Your Rules--Give up how people need to be for you to be happy. Allow people to be themselves, honor their uniqueness. Their purpose in life is not to make you happy.
- Blame--Release the past and use your power of choice here and now.
- Justifications--Why you are late, why you didn't do what you said you were going to do. Call a spade a spade! "I was late and I didn't keep my word." When you tell the simple truth you see yourself more clearly and you rest more deeply inside.
- Drama--Stop telling your 'woe is me' story over and over, do something differently.
If you are troubled by something; change it, or change your attitude about it, or choose to suffer. Your power is in the choice you make. Your power is in taking responsibility for your life.
Make a pact with power: "I am responsible for my reality." And then take new action to respond to your life.
This pact doesn't mean you have the ability to control life. Life is what it is and people are what they are. Being responsible - having an ability to respond to your life - means you become a master at choosing your thoughts, attitudes and actions. If you don't master this way of dreaming your life, you won't reach levels of freedom that offer you true happiness and contentment. You will stay stuck in unhappy or unhealthy relationships.
#2 Tame Self-Judgment
The second giant barrier to freedom is self-judgment. It is the taproot of needless suffering. Through self-judgment we fall prey to low self-esteem, shame, guilt, apathy and fear. The habit of self-judgment prevents us from honoring our true value. It separates us from self-respect.
Our culture is based on a system of reward and punishment, and its main training ground puts a value on everything. Our minds have been conditioned to operate in the realm of judgment, opinion and comparisons. When we put a value on ourselves, based on our image of perfection, we automatically engage self-judgment.
Using discernment to make choices as to what works and what doesn't work in our life is important. A constant need to make 'right/wrong', 'good/bad' judgments keeps the mind spinning its wheels. If you want to grow love and freedom inside, taming the judge is a necessary action.
Some people use self-judgment as a heavy hammer to knock themselves down, over and over again. It is one of the greatest obstacles to experiencing ourselves as worthy of love. When the hammer is at work we suffer. We become lost from our compassionate heart.
Our heart views life with compassion, while the mind views life by attempting to make sense of the world. Whether we judge ourselves based on our relationship status, financial condition or appearance, the attitude of judgment is destructive. It separates us off from our love.
One of the most loving things you can do for yourself is to recognize your inherent worth, independent of what you do or don't do. It requires taming the voice in your head that holds an image of perfection. It asks you to shift the mind from evaluating what you think, do, say or have, to valuing yourself for all you are.
Here are some of the familiar thoughts our judge sets up: "If you are good, you are worthy of happiness." "If you have what it takes you will be loveable enough to be chosen." "If you do it right, you will get what you want." These beliefs are nonsense. They are born of an ignorant judge who doesn't know the true reality.
Questions to ask yourself
Do you know you count in your world?Do you know your life is worth something?Do you feel worthy of being loved, loving and belonging?Are you willing to let others see and know you deeply?
The answers to these questions are colored by our past experience; the process of our domestication influences our answers. Our conditioning has taught us what to believe and what to do in order to feel safe, fit in and feel a sense of belonging in our world. Our experience of worthiness has everything to do with knowing we count.
High self-worth brings self-respect. We are gentle with our self and others. We engage in a life with heart and meaning.
With low self-worth we disrespect our self and put up with that same disrespect from others.
One of the most important understandings is that life is a mirror which reflects to us what we do to our self. Look at this reflection and what it is telling you about how you treat yourself.
When we choose to truly accept our Worthiness - our birthright - we value ourselves for being, rather than evaluate ourselves for what we do, think or have. We count in our world and we follow what gives us heart and meaning.
Instead of Worthiness, do you have a tendency to evaluate yourself with a hammer of: "Something must be wrong with me because I don't have a significant relationship; or a college degree; or enough money" Perhaps you're thinking "I'm not okay because I'm not like him." Or are you wondering, "When will I ever... ?"
If you carry one of these hammers, somewhere along your journey you decided to play the game. And all the other judges in the world are playing it with you to reinforce the program. Judgment arises in varying degrees in most everyone's mind. It is the nature of a mind, based in fear, to judge.
If you have a Judge taking up space in your mind and insisting on evaluating everything - including you - stop believing its nasty banter. It is the biggest thief of your life force and it separates you from experiencing the love that you are. When the judge no longer hooks your attention, you will experience how inherently valuable and worthy of love and respect you are.
Valuing yourself for being, rather than evaluating yourself for doing or having, is one of the surest ways to keep your life-force strong and burning brightly.
Tools:
Witness & Stop Believing
Begin a practice to witness the self-judgment voice that insists on evaluating you and your life. Give this force a name so that you can recognize its personal presence. When you catch it in action, make a choice to call this force a liar. With consistent practice you will develop the strength to no longer believe its made-up values. This is a tool that will create major transformation in your life.
Forgive Yourself Moment to Moment
As you learn a new way of valuing you-by not believing your Judge-you may notice that this voice still hooks your attention on occasion. If so, when you recognize it, immediately forgive yourself for judging yourself. To forgive yourself for judging yourself will shift you to You valuing You!
It Is What It Is!
Erase black and white judgmental thinking as it separates you off from the beauty and inclusion of all life.
Banish the words:
GOOD ~ BAD ~ RIGHT ~ WRONG
Replace those four black-and-white words with:
IT IS WHAT IT IS!
Instead of coming from judgment-which limits how you see the world-this statement arises from observation. Observation opens your vision to possibilities, and allows you to choose how to respond to what you see. This is a great mantra to hang in your environment to disarm the Judge.
When you put these tools into action, your tendencies toward hiding, shame, guilt and isolation will shift to greater self-respect.
Your State is the Great Magnet that creates your experience of life.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7888882
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