What does freedom look and feel like to you? Are you living it right now?
I used to look at freedom as one of those things that’s “out there” to be achieved. Actually, I’ve noticed lately that I used to look at just about everything as something “out there” that I had to chase after to achieve.
Whether it’s freedom, happiness, abundance or whatever, all of these things are inside you. There is no “out there” to get them from.
Quantum physics has proven that we’re all part of a continuous flow of energy. We’re all made up of the same stuff as everything around us. Each person is a sub-part of the whole and contains all the same stuff as the whole (I’m paraphrasing in a big way).
If that’s true, then we already have everything we need inside of us.
We’re already completely free.
We’re already happy.
We already have all the abundance we need.
We just need to know how to tap into it.
How free do you think you are?
Do you feel trapped and very not free in your current situation? Does the job or relationship you’re in make you feel like you lack freedom?
Well, I have to break it to you: You made all the choices along the way that put you in that situation. You exercised your freedom of choice and freedoms to act in order to land right where you are. You now have the power and freedom to make different choices.
You may think that you can’t make different choices. You may think that you have to stick with your crappy job because you have to pay the bills, you’re swimming in debt and the job market sucks so you’ll never find something better.
This line of thinking comes from a place of fear, resistance and thinking small. You’re capable of so much more than that. Really.
Resistance kills dreams
If you sit around thinking of how much your current situation sucks, you’re resisting your reality. Like the old saying says, “What you resist persists.”
I had a job that I hated. Every day I dreaded going to work. Once I was there I thought about what a waste of my time it was to be there. I deserved so much more and better.
The more I felt like that, the worse I felt and the more nothing changed. I just kept feeling worse.
Then one day the light bulb came on. I didn’t like feeling like crap every day. If I had to be at this job all day every day, I might as well see the bright side and just accept the way things are and accept the clueless boss and mind-numbing co-workers. They are who they are and there’s nothing I can do to change them (I tried).
Once I decided to be happy every day, no matter what, and let everyone be, act and believe whatever they wanted, everything started to change. I suddenly got calls for better opportunities. The things that I had been wishing for started to come true.
All I had to do was stop resisting the situation and accept it all as it was.
Don’t give up today’s freedom to your past
Your past choices do NOT dictate your future choices unless you allow that to happen.
I went to college and got an accounting degree. I did what it took to get and maintain my CPA license for over 20 years as I held various financial executive positions. I’m very good at my job but it’s not what lights my fire.
At 44 years of age, I’m working very hard on building this blog, this community and this business because it’s an expression of my true self and it excites the hell out of me to be able to touch so many people’s lives and make a real difference on a personal level. Sure my financial background will help with the development of my new business but everything about this new venture is completely new to me.
I made the choice that I want to make a difference and it didn’t really matter what I had done in the past. Actually, all those past decisions and plenty of mistakes/failures (aka learning experiences) helped to prepare me for what I’m choosing to do today.
I have a more authentic place to teach and coach from because of all the crap I’ve been through, dealt with and learned from. All the credentials in the world don’t amount to much if you haven’t experienced what you’re teaching.
I’m not just spouting the same old advice that I’ve read about in the hundreds of personal development books I’ve read. I’ve been there and done that and lived to tell the tale.
Make new choices starting NOW
I’m hoping to inspire you to make choices on a moment-to-moment basis that will open your eyes to the life of freedom that’s inside you right now.
Don’t wait until tomorrow to claim the freedom inside you. Life is all too short. It seems that the older I get, the faster time flies by.
In my next post, I’ll review specific areas of your life and ask you to consider how you may be limiting your own freedom and how you can change that.
Over the next week, I’ll also be sharing with you posts from other awesome bloggers about how they see freedom and how they’re living it. I can’t wait!
In the meantime, how can you start exercising more of your personal freedom every day? How can you start making new choices about how you see yourself and your world to open doors you thought were closed?
Create the life you want: Combine the law of attraction with mindfulness
The law of attraction suggests that our positive or negative thoughts bring about positive or negative experiences. My latest book, The Mindful Guide to Law of Attraction, pairs that belief with the powerful practices of mindfulness. Through intentional breathing, writing, and engaging, you’ll hone a method for manifesting health, wealth, and love―the elements of happiness.
Let the law of attraction work for you by adopting its basic steps of identifying and visualizing the things you desire. Then use 45 practical meditation techniques included in the book to achieve awareness. By concentrating your positive energy on obtaining your wants, you’ll give yourself permission to receive them.
To your happiness! ~Paige
You can find this book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Indigo.
