Transformation: The Myth of Prison: The Truth of Freedom

There's an old story that goes something like this.

There was a man who had been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. He was determined to get out so he attempts to dig his way to freedom with a spoon. (Think ancient Shawshank Redemption).

Anyway, he digs day and night and after years of bone-wearying struggle, his hands all calloused and bloody, he finally realizes his efforts are worthless and he gives up. With a face full of tears and constriction in his throat as he imagines living out his days in prison, he leans back on the door of his cell, only to discover it was unlocked all along.

I swear I still get chills whenever I hear that story.

Okay so maybe there never was a guy who tried to dig out of prison with a spoon but the point is clear - the prison that you imagine constrains you doesn't really exist.

You see the only thing that creates a feeling of imprisonment is our own minds. Our minds are capable of enormous flights of fancy but here's the truth: the one who tries with everything in their power to escape the prison is actually the prison itself.

Why does this topic matter today?

Well it seems very timely considering where everyone's minds seem to be taking them these days. I hear clients, friends and family changing their language and changing their thinking based on what they hear in the news or read in the papers on a daily basis.

More than ever I hear "I can't do this because....". "What if I do this or that and such and such happens?" "I have to get out of this situation or I'm going to..."

Those are phrases that create prisons.

The reality is that we cannot have an idea unless we also have the capacity to realize it present at the same time.

That's true freedom.

The only limitations we put on ourselves or on our life come from within. They come from the thoughts we have and the stories we tell ourselves about the thoughts we're having. But when you really become aware of what your mind is doing, while you are still going to have certain thoughts that create some unpleasant emotions, the difference is that now you are not going to believe the story your mind generates to accompany the sensations you're having to be you or to be true.

Most people operate at an unconscious level as though their thoughts choose them...as though they "can't help how they think" but this is actually not true. Thoughts may pop into your head that aren't that "great" according to you but YOU get to decide what you will do with that thought, just as you get to decide how you will react to everything you experience in your life. Remember, you aren't the thinker.

Your thoughts, and more importantly the stories you tell yourself about them, have the ability to impose profound limitations as well as infinite freedom.

Which do you choose?

I'll leave you with this quick poem from Rumi, the Persian mystic poet.

I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside!

What freedom can you open yourself up to today?

Seed Newsvine

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