Ep 183: Freedom, Sovereignty and Choice

What if the true essence of freedom lies not in the absence of physical barriers but in the liberation of our spirit from societal norms and self-imposed limitations? Join me as I share my personal journey of unearthing freedom as a recurrent theme in my life.  Exploring how questioning and breaking free from these social shackles can lead us to reclaim our inherent freedom of spirit. This episode invites you to view yourself as the author of your own experiences and challenges you to confront the self-critical thoughts that align with societal expectations.

Chapters

• 0:02 Exploring Inherent Freedom of Spirit
• 16:19 Exploring Spiritual Growth and Freedom

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Truth and Transcendence brought to you by being Space with Catherine Llewellyn. Truth and Transcendence, episode 183. Welcome back Today. Freedom. I had a very interesting experience earlier this year when I realized it was time for me to create my new workshop, freedom of Spirit, and I started working through some of the key lessons I've learned in my life and some of the key components and ingredients key themes, if you like of my life. And I was talking this through with a coach you know I had brought on to help me kind of, you know, focalize what I was trying to do. And I was talking about, you know, lessons in childhood, adolescence, early twenties. And she said stop, you have already described so much learning and all of it is about freedom and I haven't actually realized that at the time. And I realized that something has been a real blessing for me. I'm really grateful for it is this notion of inherent freedom. I've always, as far back as I can remember, I've always had this experience that ultimately I am free. Essentially I am free Now.

Speaker 1: 1:35

It's easy for me to say that I came from a white upper middle class family in southern England. I've never suffered any real hardship. I've always had everything I needed. I've never been particularly wealthy, but I've always had what I needed. So I don't really know what it is to experience deep hardship, and I also don't know what it is to be locked up or in some other way imprisoned in any physical and practical sense. But I do know what it is to feel as if I'm not free when really I am. So I do know what it is to feel trapped in, let's say, a bad relationship or in a job that's not satisfying, or in a body that doesn't feel right, that feels uncomfortable or carrying too much weight or stiff or heavy or unwell. And I do know what it's like to listen to friends describe aspects of their lives when they feel not free, where they feel trapped, restricted and squashed.

Speaker 1: 2:48

And the timing of this particular episode, I think, is also relevant, synchronous, in the sense that at the moment a lot of people are feeling kind of squashed, restricted, pressured. A lot of people are experiencing a lot of pressure of one sort or another, whether that's financial, whether that's to do with their work, whether it's in their family. But energetically, actually, in this part of the earth certainly, and probably in other parts as well, a lot of people are experiencing pressure and, depending on how we respond to a feeling of pressure. A lot of people are experiencing pressure and, depending on how we respond to a feeling of pressure, that can make us feel not free. So I think this idea of being inherently free is relevant and useful to explore, regardless of how privileged our life is, because as humans, we're quite capable of feeling trapped. When we are not actually locked up in a dungeon, when we're not actually a sex slave God forbid when we're not actually trapped in some sort of indentured occupation that we're not allowed to, we have no choices or the very, very limited choices, whereas actually, right deep on the inside, we have a spirit which, inherently, is free.

Speaker 1: 4:16

Now, this is interesting because I've had conversations with people about this and some people, when I talk about this, find it annoying because they don't feel free, and it's annoying to have someone say to them well, you are inherently free. So that's a natural response for some of us, and I have experienced that myself at times when I felt not free and someone has said Catherine, you have a free spirit inherently, Connect with that, you'll be fine. And I'm like thanks, not thanks. Spirit inherently, connect with that, you'll be fine. I'm like thanks, not thanks. So, so, um, and one kind of creature who's very, very good at knowing that they're absolutely free is a cat. And this cat knows that she's completely free to come interrupt me whenever she wants to. And I decided, for this episode, not to lock her out of the room. And, you know, she cried out for attention. I grabbed her, stroked her and suddenly she's absolutely fine. So cats don't care about whether or not anyone approves of what they're doing, they don't care about getting someone's approval, they don't care about complying, they just don't.

