True Freedom
“To free your soul is to be truly free.”
Before my spiritual awakening, I never felt free. I liked to think that I was, but I wasn’t. Everyday, I woke up with a feeling of dread. I wished I could stay in bed forever, instead of going to work. Years into my career, everyday on my morning commute, my body physically revolted with acid reflux. A daily signal that I was giving up my power. My eyes were iritated, angry at what I was forcing myself to do. Of course at the time I did not know this or why, but I ignored all of the signs my body was giving me. Instead, I pushed onwards.
I operated in a constate state of stress, anxiety, worry and tension. Everyday, I made decisions that violated how I actually felt and what I actually wanted to do. I forced myself to keep moving forward, to keep working, to keep smiling, to keep doing my best…to keep surviving. I was programmed to believe I was free, because I had the choice to choose my work. I had freedom to buy what I desired. I was brainwashed to believe that because I had money, I had choices, and therefor freedom. When in reality, I was not free because I was not free in self, time, energy, and free will. All of the things that actually represent real freedom.
True freedom does not come suddenly one day, or because someone has granted it to us. For me, true freedom was cultivated within. It came with time, internal effort, consistency and devotion to unchaining myself from all the attachments that felt confining and unalligned. Freedom was a result of the hard work I devoted myself to over nine dedicated months during my spiritual awakening, and still continues to be an ongoing endeavor to realize and integrate greater levels of freedom in self and life. This initial work involved: the active destruction of my old self and life, release of old and unalligned attachments, reconnection to soul and energy, purification of the energy in the mind and body, release of ego and mind control mechanisms, internal excavation to process and release buried experiences and emotions, reveal and understand unconscious fears and illusions, reveal unconscious programming and operating systems, shedding, integration, reprogramming, and energy re-booting. Through this work, I consciously re-cultivated my connection to energy and natural intelligence. I shed the many layers upon layers of energetic grime, hardened identity shells, steel reinforcement walls, chains, inherited programs, trauma from past lives, and inherited baggage from family and ancestors. I reclaimed my soul, freeing it from the dark prison it was once confined to. I reclaimed ownership and control of my mind, body, and energy.
True Freedom was naturally felt as a result of this process of work and cleansing. In reclaiming connection to my soul, to energy, and to nature, I was able to feel what True personal power, peace, love, and freedom really felt like. I no longer think or believe I am free, I now inherently know I am free because I just am. I am free to just be. Free to be the leader of my own life. Free to own myself and take responsibility for the decisions I make. Free to exercise my voice, power, and energy. Free to prioritize my health, wellbeing, and growth. Free to say no to what holds me back or limits my expansion. Free to face the fears and challenges that help me evolve.
FREEDOM: the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited.
Freedom is a human concept. Society implies that it is something external of ourselves. We have freedom as long as it is granted to us, or are born into it. We are made to believe that people are born into various levels of freedom. Some people are born with more freedom and privilege, and others are born with less freedom and privilege. We also associate racial and gender stereotypes with the concept of freedom. We are encouraged to believe that people of certain races, genders, classes or socioeconomic backgrounds are born more or less free. And that if they desire to have more freedom, they have to fight for it outside of themselves. Implying they never had it to begin with, and now must obtain it.
Born as an Asian-American woman, I have a social right to intellectual and economic freedom, but a perceived limited social right to freedom in voice and power. Asian women are expected to play a role of quiet capability, responsibility, and submissiveness. All of us can feel challenged in some way by the appearance of our human form, if we let it. If we allow ourselves to be defined by external perceptions and beliefs and actually conform to them, we already give away our freedom. These external perceptions should encourage us all to not believe and conform to what is socially dictated and reinforced. Ultimately, True freedom has nothing to do with any social markers (of race, class, socioeconomic background, role, title, privilege, etc. It may give greater or lesser perceived levels of social freedom, but it is not True freedom. A slave and a prince can both feel un-free. A stay-at-home mother and a working father can both feel un-free. So long as we loose ourselves and bind ourselves to the limitations of social expectations, roles, and control mechanisms, we override the Truth within ourselves. We will always feel un-free no matter the perceived level of social freedom that is afforded to us in life. If we cannot honestly choose for ourselves, make our own decisions, take responsibility for our self and lives, freedom is cast aside.
There will always be external attempts of control or restrictions on freedom to varying degrees in human society. But the greatest form of control and restriction of freedom comes from within. Freedom is not something to attain or strive for, or ask for, because true freedom cannot be granted externally. You do not need another person or institution to grant you your freedom, or to tell you that you are free, when you must do that for your self. So long as you believe that you are not a free person, that you are not deserving of freedom, that you are powerless to make your own decisions, and continue to repeatedly hold yourself prisoner….you will never be free, no matter what anyone deems or what your social standing is in the world.
Our truest sense of freedom comes from a profound and True connection to our inner soul, to energy, to nature. It is realized within and connects us to the larger network of life. When we re-connect to this, we feel and remember we are inherently free beings. Free to be, to choose, to change, and to create our lives as we please in accordance to our True and natural ways of being. True freedom is the ability to be our soul selves, express ourselves as we naturally are, live out our Truths in life openly and freely. True freedom is reflected in how fully we can live and act in accordance to our True values, beliefs, desires, and soul dreams. True freedom is felt with wild abandon, peace, and expansive possibility. We breathe freely, we see freely, we sense freely, we perceive freely, we speak and sing freely, we move freely, we dance freely, we express freely, we be ourselves freely.