Wholly Free—What True Freedom Brings
In the month of July we in the United States celebrate the freedoms that we enjoy as individuals and as a nation.
The celebrations culminate on July 4, known as Independence Day, with parades, outdoor activities, picnics and barbecues, and fireworks displays. Our celebrations bring families and communities together to remember the value we place on our freedom.
When we consider the freedoms we celebrate, here in the US and around the world, we are often appreciating freedom from exterior constrictions or freedom from threats to our ability to live our lives in the ways that we choose, within the limits of our legal system and our ethics.
But there is another kind of freedom that is perhaps more vital to our individual happiness and our ability to enjoy lives of meaning and purpose—inner freedom.
inner freedom is true freedom
What Is Inner Freedom?
Inner freedom is our natural state. In this natural state of freedom from within we are wholly free. In any moment, we can return to that state of consciousness of being free and existing in freedom.
Letting go of anything that is limiting your inner space for expansion and a realization of what is possible for you is the first step to true freedom. As we deepen our self-awareness, reconnect to the center of who we really are, and release any attachments to what no longer serves us in life, we open ourselves to the experience of greater freedom.
Experience inner freedom to be at peace with all aspects of life.
As you do this, the power of anything external to determine your mental or emotional states is diminished. Attaining inner peace and experiencing freedom within does not mean that your life will be free of challenge and difficulty. It does mean, however, that you will be better able to navigate life and its challenges with a more tranquil and accepting mind. It means that you will no longer be controlled by or reacting to difficulties that arise. You will realize that you have the power to change your experience within you.
Knowing you have the power to make your own choices is empowering and freeing. You are no longer held hostage to difficulties that arise in your life. You can decide how you will navigate through life’s challenges. How you experience each moment in your life, whether peaceful or conflicted, is up to you.
Inner freedom is empowering. It is the greatest freedom of all.
inner freedom is true freedom
Interpretation and Inner Freedom
The quality of your present experience is not determined by your external situation. What matters is not the situation itself, but how you judge and interpret it. Every situation can be experienced in a state of inner peace. You have a choice—you can make the choice of true freedom from within or you can opt to remain a hostage of your beliefs, limiting thoughts, and outdated narratives about yourself.
You cannot experience true inner freedom as long as you give your power to false beliefs about yourself. In the same way, the energy you give to outside obstacles that diminish your view of yourself or constrict you from being your true, authentic self will prevent you from connecting to freedom and wholeness.
Inner Freedom Exercise
Spend a few minutes in quiet reflection about your life right now. Are you experiencing inner peace and inner freedom? If not, what is standing in the way of your experiencing inner peace/freedom? When we are not free within, we are constricted and not able to be who we really are. Instead of chasing after external or outer happiness, which is temporary and transitory, we can choose the experience of true freedom and happiness. These states of being are accessible within you, and you can experience these despite your outer circumstances.
- What words or images come up for you when you think about true freedom?
Some examples of words and phrases that might come to mind include: ease, spaciousness, joy, letting go, able to be myself, living from my truth, letting go of negative, self-limiting thoughts, trusting myself, flow, love, peace, soaring, lightness, forgiveness, accepting and embracing change, and impermanence.
- Are you tired of remaining small and constricted in your life?
- Are you ready to experience true inner freedom so that you can blossom into the magnificent person that you already are?
At the deepest place within you, where your True Self resides, you are whole… and you are free already. Perhaps you have simply forgotten this truth. Over time you may have built up layer upon layer of false beliefs about yourself. Your True Self may have become masked with false ideas about who you are. These masks and layers of beliefs about who you are often stem from your ego personality.
Our truth lies within, and it is up to us to recognize and release what stands in the way of our remembrance of it.
As Michelangelo is reputed to have said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Likewise, we can set ourselves free when we remove what is causing us to forget the magnificent truth that lies within. Only then are we really free to express our truth in the world, free to finally be real!
This journey to self-realization is a process of remembering and forgetting. It begins with awareness what’s in the way. Often these obstacles to our awareness simply begin to fall away as we shine the light of our awareness them.
Obstacles, Blocks, Inner Freedom
Until we recognize the obstacles that block our vision of who we really are, we will continue in our deluded, forgetful, and confused states. And we will not know true freedom, which begins with inner freedom. The pathway to true freedom begins as we choose to recognize obstacles and learn to navigate what blocks our way. Let any challenges along your way be the pathway that leads you back to your natural ability to expand into a greater experience of life.
