Liberation: Discovering Who We Truly Are

I sometimes feel trapped. I keep jumping into boxes that don’t fit. I know I live in a society with rules and prescribed behaviors, but it feels so confining. Why can’t I just be me?

Knowing Ourselves

Our true essence is born with us when we enter this earth. As children, we are dependent on the adult world for our survival. Although our true essence may shine through naturally in our early lives, those who try to guide us may not see or understand that essence. They guide us within the limits of their own perspectives and abilities. Sometimes this can extinguish a child’s light.

Self-knowledge and acceptance are essential foundations of discovering who we really are. As adults, it is a great and continuing challenge to shed the conditioning, pain, opinions of others and societal pressures of our childhoods. We peel back these things one-by-one to see what lies underneath. This is the hero’s journey.

A focus on who we really are serves us and leads us to being the best we can be. Openings appear as we set this focus. These Openings may be in the form of things showing up in our lives – both ones we align with as well as ones we do not. They help us to know who we are and what we want in our lives.

Allowing Some Freedom

One way to get started in uncovering our true essence is to allow ourselves freedom. We can let go of the “shoulds” in our lives and move towards what fulfills us and makes us happy. We can start small, allowing ourselves freedom in a part of every day. We can allow ourself some pleasure each day or pursue something we’ve longed for.

Open space is a key element of freedom. It gives us room to breathe. So much has crowded our true essence and covered it up over the years. Open space can take the form of quiet time – a bit every day or big chunks when time permits. Within open space, Openings will appear that we could not see before, allowing our creativity and self-expression room to grow.

Freedom involves release – of old attitudes and perceptions, things that no longer serve us and the constraints of the past. We have filled ourselves up over the course of our lives and now can remove some of the clutter that is masking our true selves. Freedom refreshes our true nature and we gradually see ourselves anew.

Letting Go Of Constraints

As we allow ourselves freedom and begin to let go of constraints, our true essence begins to emerge – naturally and gracefully. We may find new perspectives on our lives, new desires, new preferences and new directions. We can try them out and see how they work for us. They provide a benchmark and comparison with the life we once knew and hopefully, we like them better.