Living Free

How many times have you made a decision or suppressed your voice in order to please another person; perhaps a parent, teacher, lover, or sibling? I know I've been guilty of it on many occasions. The deep ingrained feeling of wanting to be liked and accepted in order to fit in is such a normalized condition of today's society that individuals are literally being "cancelled" for not wanting to go along with the standard agenda or societal norm. Due to our inner fear of rejection, many of us will deny our inner truth in order to "not rock the boat" with those around us; especially those who we deem have some kind of "authority". The trouble with this filtered and repressed way of living is that eventually it leads to creating an unsatisfied and resentful state of being within YOURSELF. Which is really backwards when you stop and think about it. After all, your opinion of you is the one that matters most and when you consistently deny your inner truth, that's when your life gets replaced by the shadow of someone else you decide is "more important". Raised with the need to please our parents, caregivers, teachers, friends, & siblings, this can create a pattern in our persona that craves external validation at all costs; this is where the birth of The People Pleaser, The Nice Guy, The Attention Seeker, and The Good Girl all have their roots.

   In order to liberate our soul and break free from this conditioning, we've got to first begin to recognize our own voice. Discovering who we are, what we believe in, and why we believe in it, is a major step toward living a life of truth and authenticity. When you know what it is you believe in, living in accord with that truth becomes much easier. Creating a mindset of clarity and confidence is a great warm-up to living your life unfiltered. Getting to know yourself on an intimate level via meditation, journaling, art, & self expression, is a necessary prequel to self-expression. This will help create a solid foundation for you so that when you encounter turbulence from the external world, you will be better prepared to handle it. That being said, creating this new way of being isn't all sunshine and rainbows. When you allow yourself to express your truth without reservation you will find out very quickly who your real friends are. Not only that, but living in this raw state creates many external ripples in our outer reality which may attract attention by some not-so-nice individuals hell-bent on tearing you down. In fact, this is exactly what caused you to place a filter on yourself in the first place. At some point in your early years, you had an experience(s) that caused you to turn inward and become self-conscious about yourself and your actions... this is exactly what led to this people pleasing complex you carry today. This people-pleasing behavior is at the core of our deep societal conditioning and is a major component of the cancel-culture that has emerged in this generation.

   I should warn you, this process will assist you in discovering or I should say, RE-discovering your truth. You may find that old relationships with lovers or family will collapse due to you coming back into your personal power. You may find suppressed emotions exploding out of your heart with the urge to be transmuted and released. This is perfectly normal and a blessing in disguise. When you purge yourself of the patterns that keep you living in restriction, you'll also find that you naturally rid yourself of those in your vicinity who hold you down or keep you feeling suppressed. Let your heart open to your truth and you'll find that eventually, you'll attract your soul-tribe in the process. By getting in touch with your fire and sharing that fire, new friends will appear that fan your flame rather than burn you down. But that may be awhile down the road, for now let's just focus on the important stuff.

   DIG DEEP. Who were you before the world told you to be someone else? When you were a child, did you feel safe to simply be yourself? To speak your truth, ask questions, and express yourself freely? Did you feel validated and seen by the "adults" around you or did you feel afraid to make your presence known? These questions will help pave the way back to re-discovering your essence. We all arrive on this planet knowing exactly who we are and what we came here to do. Only, the authorities in our life around this age teach us to forget ourselves and conform into a system that distorts our truth and makes us mold ourselves in order to fit-in. Through direct or indirect experiences with trauma, we learn to hide our REAL selves from the world and as a result, we bottle up our emotions and live only a fraction of our truth until our time comes to croak. Then ironically we do it all over again until we actually do what we came here to do and master what we came here to master. This process of personal mastery and living our destiny requires us to face all kinds of demons both internal and external, and I hate to say it, but this form of Earth School we are in right now requires high levels of courage and tenacity. We are in the heaviest level of density right now in this realm, which means the ego is a complex part of our ID; making it that much harder to be in contact with spirit. All excuses aside, we did not come here to just skate by and do the bare minimum. We came here to evolve and ascend as much as possible. That is why we chose this exact moment to be here! Not only that, but this Earth needs us! It needs you to fully awaken to your truth and share that truth with as many people as possible. Because here's the thing, liberated souls LIBERATE souls. Healed people heal people. Light brings forth more light. Love creates more love. And so it is. 

