Ep 147: Freedom of Spirit ~ The Art of Living Unbounded

Transcript

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truth ,and Transcendence, brought to you by being Space with Catherine Llewellyn.

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Today I want to talk about freedom, and I am distinguishing between internal and external freedom.

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So this word freedom has connotations of are there any limitations to our freedom being imposed upon us from outside us?

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But equally there are connotations of to what extent do I feel free within myself, in my spirit?

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And these are two different and yet related things.

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So some of us are very connected to our inner sense of freedom and some of us are not.

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Some of us are very connected to all of the things in our lives which we could argue are actually reducing our freedom, so rules, regulations, laws, restrictions and so on and so forth.

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I think this is a really important topic, because my particular bias on this is that we are all inherently free, that our spirit is inherently free.

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Nobody else can actually control our spirit.

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On the other hand, we can actually suppress our own spirit ourselves.

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Now we could argue that if you've been captured in a war and you're in some sort of awful torture situation, that somebody else could actually crush your spirit, and I think there is an argument for that, that someone else can crush your spirit, and I do think that some people do live in really appalling situations or have appalling experiences where their spirit then feels crushed.

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But I also think there's an argument for saying the degree of freedom of spirit that somebody has will also tend to strongly influence how crushable that spirit is.

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So when we're very in touch with our inherent freedom of spirit, it's much more difficult for external factors to crush us and to make us feel not free.

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So it's all on a scale.

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Really.

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We go through different experiences in our lives where we feel more or less free, where we feel liberated, where we feel trapped, where we feel crushed, where we feel dominated, where we feel completely free to fly and do whatever we want to do and be whoever we want to be.

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But ultimately we only really know how free we are when we act on it.

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Otherwise it's just theoretical.

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And I've sat in conversations with people about freedom where people talk about it on the theoretical level and I've noticed that doesn't matter how much you talk about freedom on the theoretical or philosophical level, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the inherent sense of freedom that someone is experiencing within their own selves, which can manifest in a sense of wellness in the body.

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It can manifest in energy.

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It can manifest in imagination, sense of humour, versatility, plasticity, elasticity in the mind, in the creativity.

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All of these things can be an expression of an inherent sense of freedom of spirit.

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But that doesn't come about through talking about it and through theorising about it and analysing it.

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It actually comes about through acting on the freedom that we have.

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So, for example, if we are in a difficult conversation with someone who we love and there's something that needs to be said and we say it from a place of love and from a place of freedom of spirit, where your spirit is saying I am going to be truthful because I am free in this situation, I'm free to do that.

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I'm not going to be limited and restricted by my fears about being a nice person or not being a nice person, or being polite and not being polite.

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If I know in my heart that there's a truth that needs to be spoken, coming from love, and that that truth will actually be releasing for the other person as well as for me, I'm going to do it, and I might be in a state of panic whilst doing it.

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I might find it difficult to speak, my mouth might feel my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.

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I might be shaking.

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All of this might be invisible inside me.

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I might look really cool and fine on the outside, but on the inside I'm a wreck, possibly.

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But then I speak that truth from a place of freedom and suddenly my experience of freedom of spirit is enhanced significantly, as is that of the person I'm with.

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That's just one example.

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Another freedom we have is movement, physical movement.

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We actually have the freedom to dance.

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We have the freedom to run.

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We have the freedom to play.

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We have the freedom to lie on the floor and wriggle about and crawl about and make stupid sounds.

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We have all sorts of freedoms when it comes to our physical body, in terms of movement and expression, but do we actually act on those?

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Do we express those?

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And the less we express those and act on those, the less free we actually feel.

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Because one of the things about the experience of freedom of spirit is it's affected by how we actually live.

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So if we live free, we're going to feel free.

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If we live not free, we're going to feel not free.

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So, part of this, there's a, if you come across transactional analysis, also known as TA.

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In TA.

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There's a whole category of behaviours called pastimes, and pastimes are patterns of behaviour that people employ, largely subconsciously.

