What does Freedom look like to you?
or Have you declared personal independence?
You don’t have to wait to be free. You don’t need to postpone being happy. Jack Kornfield
How can we choose freedom?
My Mindfulness Teaching tells me that we start where we are.
How simple is that?
Unless, your kid has an addiction, your parents have Alzheimers, your spouse is having an affair, your job is leaving you wanting — the shit storm that we live won’t and can’t last forever. Think Nelson Mandela.
When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison after 27 years he oozed dignity and forgiveness. His spirit was transforming and inspiring. His smile showed the joy of freedom. Yet his freedom didn’t begin when he was released, his freedom was always with him even during those 27 years behind bars.
Freedom is not reserved for inmates or exceptional people — we can all have the spirit of freedom.
How do we find this Freedom?
We look for it!
We find it within ourselves. When we allow ourselves to be free to love rather than step into fear.
When I sat with my dying friend Ken and felt his surrender and peacefulness, I experienced a freedom from wanting. When I gave birth to all of my kids — it was the natural process that opened me up to freedom from control and expectation. When I swim in the vastness of Lake Superior . . . I feel a oneness. I become the waves that come and go. During these time I feel a joyful openness and my heart expands with so much frigging love.
Reality Check
Before you roll your eyes and think my life is perfect and I just sit around being “mindful”. Please know that I struggle with teenagers, being overweight, redefining a 20+ year marriage. I have my blessings and I have my troubles. But I also have something else!
I have the spirit of freedom. I may be stuck in these walls making breakfast, lunch, dinner, laundry, the constant need to do something for someone else, my nemesis THE DUST!!! I am beginning a career after 17 years — that is scary as hell. In this chaos I have found a peacefulness. In the eye of the storm there is stillness, a calmness, I strive for that place.
You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down. — Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
We all have things, people, circumstances that weigh us down . . .
I can’t exactly get rid of everything but I can look at everything differently. I can feel the freedom in my choices.
I chose love.
I chose to be free, no matter what happens in this life.
Want to be the most joyful person you know?
Sign up to my email list — I send out emails on the 1st and the 15th of each month — they uplift, inspire, and supportively encourage you to be mindfully joyful.
Buy my book Blessed by Breakfast for a beautiful fusion of food, mindfulness and sacred living. Balboa Press/Hay House or Amazon.
Follow the Renee.love facebook page for daily mindfulness reminders at 11:05 CST (give or take a few minutes).
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel! A great resource of living mindfulness.
And of course follow me on Medium!
