I am FREE - Intention Series
Moving sensations of the mind and body toward expansive freedom
as i write to you this morning
the rain falls from the wide-open sky fast, loud, and free
it shares a message of simplicity and grace:
give of yourself as i give to you…
wildly, wholly, with the feelings of fantasy and freedom
rain, my dear, pour forth from your heart, your mind, your body
there is expansive space here for you
there is flourishing life here for you
there is all the freedom you desire…right here
i am free
I am uplifted. I graze the clouds, I grace the land. I am a force in the Universe. I am the Universe. I set my Spirit free to see the wonders of this world and beyond.
I breathe fully and freely. The tension that once existed in my body is now gone. I breathe and experience living a full life.
Inside this Edition of the Intention Series…i am free
Contemplating Freedom - Considering what free means to you
When You Feel the Opposite of Free - Noticing varied sensations in the body
Tools for Experiencing Freedom - Working with The Fool and Eucalyptus
Meditation - (7 minute audio) Creating in your mind’s eye an image of a hero or heroine taking off on a journey…”i am free!”
Journaling Prompts - Five prompts and an activity to expand your sense of freedom and to focus your awareness on the ability to feel free
Contemplating Freedom
When you bring to mind the word free, what do you see?
What images enter your mind? Expansive mountain ranges, sea water and waves, the horizon? The American flag, fields of wildflowers, a bird or airplane high in the sky?
What sensations can you notice in your body? Perhaps a rising and falling of your chest with each breath you take or maybe even a tightness in your chest, shoulders, or jaw…signaling to you the opposite of feeling free.
What sounds, scents, or tastes offer you an experience of freedom, give you a sense that your are expansive, wide open, and free?
Do you hold a negative association to the word free? Do you attach a sense of cheapness, worthlessness, or pity to the word?
What value do you place on freedom, on the ability to feel yourself truly free and able to do, see, and say the things you desire at the core of your heart? To do the work you crave, to see the places in your dreams, to say the important words that need to be said with honesty, compassion, grace, and love…
What is holding you back from experiencing this deep level of freedom?
When You Feel the Opposite of Free…Tight, Tense, Restricted
Taking a quick scan of your body right now, are there parts of your body where you feel tight, tense, or restricted?
Where in your body is this your experience? Perhaps in your back, shoulders, chest, lungs, eyes, jaw, tongue, head, fingers, toes…
You may like to take a moment to bring an awareness to your breath in order to make an easier connection to the sensations occurring in your body.
You may like to inhale and silently, to yourself, say the words: “i am”…and then exhale with the word “free.”
You may like to breathe in this way several times in order to make this connection and facilitate a calm, open, receptive awareness of the way your body feels to you in this moment.
Consider again…where do you feel tight, tense, or restricted in your body?
i am free…i am free…i am free…
With continued breath awareness…
Where do you feel light, open, expansive, free in your body?
Perhaps in your heart, hands, throat, cheeks, the top of your head, the bottoms of your feet, your soul, your Spirit.
Observations of Freedom and Expansion Versus Lack, Tension, Fear in the Body
Why might you want to develop the ability to observe emotions, sensations, and thoughts around what free or freedom feel like to you?
The answer may be found somewhere in this…
When you know…
how you want to feel and
how to summon the accompanying emotions, sensations, and thoughts around this positive feeling state inside your body - in this case, free,
Then you know…
what actions to take in order realize your goals, learn something new, achieve success, change the outcome of your days, relationships, life.
With interoceptive awareness, you know what you need to do in order to make internal changes when you feel discomfort.
You know how to move emotions, sensations, and thoughts in the opposite direction. Such as, moving out of a state of lack, tension, anxiety, or fear and into one of freedom, openness, expansion, or joy.
Train yourself to be the observer, the knower, the seer of all that lives within your very personal, sensory universe. Then make the necessary changes in emotion, sensation, and thought that will allow you to embark on your journey with an embodied sense of freedom.
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