The Mindful Living Guide
Love the take on resistance- what you resist persist as you mentioned. But the next step as you go on to point out that resistance kills dreams, so what are we ging to do? Your light bulb moment could sound “fluffy” but it actually takes guts! Alway enjoy coming back to read your posts! Many thanks!
Great post! True indeed that we should not wait until tomorrow to claim the freedom inside us. Life is all too short to be unhappy, so let us all make the most out of it. Thanks for sharing.
We’re all free to be happy whenever we choose. There’s no sense in waiting for someone or something outside of us. Thanks Lynne!
Hi Paige,
I love this post and I did something similar thinking back when I was in the corporate world. I actually asked the Universe for them to let me go and sure enough, I was released due to downsizing. I wanted to open myself up to new adventures and I didn’t want yet another “corporate job”. Not only was I released, but I got severance pay too!
I also had a girlfriend who worked around a lot of ladies who were very nasty to her at work. She would come home every day, call me up and complain. I told her that she should switch her thinking and instead of sitting at her desk sulking about how no one likes her she should start smiling and be happy. I told her to greet the other ladies with a smile and tell them hello and hope they have a wonderful day. Go about your day with a good attitude and don’t let outside interferences ruin her day.
About three days later she called me and she was shocked at how she was now being treated. Some of the ladies were even coming up to her and asking her advice. I just had to smile at that because what you think about, you bring about.
Congratulations on your program and I’m so happy that you are doing what you love doing now. I think it all takes us a little time to finally “get here” but if you keep the thinking in line with what you want to achieve, it will come.
Enjoyed this post Paige so thank you for sharing this today.
Enjoy your weekend.
~Adrienne
Thank you so much Adrienne!
Funny how such a small and easy shift in our being can create such a dramatically different outcome. Anyone who doesn’t smile on a regular basis needs a little bug in their ear with your voice reminding them to smile. 😉
Nice article Paige. I especially like the paragraph on not giving up our freedom to the past. This seems to be the main stumbling block for a lot of people. I know it was for me for a long time. That leads to the thought we are not free and don’t have a choice. For me it was a matter of repeating the mantra, “I am superior to my circumstances, there IS something inside me that is better than my current experiences.” The notion that you mentioned that through quantum physics we have learned we are all a sub-part of the whole and have all the necessary energy to produce what we desire is powerful. Thanks again for another wonderful and insightful aricle.
Thank you very much Stephen!
Yes, it’s crazy how many ways our monkey mind can dream up to keep us from moving forward into (awesome) uncharted territory. Love your mantra!
“We’re already completely free.
We’re already happy.
We already have all the abundance we need.
We just need to know how to tap into it.”
YES, YES, YES! Isn’t it awesome to know that it’s never to late to do life “right” – meaning the way it’s meant to be lived. You are on a wonderful path and shedding light on others along the way!
Thanks Aileen! And so are you!
Sometimes I get frustrated and wonder why it seems to have to take so long to figure all this out. I’m wondering if it’s possible to teach all these lessons to my kids early on by my examples or if it’s just something that can only be learned through experience. Or maybe it’s a little of both.
Hopefully by sharing as much as I can, I can help many others take more of an “express route” to happiness. 🙂
Reminds me of my favorite Wayne Dyer quote, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” You have a choice… it’s so true!! Very well written Paige.
Great quote Betsy!
It reminds me of the time, many years ago, when my husband and I were having serious issues. I told him that I couldn’t focus on the relationship (we seemed to be repeating the same negative patterns) and that I was going to focus on myself for a while (while I saw a therapist and read a lot of personal development books). It was “miraculous” that, the more I worked on myself, the more he changed.
Thank you so much!
I do think our choices make a difference. And I think the exterior is real – we choose from available choices.
Our choices are everything Evan. And it’s important not to limit ourselves by only choosing from “available” choices. There may be many different options that we didn’t consider until opening ourselves to others.
Thank you!
I DISAGREE… with only a couple of things.
Oh Paige:
I agree that we shouldn’t focus on our past decisions as we have the opportunity to change what we’re doing RIGHT NOW. Yes, this makes sense – I agree and understand. And, on a sided note, CONGRATULATIONS on your new project (:
The only thing I find disturbing is this: “Well, I have to break it to you: You made all the choices along the way that put you in that situation.” This is a crazy statement to say because not everyone has the privilege enough to be put in a position to where the choices they made led to their current situation. Sometimes, certain groups of people are put in their current situation (not free) and it isn’t their fault (people who are oppressed).
Some people have a little bit more struggle than others…
However, remember I do agree on starting something right now. As in, for those people who are put in their current situations (because of the fault of others), I must say that it becomes their struggle to start something NOW, push, and seek the help they need to survive. Of course, not everyone has that luxury (privilege).