Speaker 1: 5:23

And it's interesting that Beautiful Sale came in at that particular moment, because I think that is the the key to reclaiming our freedom of spirit Not to try to be a cat, but to to actually recognize how are the social norms that we're following, how the patterns that we're following are the things that are trapping us. So the habits that we've formed as we've grown up, as we've needed to fit in with our tribe, as we've needed to be an acceptable member of the community, all of which is vitally, vitally important, and so it's inevitable that this happens all of this leads, in part, to an experience of not being entirely free. So one of our first steps if we want to explore this idea of inherent freedom of spirit is to say to ourselves what if, when I feel in any way trapped or restricted, what if I am actually the author of that? I don't mean I, catherine, I mean I, you listener, watcher of that. I don't mean I, catherine, I mean I, you listener, watcher.

Speaker 1: 6:36

If you say to yourself, what if I am the author of my experience of being not free? And the next thing that can often happen when we do that is either we say no, that's not true, I'm going to go and have some more chocolate. Or we say, oh, that is true, I'm a bad person, I'm a terrible person for trapping myself. Now that self-criticism is also completely in line with compliance with what we think will be approved of. It's almost like a kind of self-virtue signaling If I criticize myself enough, if I berate myself enough, then I'm a good person enough. If I berate myself enough, then I'm a good person, whereas actually I'm just a bit of a silly person because I'm causing myself pain to no avail. And I can say this humorously, because I do this myself, I've done it myself, we'll do it again.

Speaker 1: 7:24

So if we can suspend that sense of self-beration, if we can kind of hold off on that long enough to say to ourselves what if I'm the author of those experiences where I feel not free? And if that's the case, how am I doing that? How did I do that? Am I doing that through disconnecting from nature? Am I doing that through not loving myself enough? Am I doing that through refusing to accept help from others? Am I doing that through complying with things I don't really agree with? Am I doing it through pretending I know everything when I know I don't know everything and actually tracking myself in a nonsense? A nonsense, am I doing it by allowing myself to be driven by patterns?

Speaker 1: 8:22

Some people watching and listening to this will be familiar with the drivers, the transactional analysis drivers, and so one of those is be strong. Any, any any parent watching or listening to this is probably familiar with the be strong driver, because the be strong driver is all about I have to be strong for everybody else. I have to be there for them, and the downside of that is I must hide my vulnerability, my sense of weakness, my needs Now. So if we're driven by that, if we're compelled to do that, that traps us, because it's only one side of the story, it's only one aspect of us, it's not the whole of us. So anything that we do that is causing us to behave as if we are only part of what we are and who we are, where we're suppressing aspect of ourselves, hiding it, pretending to be something that we're not all of this traps us and makes us feel not free, and I think anyone can acknowledge that we all have many, many habits in life where we're doing this.

Speaker 1: 9:36

We're over conforming, over compliant, trying to fit in, be strong. Being strong is one example, be perfect is another. Um, hurry up is another. You know, get it done. Get it done. Try hard, try really, really hard. If you're trying hard, you're not doing a good job, you're not being a good person, or please others is the fifth driver. If we're always trying to please other people, that also traps us in an identity, in a mode, in a state, which is not the truth for us. It may be true that we love people and we want to help them be happy. Of course, it may be true that we want to get things done efficiently. It may be true that we would like to be resilient and capable.

Speaker 1: 10:24

There's a plus side to all of these, so pretty much any behavior that you can find that could be trapping us. Trapping you also could be freeing you. The distinction comes when you look at why am I doing it? Am I doing it because I'm driven to do it out of some sort of survival, some sort of ego need, or am I doing it by free choice? So the same behavior could be either one of those. So what I'm suggesting in this little conversation is that we have inherent freedom of spirit that we're born with and that is our birthright. That we learn to conform and fit in as we grow up and in the process of doing that, we suppress ourselves by denying who we are. If we want to reclaim our freedom of spirit, the first thing we do is to start to examine the things that we are currently doing that suppress us. And if we look at the things that we think other people are doing to suppress us, look at how we respond to those things.

