How free do you feel?
/Having celebrated Independence Day this past weekend, there’s been a lot of focus on independence and freedom.
These are expansive topics, and they can be explored from many perspectives.
What is coming up for me — aside from the ways we can give thought to independence and freedom through the important lens of our nation and its inhabitants — is personal freedom, and how we declare our own independence.
How do you feel free in your life?
Consider when and in what ways you most feel free.
Think, too, about how you may feel constrained or, perhaps, how you may deeply yearn to feel more free.
Perhaps your work, your relationships, or your finances come to mind.
Perhaps your heart feels caged.
There may be a part of you that yearns to be expressed.
Perhaps you perceive the constraints to be external or in the hands of other people. Or maybe you know you have the power to make a change to feel freer, but don’t know how, or have not found the courage.
Are there ways you want to feel wildly free, but you hold back (a little, or a lot)?
I invite you to spend some time exploring this topic.
Pull out a journal, set a timer for 10 minutes and do some free writing, to see what comes up. You might try the Discovery Dozen™ exercises on page 29 of my book, to explore what feeling free really means to you. Those prompts can reveal thoughts that are deeply buried in you heart.
Do you feel ready to declare personal independence?
For years, questions about feeling free never came up for me. I lived day-to-day-to-day without deep reflection. I did not even consider the subject.
After I started working with a coach and waking up in my life, I started activating creative thinking and creative expression.
As a result, the feeling of being free started to show up in ways that surprised and delighted me. I began to consciously appreciate and explore this feeling, and to expand it in as many ways as possible. Soon, every part of my life felt more vibrant.
It was from that place of feeling free that I declared my independence — from a life that was good, to pursue a life that was exceptional.
I was tired of settling for the status quo and wanted to spread my wings and freely create my next chapter.
If you’ve been a reader of my blog for a while (or read my story on this site) you know that in 2011 I sold the business I owned for 27 years and embarked on a new path. I could not foresee the destination, but here I am, doing coaching work I truly love, in a marriage that has become even stronger and happier than before, having written a book I am proud of, and having become a painter.
Living with this freedom and personal independence is something I celebrate and feel grateful for every day.
Have I “arrived”?
Hardly.
Each day offers me opportunities to open more.
On some days, the feeling of freedom eludes me, and I have to find it anew and claim it again. It’s easy to fall back into old limiting states of mind.
It’s the ongoing pursuit of feeling free, being willing to take new steps toward it when I backslide, believing in myself and feeling worthy of this way of living, and committing to the ongoing process of the exploration that has carried me forward.
Step into defining freedom for yourself
If you want to talk about what freedom can look like for you, and making it a reality, the timing could not be better.
The preparatory journey that will culminate in Live Big Live! this fall is starting soon.
Live Big Live! is powerful program, designed to give you enormous clarity about the life and work you want to create. You will be supported to begin to create a future filled with the freedom you want, with tools to help you each step of the way.
We can make a date to talk about what’s in the way for you now and the future you dream of. Schedule a Live Big Breakthrough Call with me directly — click here to find a spot on my calendar. There's no obligation or cost for us to talk.
Stay safe and well, and keep creating.