F is for FREEDOM

Many people may have vivid feelings of freedom as a child, me? Not so much. I remember playing and having fun as a young child, but I was also racked with this feeling of physical restriction, like I was held back by something. I used to walk with a bent back, never held my head high because of life experiences early on and being picked on for being tall. Freedom was something I craved, more than anything I crave to express myself freely.

Some of us who are extra sensitive to the world, maybe we are shy, introverted or simply conditioned from an early age to keep quiet and be ‘good’, can mean we feel rigid and frozen inside our bodies. We watch as other grown ups or children move freely, they shout; they scream; they sing at the top of their lungs and are able to be the centre of attention we secretly wish we could be.

I always felt there was this free spirit within me locked inside a cage, but what i’m learning is it’s never to late to feel free. We can start at any age, we can be a child again whenever we feel like it and we can begin to remove the shackles of conditioning and restriction at any time.

I am 39 soon and I have been inwardly requesting the universe for playmates and opportunities that can bring out the child within me. The Universe answered in the form of new female friends and a new lover. Most of my new friends are childlike and laugh lots and I was so pleased when they came into my life. I was ready to drop the seriousness of the spiritual path, which can, to be honest, be too serious and too self-reflective. Prior to meeting these new people many of my friends were more serious and not as playful, but back then I was not ready to let my inner child out.

My inner child never felt safe to come out and play in the past, but when people around you encourage this, the child starts to slowly bit-by-bit feel safe to be free again.

 

So what is freedom to me?

I love to dance…. the below video I made for a competition I entered on the subject of being fabulous.

 

 

I love to travel….

 

Many moons ago I backpacked around Australia, but now I travel wherever I can in my local area. I can always be a tourist as I love to visit new places like…

 

 

May Hill in Gloucestershire

The beaches of my birth place in North East England…

 

LONDON!

 

Travelling anywhere is sublime. We can find freedom walking the streets of our local town or city or walking in nature, we can travel to far flung lands, but freedom is within so we can find it wherever we are.

 

KISSING!!

 

Kissing is a great past-time and also feels very freeing to me. Anything physical takes us out of our minds and into our bodies and we lose all track of time. Being in the now – this is freedom!

 

 

GAZING at the sea

 

I love to watch the ocean waves coming in.

I love to watch the sun rise and set.

I love to float on my back on the ocean when in warmer countries.

 

 

 

Freedom is an inside job.We don’t need a lot of money to feel free. We simply need to make space within us for the present moment to fill us.

 

When I was on my 4 year solitude journey, I hardly saw another soul, I did not have the funds to do a lot, but sitting drinking a coffee or sitting by the river, I was free.

 

Meditation can bring an inner sense of freedom by taking a moment to focus on our breath and allowing whatever ‘is’ to be – to be. We make room for the new by simply being.

 

Is it time you let your inner child out to play?