Speaker 1: 11:33

There's a fantastic little story that I was told by one of my teachers, an incredible woman named Kim Ko and Kim, if you're listening or watching, bless you for all the incredible gifts you gave me in the time we were together. So Kim told me this story and told a group of us this story. So the setting is a Tibetan monastery. So you can picture the Tibetan monastery, up in the mountains, with the breeze and the, the sharp, bright sunlight and the thin, brisk air and the monks walking around meditating, contemplating, doing monkly things, very peaceful. And then, tragically, this monastery is invaded by soldiers who come in to take over because there is a whole suppression going on of this particular religious order. And they come in and they capture all of the monks. Some of them are slain and the leader of the monastery is dragged into the center of the square and thrown down onto his knees and he kneels there, he makes himself comfortable and he's completely calm. And the leader of the soldiers walks up to him and says what are you doing? How can you be so calm? Do you not realize that in a blink of an eye I could run my sword through your head? And the monk looks up at him and says do you not realize that in the blink of an eye I could have you run your sword right through my head?

Speaker 1: 13:22

Now, whether that's a true story or not, the essence of it is 100% true. There is always the possibility, always for us to choose what's occurring and to choose our own freedom of spirit within it. There's always that possibility. The degree to which we feel able to remember that, the degree to which we feel capable of actually making that internal shift of perspective, is the thing that varies from person to person and from moment to moment. One week we might be right there with the monk in that mode, the next week we might be. I don't understand it. I can't imagine being able to do that. We move in and out of these states of consciousness. So I'm suggesting this is a really valuable piece of exploration for us.

Speaker 1: 14:19

What if I already have inherent freedom of spirit, always have done and always will do? What if my responses to those situations, people and circumstances that seem to be trapping me or taking away my freedom? What if my responses to those things hold the lessons that I need in order to help me reclaim my freedom of spirit? And what if my examination of my behaviors can help me to understand what I'm doing to deny myself and suppress my freedom of spirit and can help me to let go of some of that and even more powerfully? We can just put aside every single thing I've said so far and we can simply instead say what if I connect with universal love 100% and fully, because when we do that, we are automatically connected with our freedom of spirit. Everything else melts away and dissolves. So why not just do that? Or why don't we just simply connect with the fact that we are one with everything and we are one with nature? That, as well, connects us with our inherent freedom of spirit. Or what if we simply connect with the fact that we have our own true voice of the spirit? And what if we simply choose to allow that voice to come out? This, too, will allow us to connect with our inherent freedom of spirit. Now, those are simple ideas. They're not necessarily easy to do, but any of those ideas will help us along this particular path.

Speaker 1: 16:03

I, of course, have led neatly to a point where I remind you that my freedom of spirit workshop contains all of these components within it, in a supportive environment and with other delightful, soulful human beings on the similar journey.

Speaker 1: 16:19

So you could come and spend a weekend with me and explore it, and that is absolutely not the only way to do it. There are multiple ways to explore these matters, and what I've given you there is the key components for this particular journey. So wherever you are in the world, whatever support structures you have in place, whatever internal frameworks for personal growth and spiritual expansion you may have constructed and fashioned for yourself, you can use any and all of those to explore these particular components. So I salute your inherent freedom of spirit and I wish you a fantastic week and I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you for listening to Truth and Transcendence and thank you for supporting the show by rating, reviewing, subscribing, buying me a coffee and telling a friend. If you'd like to know more about my work, you can find out about Transformational Coaching. To know more about my work, you can find out about Transformational Coaching, pellewa and the Freedom of Spirit Workshop on beingspaceworld. Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next time.