There are many ways your personality structures may be getting in the way of your remembrance of your truth and your experience of inner freedom. A few of these are:
- childhood wounding
- early life experiences
- fear and shame
- a scarcity mindset
- doubts and distrust
- emotional reactivity
One of the most common obstacles to our peace of mind and inner freedom comes in the form of our limiting beliefs. A limiting belief is a state of mind or a thought about yourself that restricts you in some way. It is a judgment you have made about yourself—a judgment that you think or believe to be true. We all experience limiting beliefs about ourselves to some extent. Limiting beliefs hold us small. They restrict our creativity and limit our self-growth.
For example, you may have come to believe that you are not smart enough or that you are not an interesting person. You may believe that you do not deserve to be truly happy. Limiting beliefs can keep you from living a full and purposeful life. Unless you recognize and shift these beliefs, you are not fully expressing who you really are. Until you can release these limitations, your life will be an expression of the limited person you have come to think you are.
- What limiting beliefs are holding you small?
To delve deeper into this topic, see the first of five pathways to the return to true community, beginning with a return to your true self, in the book Wholly Connected by True Center founder Eve Willson.
Releasing, Non-Attachment, True Freedom
The Buddha said that the cause of our suffering is attachment. Everything in life is impermanent and transitory. When we lose what we are attached to, we experience great loss and then we suffer. We cannot be truly free until we can release the attachments and desires that bind us.
You will know true freedom when you remember your connection
with the True Self and return home to your True Center.
Limiting beliefs often lead to self-defeating behavior patterns, emotional pain, and barriers to happiness and fulfillment that arise as a result of the influence of the personality. Has your ego been in the driver’s seat of your life?
Releasing and practicing non-attachment does not necessarily mean we have to give up all earthly pleasures and possessions or choose to live an ascetic life. Rather, release and non-attachment are simply about becoming aware of the influence of the personality and the limitations it has imposed on your life until now.
You are so much more than your ego personality. Non-attachment will lead you to a place of being able to enjoy the things of life without being emotionally attached to them. Non- attachment involves a new way of seeing and being in the world that frees you to live a more expansive and meaningful life. Let go and allow the unfolding. With your new vision, you may begin to see miracles appear all around you.
Life on earth is dynamic. It is ever-changing and impermanent. Many resist change because of their fears of uncertainty and the unknown. We experience more freedom when we can let go of attachments that may include patterns of behavior and habits, the story about ourselves that we have held onto but no longer serves us, or addictions and other distractions that prevent us from a life of growth.
When you embrace inner freedom, you can more easily embrace change, which in turn leads to the experience of even more freedom in your day-to-day life.
When we are attached to things, people, thoughts, beliefs, behaviors and outcomes, we are clinging and grasping. Our clinging saps our energy and distracts us from experiencing the freedom of the present moment. Often we become attached to certain outcomes for ourselves or others. This attachment to outcomes is usually based in a desire or perceived need to control. When the outcomes we have wished for do not happen, we may experience emotions such as sadness or anger.
In practicing non-attachment, we are able to let go of outcomes and the perceived need to “fix” everything. When you can lean into life, to include the suffering you experience in your own life, you come to deeper understanding and acceptance of all life. Surrender to what is. When we let go, we relax into acceptance of the natural flow of life.
Freedom does not mean that you become free of life’s difficulties and challenges, but rather that you now have a renewed connection with your true center. You can meet what life throws at you with equanimity, discernment, and inner peace. Rather than reacting, you are able to be more proactive in a calm and balanced way. You are free of intense emotional attachments that exist merely to serve your ego desires.
It is not that you transcend life’s challenges and difficulties, because challenges constantly arise. That is a natural part of life. Now, rather than being beaten down in reaction to challenges, you can meet those challenges with the power of choice and renewed confidence, and true inner freedom.
Reflecting on Inner Freedom
As you consider ways to practice non-attachment and embrace your inner freedom this month, reflect on these two questions:
- What am I holding onto that prevents me from experiencing true freedom?
- What would true freedom look like? What would it feel like?
Best wishes for a free and full month from True Center!
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