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Freedom from the Boxes

Writer's picture: Lori HazelLori Hazel



What does freedom feel like to you? My entire life, I feel like my goal in all that I have done, all that I have experienced, every decision that I have made, has been in my quest of freedom - freedom from the boxes.


For me, more often than not, freedom from the boxes has meant breaking free of the cages - relationships that were not in alignment with my soul, habits and behaviours that were keeping me small, stuck, and distracted from what my heart was calling for more of at that time in my life, places where I found myself settling for "meh" instead of creating my "Hell YES!"


And, most significantly, freedom from the self-imposed cages of my thoughts - those painful, intrusive thoughts that take from my peace and from my joy. Freedom looks and feels different for everyone. For me, freedom feels like moving away from "I can't do this because...." (and listing off all the reasons why I believe that I can't - I'm too (old, young, fat, loud, shy, fill in the blank with yours! I'm not .... enough (interesting, smart, assertive, thin, fit, strong))  and towards "I know I will figure out a way to do this". And it might not look like what others think I "should" or "shouldn't" do, what they believe is "right" or "wrong", "good" or "bad". And that's okay. I'm not living their life. I'm creating mine.


What does freedom feel like to you? Do you, too, seek freedom from the boxes? More Joy? More Peace? More Love? What would having more peace look and feel like to you? What about more joy? Or more love? And what stops you from having it? From creating more of it in your life?


If I am correct, and I probably am, that "thing" standing between you and me and the freedom/joy/peace we seek, is US. More specifically, our THOUGHTS. And, our thoughts have long since been running the show that is our lives. So long, in fact, that they have created our Beliefs. And, too often, these Beliefs have been playing far too big a role in making our decisions for us - some, for a very long time - even decades! They "help" us make decisions around our relationships, our careers, our finances, and our health, to name a few. They hold us back from putting ourselves out there, from taking healthy risks in our lives, from getting uncomfortable in any way. They can keep us on the sidelines of our own lives for as long as we allow them to. If you want to know what your belief systems are, look at your life. Our Beliefs create our Reality. Our lives and the way we live them is the result of what we believe to be true for us. We have created stories about ourselves based on these belief systems and they are often unhelpful, and simply not true. Many of our belief systems are not even ours. They were created long ago, and they were created to protect us. They kept us safe when we were small and dependent on others to make our decisions for us. But even though they are no longer necessary in our adult lives – they don't know this! And as long as we allow them to run the show, they will continue, as they believe we still need them. We do not.


These stories are lies – and we have been believing them since forever, carrying the burden of them in our bodies. How does this play out for us? In our everyday life. We have about 60000 thoughts per day, most of them leaning toward the negative. When we have a negative thought, it creates a feeling or an emotion in our body. We act and behave according to how we feel. Our repeated behaviours and actions create the circumstances we find ourselves in. And around we go. These thoughts often show up in our bodies as fear, worry, anxiety, anger, pain, overwhelm, panic, sadness, resentments, even depression.  They might feel like constriction in our chest, weight on our shoulders, pain in our necks or on our hips, heaviness on our hearts, as if something is gripping us tightly in its grasp. They can feel so very heavy, so very painful.


Have you experienced this? Are you experiencing it now? Have you been carrying around this kind of invisible weight? For how long now? Does it feel heavy? Exhausting? Achy? Where in your body to you experience it? Would you release it if you could? You CAN.


And here's how:


1.      FEELING - first, you must allow yourself to FEEL what you feel. Feel it all – the good, the bad and the ugly. None of our emotions are meant to avoid, push away, or numb. The pain we feel is here to be felt - not just the happy feelings - we must allow ourselves to FEEL it all.

2.      KNOWLEDGE – there is a KNOWING within us - an intuition that has the answers to our questions, the directions to our dreams, the keys to our locked cages. But, we must know how to access this Knowing, to tap into it and listen for its clues and its messages. We can learn to do this. It involves getting very quiet and very still.

3.      IMAGINATION – if we can't dream it, we can't do it. Our Imagination is a beautiful tool, with intelligent insights into our deepest desires and longings. What does your most beautiful life look like? What is the truest, most beautiful version of you in this life? What are you doing? How are you feeling? Where are you? Play. Have fun. Follow your Joy. And your imagination will come to life!

4.      COURAGE – Having Courage means making decisions from the heart (the body) over the mind. The mind is a beautiful tool, but it is not meant to make our decisions for us – big or small. Having Courage means checking into our body for the decisions that are right for us, then acting on those decisions – even the really hard ones. Sometimes this means that not only do we have to draw the line in the sand – we actually have to step the F*&K over it!


You see, just because these stories may have been running the show that is our lives up until now does not mean that they must continue. We are in the driver's seat of our own lives. We have control over which thoughts we allow and which ones we stop dead in their tracks. These narratives that have been running unchecked in our lives, can be checked, can be released and can be retold. This work is transformative. Is it time to tell yourself a new story about who you are and how you are creating your life? Is that a Hell YES I hear?!


 

Offerings:


If you would like support or guidance in locating these stories running amuck in your life, releasing them and creating new, more helpful ones - please reach out. It would be my honour to support you.


Join me Tuesday, May 21st for a Virtual Session where we will go more in-depth on the topic of FREEDOM and what it means to Create it for YOU, in your life. Your one Wild and Precious Life. Will you say Hell YES?


xo lori ann



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