  Remembering who you were or rather, who you still ARE requires you to get in touch with your inner truth. You've got to WANT to be free more than anything else. Once you start the journey inward and use RESONANCE and DISCERNMENT to discover what aligns with your heart, you'll find that it becomes much easier to KNOW YOURSELF in the deepest way possible. Through meditation, physical movement, breathwork, journaling, creativity, and time spent in nature, you'll begin to feel deep into the fabric of what makes you, you. Of course in a nutshell, this means breaking free from the programming that has been slowly drilled into your mind over time. You know exactly what programming I'm speaking of. This constriction-based and consumeristic programming has been wired into your subconscious from many different culprits, from education to entertainment, we all have many beliefs that simply aren't ours. These beliefs could also be from our parents or from our "friends". Who, what, or where they come from doesn't matter as much as WHY we are still carrying them. WHY are we still letting these old beliefs still dictate us and boss us around like a five year old? WHY are we still BELIEVING we can't speak our mind or ask for what we want? These are the deeper questions we need to be asking ourselves if we truly want to be free. Asking these questions during a time of confrontation or inner conflict will help you begin to bring your awareness to the core of the issue which is and always has been, THE MIND. 

  You are not your programming. You are the awareness within. You are not your insecurity. You are not your self-doubt. You are the witness who is AWARE of these inner feelings. Taking a seat far enough within yourself to become the OBSERVER of your insecurities will help you to identify and KNOW this fundamental truth; YOU ALWAYS HAVE THE POWER TO RISE ABOVE YOUR MIND. Whenever a situation occurs that causes you to doubt yourself or feel insecure, become aware of the stillness and the witness that exists within you. This inner witness is the key to making constructive and powerful changes in your life. Taking back your own inner throne means taking back the ability to re-wire you mind however you see fit. This realization is the key and it can't be emphasized enough. You've got to stop buying into these old beliefs and you've got to stop arguing for your personal limitations. Whenever you choose to BELIEVE you are insecure or lack confidence, it will be so. Denying your inner truth and playing small as an adult is a choice. Though, I agree it may not feel like a choice because there's so much past momentum behind it, it's still a choice regardless. Living unfiltered and unrestricted is really about not doing that which you usually do that causes you to shut down and hide your essence. When a situation arises in your life that needs you to make a decision or speak your peace, you've got to consciously step in and RISE ABOVE your programming. It may feel uncomfortable as hell, but that's only because it's a NEW CHOICE. The brain can be very stubborn in the way it works. But like stated above, you are not the brain. Which means, even though it feels uncomfortable, you as the WITNESS of the discomfort can recognize discomfort for what it is; Cognitive Dissonance of the mind. The way through Cognitive Dissonance is to continually make the NEW CHOICE over and over again until eventually, the dissonance passes because you will have established a new belief in your mind regarding self-expression. That's the unspoken goal of affirmations- to drill in new beliefs through repetition and vocal declaration; which by the way is another very powerful tool to change your life. Words are spells. Cast only what you wish to create.

   The beautiful part about deepening your seat of awareness within yourself is that you can potentially liberate yourself from ALL beliefs and/or thoughts that keep you confined in a lower vibration. This is how the purification process works. Discomfort is a reaction of the mind which translates into the body via emotion, this emotion is not you. Awareness itself is pure. It's your direct connection to grace. It's your divinity embodied in the 3D. When your body dies, your awareness lives on. It's the awareness/consciousness itself that brings animation to your life. Without awareness, without consciousness, life would be void of meaning. I know this may seem difficult to understand on the level of the mind, but you who are reading this is AWARE of the words you are reading. The YOU who is inside, hearing these words echo throughout the mind, is the soul awareness within. This awareness is who you really are. We are all a part of the one, part of the divine creator, and all of these mind-games of insecurity, self-doubt, petty fear, are all the biggest consumers of our awareness around. So why waste your energy wallowing in doubt or suppressing your voice when you could be using your awareness to go deeper into the source of life itself? Food for thought.