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That people employ that help them to avoid the experience of being in the present moment.

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They help people to escape from the actual experience of the present moment.

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And one of these pastimes that I've seen a lot of in the last few years is called Ain't it Awful?

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And the Ain't it Awful pastime is where somebody talks on and on and on about terrible things are On and on, and on and on and on, and if you're with someone who's doing the Ain't it Awful pastime, there's this sense that the sentence is never going to complete itself and that the litany of doom is never going to end, because in the Ain't it Awful pastime there is no end.

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And if you engage with that person and start to say, well, actually you know there is an upside in that situation, they'll just switch to another situation and they'll keep going until they come up with something you have no answer for, by which point you've lost the will to live, and that person is just off on this weird I think it's weird kind of trip of doom and gloom and negativity.

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Some people really enjoy the Ain't it Awful Pastime and some people do it for their entire lives.

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And there are whole TV shows which are basically based on the Ain't it Awful Pastime, where everybody is miserable, no one's got any money, people aren't very well, the weather's terrible, it's always cold and raining.

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You know, it's just very depressing, and investing our energies into an activity like the Ain't it Awful Pastime Actually makes us feel not free.

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It actually beefs up and confirms and reinforces any sense of lack of freedom that we might have.

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Whereas if we go the other way and we look for the beauty and the miracle and the wonder in any and all aspect of life and we express that and we treat ourselves in that, that we celebrate and appreciate the fact that we can move a hand, we can stand and walk and dance and sing and love and play and all those wonderful things, we will then have more of an experience of freedom, experiencing freedom because we're exercising that freedom in that way.

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So when something happens and we are then restricted, we're arrested or we're locked up in prison or we have a horrible accident and lose one of our legs or one of all sorts of things that can happen to people and do happen to people and that can contribute to a sense of feeling not free.

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If, prior to that and also during that, we're embracing our inner, inherent freedom of spirit, then the negative effects of those limiting experiences are going to be greatly reduced for us.

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So I'm not being naive here.

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I'm not saying if you just think about, if you just believe that you're free, you're free.

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I'm not saying that because this is actually work.

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This is actually much deeper than just believing something or just giving it lip service.

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This is about investing in a deep and profound inner sense of self, a deep and profound relationship with your experience and perception of what life is and what the world and the universe is.

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And it has to be truthful, it has to be authentic.

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Otherwise it doesn't work or only works temporarily.

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So do we exercise the freedom that we believe we have or do we not?

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And what effect does this have on us?

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So believing in the idea of being not free is a victim orientation, and being connected to the inherent sense of freedom is a sovereignty orientation.

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And I think we all know the different effects of those.

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The victim orientation engenders stuckness, no imagination, despair, no energy, blame, irritability, alienation and, as I said before, opportunity blindness.

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And the sovereignty.

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Orientation engenders curiosity, imagination, enthusiasm, resourcefulness and creativity.

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So how do we find and strengthen our inner sense of freedom?

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By looking for and appreciating beauty, connecting with nature, taking responsibility for our experience, exercising our choice, allowing ourselves to move, dance, play, sing, allowing ourselves to love and be loved.

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All of these human experiences, and when we embrace them and we exercise our freedom in doing so, we are then strengthening our inner sense of freedom.

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And there's a beautiful little poem that one of my teachers, when I did the Five Rhythms Dance Movement Editation Training with Gabrielle Roth, one of the other teachers, a beautiful, beautiful teacher, whose name was Kathy Altman.

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So Kathy, if you listen to this shout out to you.

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And Kathy is one of the founders of the open floor movement practice, which is a wonderful thing you might want to look up.

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And Kathy, often, at the end of the day of a long, long day of dancing and sweating and aching and going through all sorts of emotional ups and downs, she would give us this little poem: May you be free, may you be happy, may you be peaceful and at ease, and may you know you are remembered.

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So, on that note, I wish you a beautiful week, much freedom and I'll see you next time.

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Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next time.

Ep 147: Freedom of Spirit ~ The Art of Living Unbounded

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