Do What Feels Good And Find Freedom
The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the word freedom is often the "freedom of choice" that is generally associated with it. But, what if your individual choices aren't actually making you feel better or more free? Are you actually feeling like you're trapped in a mental box and need some help finding your way out? And there are so many things in life that feel good! Why do we restrict ourselves to boring, repetitive tasks when there's so much more on offer? This article contains very useful tips for freeing yourself from mental chains and achieving greater happiness through doing what feels good.
We all want to feel free, and to be able to express ourselves through our individual choices, but sometimes life is so hedonistic that we don't even stop to think about what we're choosing. We just accept it because everything else around us is doing the same thing. But there's more to life than mindless acceptance of the "norm". Take the time and pay close attention next time you find yourself just wanting to zone out and not really have any thoughts. Zoom in on your mental space and what you're actually focusing on.
This exercise should not leave you feeling bored or empty; if it does, that's an indication that you've spent too much time in this state of mind and need a change. To start with, I suggest taking one moment and just observing what you're actually doing. Shut your eyes and just focus on your surroundings. I mean really focus on it. Do you have anything to do during the day? Are there any specific things that you're constantly thinking about? Or are there parts of your mind that feel like they're fixing an inner struggle or working really hard, like they want to escape but are held back somewhere inside them? If so, this is the part where you want to get curious about what's going on inside of your head.
For a great starting point for this exercise, I recommend reading this article by James Wiltch: Feel Good, Be Free . It contains all the information you need to access your inner mind and create change. If you're still feeling a little lost, check out the links below for more on what this mental fixating actually is and how it can be changed.
Changing Your Mind: Mindful Awareness
Another part of this exercise is usually that we want to change something about ourselves. When I recommend people use their mind to change something about themselves, I'm not suggesting that you should sit there and think about how you want to be different from whatever it is you're doing now; no. In fact, I advise against that because it takes a lot of energy from your brain that could be spent working on solving other problems instead. So the main thing I recommend is making the shift from mindlessly accepting your current reality (the hedonistic state of mind) to a mindful awareness instead.
Since this article is about finding freedom, in particular, it might help you to look at what's free inside of you as opposed to what you want to change. What are you actually choosing? How are you choosing it? What do you feel like doing next? You need to take control of your choices and go in the direction that feels right. One great way to do this is through writing down all of your current choices so that they become more prominent. Your list doesn't have to be too long. In fact, it helps if it's only a few things. Start with the things that are the most obvious and work your way through them until you feel like doing something else instead, or you see a pattern starting to emerge.
After taking some time to decide on this step, you should write all of your choices down in a journal or on a piece of paper (this is called "mindful journaling"). This way, you get a good visual representation of what's going on inside of your head without needing to put too much thought into how to increase the amount of choices in this area just yet. By writing down everything that comes to mind and putting it on the page, you may start noticing things you never really noticed before, like a strong desire to be more creative, for example. This is the first step towards more freedom and choice in your life.
Taking Action: Choosing Your Choices
This is where you go from mindful journaling to taking action when it's time for something new to happen. When we take action, we're communicating with our body what needs to change in order for us to get better results. How do we reach the level of conscious choice that we need to get good results? Well, you can use the same technique as before. Write down your choices in a journal or on paper, and take notice of what happens in your mind when you have a newfound motivation to be creative or meditate for example.
What happens next is that things start to shift inside of you and you start feeling better about yourself as a result. The difference between mindful journaling and action is that when we take action, we're actually choosing something instead of accepting everything that's coming into our mind at once. Remember that being mindless is not the answer. You need to be mindful in order to take action. So every time you start feeling like something needs to change, you're no longer going with the flow of life and letting things happen as they do; instead, you're choosing something new. You're trying something out and seeing if it works for you or not.
When you act like this, your mind will accept your choice by letting go of whatever it was holding on to before, which allows for bigger and better things to happen in your life. Who knows? Maybe after making a few choices this way, you might even decide that what makes you feel good is not watching TV at night but meditating instead (or vice versa). This is how you change your mind and learn something new about yourself.
By now, you should be starting to create some good results. You've found a pattern that involves taking action on something new each day. This isn't just a feel good piece of advice; it's actually a proven way to have better results! Based on the research done by John Gottman, social psychologist and expert in positive emotions, people who practice mindful awareness have more positive feelings throughout their life than those who don't. So if you're tired of feeling depressed and unable to take action in your own life, maybe this is the answer for you.
Overcoming Your Limitations: Self Realization
One of the reasons why people can't access their inner self is because they have so many limitations on what they can do. They might feel like their body is weak and sick, or maybe they feel like they don't have enough money to make things happen. Whatever it is, there's a little voice inside of them that tells them they can't do anything different and that they need to accept the way things are. If you're having a hard time getting past these limitations, here are a few ideas that may help you out:
Accept the fact that you're never going to be able to solve all the problems in your life at once .
Conclusion
If you're ready to change everything about yourself, including your mind, I'm going to be honest. I don't know how long it's going to take for you to start seeing results. It might take a few months or even longer. You can't expect a quick fix and say, "Ok! The next time I feel like something needs to change in my life, I'll just do it!" because that's not how this works. In order for things to really change inside of you, you have to have some patience and practice active mindfulness (which is basically the opposite of hedonism).