   Anyway, back to the topic of living free, unfiltered, and speaking your mind. You can't be afraid to make other people uncomfortable. You can't be afraid to potentially "trigger" others. This is just a natural by-product of living in your truth. The only people you will make uncomfortable are those who see your beautiful self-expression as a MIRROR for their own fear and insecurities. How would they grow without a proper mirror/reflection to measure their own development? In a way, the people you trigger NEED you to become your best self so that you can show them what TRUE FREEDOM really means. Freedom from dependency, freedom from needing approval, freedom from the system. It all depends on your will. Your ability to direct your attention away from negativity, fear, pain, and place it back onto AWARENESS ITSELF. When you feel a deep pain arise, a deep discomfort emerge from the mind, use your awareness to PURIFY. Go deeper into the awareness within and allow the pain to release. Speaking your truth doesn't have to be so difficult. You've just got to give yourself permission to risk rejection... which isn't even a risk anyway since you know there's no such thing as real soul-level rejection. Sure, someone may not agree with what you want for dinner but does that make you a bad person? Does that make you unlovable or unworthy? Absolutely not. But if you believe you're "bad" or somehow "unworthy", then that's the reality you will create for yourself. (speaking of, this would be a good time to examine your religious beliefs and see if you have any dogmatic fears or resistance around the word GOD itself). Beliefs are a perfect example of just how powerful the mind really is. Focusing your awareness onto a belief that is negative or counter to your true nature feels pretty dang awful and creates a huge mess of your life... so why do it? Why restrict yourself in any way shape or form? Why treat yourself the same way your parents treated you? Why CHOOSE to believe something that hinders you? Again, food for thought. 

  Now speaking your truth and living unfiltered doesn't mean you simply give yourself permission to be a self-righteous ass either. Discernment is key. Truly all personal "preferences" and labels can become an aspect of the ego if we're not careful, but there's nothing wrong with preference in physical form so long as you realize the truth; that when living from the inmost seat of the "self" there are no preferences besides for that of unconditional peace, love, and the grace for others to experience the same. That being said, there really is no need to argue for your opinion or create a stink over what YOU want for dinner or what political party you THINK is better. Fighting for our opinion to be heard and seen can easily become the flip-side of this conversation. Here you'll find the ego-maniacs who are living loud and proud only to fuel a false sense of the ego and its false sense of self. Recognizing where a personal preference is coming from within you is very important. Is it coming from your heart or from the ego? Only you will know when the time arises. Do you love Ford automobiles because your dad loved Ford automobiles? Do you drink coffee because your mom drinks coffee? Do you even like the taste of coffee? Again there's no right or wrong answer here, just things to start to become aware of. How much of what we believe is influenced by those around us? What if we could choose to believe anything we wanted? How would we actually live our life if we simply stopped subscribing to the norm?  

One last note I feel called to share in regards to freedom is this: Health, Wealth, and Love is, and always has been meant to be accessible and available for all. If there's a situation or condition in your life causing you or others outright harm, it's necessary for you to learn how to use your will to summon the courage required to make a constructive change for all parties involved. This is why this time is so crucial for humanity to return to a state of divine awareness. We have allowed, in our unconscious state, those with ill-intentions to dominate humanity and abuse their power for their own sense of self-gratification. Though free-will is our divine birthright, our less privileged and less aware brothers and sisters fail to understand that fear and manipulation can easily distort the human mind to the point where one willingly surrenders their free-will by force of hand. This is something that shall not and cannot stand going forward. The scales of balance will return back to harmony once enough of humanity awakens to their divine right of choice. These are the times we are in now. The great awakening and great re-membering is returning people to their inner center. We must all work together to help humanity calm the collective mind and reconnect to the unlimited source of love within. This is the beginning stages of this divine process and it all begins with you returning to your personal power. Giving yourself permission to speak your voice and say what needs to be said can begin with the little things and eventually restore such a sense of courage within you that you find the strength to truly move mountains.

You are capable of great things because you are greatness itself. Everything you seek is within you. Calm the mind and all will be known in divine timing. 

Much Love and Empowerment,

~ Austin