Birds born in cages think that flying is a disease.
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Anything outside the box attracts attention. In my undergrad/college years, I had to do an experiment for a Social Psychology class. As part of that experiment, I remember hearing about a peer group that decided to ride the elevators up and down – facing backwards.
Two students in that group stood in the elevator for hours at a time: one student faced the back of the elevator, while another student surreptitiously filmed the whole encounter. Everyone on that hopped on the elevator showed alarmed expressions as this was unconventional behavior; we tend to ride the elevators up/down facing the doors, not the back. Some individuals made confused expressions while others wore blatantly repulsive ones.
When we engage in any type of behavior that buckles the norm, there will always be resistance and/or pushback.
For as long as we can remember, countless societies survived (and even thrived) under the influence of norms and regulations that has kept its populations far from chaos. In fact, the continuity of societies was, and continues to be, contingent upon order.
The “survival,” if you will, of humanity at large has come with a very big price tag: your own freedom.
Whether we choose to emphasize the neurological traits that we have as social creatures, or highlight the conditioning we receive through repeated childhood experiences, it all remains the same.
We choose to release our right to freedom (of life and soul-growth) if we never intend to reflect on what makes our hearts pull one way and not the other.
Below, I’ve highlighted for you the major foundations of why we choose to give up our liberty and freedom to fully potentialize the reasons why we’re here. You’ll see below, how to remove such excuses to live your best life, not someone else’s.
Reasons why we give up freedom:
- Security and stability. Yes, it’s conditioned (but also hardwired) within us to seek moments and locations of peace, security, and safety. It’s also in our DNA to pursue the magnetic forces of life that tell us why we’re here. This is why we choose to work a 9-5 job that brings very minimal joy; why we choose to “play house” when all we want to do is fly and explore; it’s also the reason why we never dare dream about what lies beyond the five senses of the human/physical experience. If you’re in a relationship that leaves you feeling stifled, a job that renders you tired and seeking distractions, or working to please a mother that never accepted you truly and unconditionally – you know what I mean.
- Fog and distractions. Social media connects any two (or more) people from anywhere in the world, instantaneously. This level of communication is something we now take for granted. But this level of communication also happens to be extremely superficial. It has us believing that the 6-pack abs, shiny wheels, or branded shoes will bring everything we want: the respect, love, and fulfillment. Unfortunately for some, a lifetime of seeking and chasing this level of “achievement” never ends. We delude ourselves into believing that the “shiny object syndrome” doesn’t exist. But because we don’t want to wait until the fog clears, we’re always moving to what we think is real. We stay in a constant state of living behind masks of wealth and fortune, and it’s not only exhausting, it becomes lonely AF as we lose touch of who we really want and what really gets us going.
- Mindset of lack. The moment we adopt a mindset of lack, everything feels urgent. We see our neighbor being awarded for Best X of 2020, and feel jealousy because we believe there’s not enough of it to go around; our friends run with the brilliant idea that sprang up in the shower months ago, and we feel betrayed or resentful believing it was “stolen”; we believe that dreams we have of living that best life requires us to give up something else we adore… all of these are signs that we’ve adopted a mindset of lack – that there’s not enough for all.
How to spread your wings and fly instead;
- Follow your instincts; you’re taken care of. The things that you wish for, the things you day-dream about – it’s all there for a reason. If you’re passionate about making glass guitar picks, do that. You may decide to take it slow and do it as a passion project – but do it anyway. Follow your intuition, and you’ll see that it all aligns and works out in the end.
- Master of thoughts; having goals in mind. Learn to stand guard at the doors of your mind. The thoughts that come and go – they’re like thieves in the night. The moment they enter your conscious awareness, they have the power to steal your energy, draining your faith, trust, patience, and optimism in what’s real. Instead of working hard to scare them away, guard your mind at all times. The best way to find the motivation to stand guard, is to have the right goals in place. Know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You’ll find that your energy becomes redirected effortlessly to where it needs to go, fortifying your entrance in ways you couldn’t if you didn’t know your why/reason for defending your territory.
- We create what we can see and feel. If nothing else, understand this: what you see, what you feel – they’re tools for you to create the life you desire. Because we were never given proper training on how to wield these tools, we can become quite clumsy or lose interest in using these amazing tools at hand. But the things that you can imagine, see, and feel – they’re all pulling in the things you want in your waking moments.
Learning to train your Unconscious Mind is a dangerous skill indeed. But when you know how to tame your horse, you have no way of telling how far you’ll go.
When you begin to see that what you see and feel is one way of programming your unconscious to find effortless ways of solving your life problems – you’ll already know that you can sit back and let life work for you.
Live with intention. Inspire with Love.