I like your blog, and I’ll be visiting often!
Thank you for pointing out my oversight Jonathan! As I mentioned Viktor Frankl in a previous comment response, he obviously didn’t have a whole lot of choice in being in the concentration camp. He was free to choose his attitude and how he dealt with it.
I completely agree that there are things (many things) beyond our control. We choose how we show up for it all.
My posts are intended for the very large population of the world who is not oppressed by nasty governments and other harsh realities. I’m guessing that most people in that situation probably aren’t biding their time online reading personal development blogs. 🙂
I think far too many (non-oppressed) people play victim and blame others for their current predicament. These are the ones I’m referring to. I played that role for far too many years of my life. It’s not a very fun place to be if you’re relying on other people to make your life better. Everyone is trying to make their own lives better.
So, no matter what your situation is, you can make a choice to do something about it. Like Viktor Frankl, maybe all you can do is exercise your freedom to choose your attitude. But it’s something and sometimes that’s all that’s required to stay alive.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment Jonathan!
Anytime! I’ll be back, can’t wait to read more (:
This post is relevant to everyone, regardless of where they are in life, because this is a situation every one faces, whether they admit it or not. Experience is a great teacher. Wonderful post, Paige. I love your insight! So true that resistance kills.
Thank you so much Vidya!
As you said: Experience is a great teacher. Unfortunately I wasn’t a very good student for a long time. We need to be open to the lessons and not resist them.
Paige…
A heartwarming, lovely post. A wise person once told me ‘You are exactly where you need to be’. I interpreted as meaning that yes, you do have choices BUT as you said, all of the life experience you’ve had leads you to where you are today. Thank goodness you are using your experiences and ‘re-birth’ to inspire others . I’m proud of you!! xxoo-Fran
Thank you so much Fran!
I’m so grateful to be where I am. If it weren’t for all the crappy experiences, I may not have made it this far.
And I’m so grateful to be connected with you, you beautiful soul!
Excellent post Paige and I give you a standing BRAVO!
I feel as if we limit ourselves due to fear – the fear of change, the fear of a new relationship. The evil for letter word FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real!
We live in our own private cages – I believe we fear being too abundant, too lovely, too beautiful and too happy.
Freedom is such a liberating word – to truly feel the freedom of life and the freedom of joy – BLISS!
In love and light,
Nancy
So beautifully said, Nancy!
Freedom has always been a very powerful word for me. For so many years I used to think, “If only x, y and z would happen in my life, then I could finally be free/happy/content.” After searching outside of myself for these things for so long, it was like the V8 head slap when I realized they were right there with me all along.
No one can be too much of a good thing. It implies that there’s not enough to go around. When you think about it, phrases like “not enough beauty to go around,” “not enough happiness to go around,” and “not enough love to go around” all sound pretty absurd. And that’s exactly what we’re saying when we say that we don’t deserve or can’t have any of these things.
We’re all made up of love, beauty and abundance. It’s just a matter of acknowledging what’s already there.
Paige,
Well said! I can’t wait to see your program. Congrats in advance. Let me know how I can help you promote it.
Thanks so much Tess!! I have all the pieces laid out in my mind. Now it’s just a matter of making the time to create the physical version. Maybe I can figure out quantum physics so I can just send it directly from my mind to the minds of those who want it! LOL! Actually, given the rate of the advance of technology, this probably isn’t too far out there. 🙂
You are so RIGHT! When I got into a financial sticky wicket (and no I’m not english, lol… why I just used that phrase I don’t know!) I realized that it was ALL my fault, my choices, my dumb decisions. Yes, the economy being in the toilet helped… but the big picture was ME. Admitting it and changing it was the hardest and the easiest thing to do respectively.
What a great post! You totally reap what you sow. Such an old wise saying!
And as for Quantum physics, lol. I tried hard to study this once. I can only take it in bits and pieces. Until they write a Quantum physics for dummies. (Although I think there actually is a book like this and that one hurt my brain too.) Tough but amazing subject!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t study a lot of quantum physics but I highly recommend the video “What the Bleep Do We Know?” It talks about the convergence of religion, spirituality and quantum physics – basically that science is proving what has been known for thousands of years on a spiritual level. It explains quantum physics in a way that just about anyone can understand. And it really makes you re-think so many beliefs that we consider to be “facts.”
As you’ve beautifully stated, Sheila, taking personal responsibility to fix the problems in our lives is both the hardest and easiest thing to do.
Thank you!
Lovely post, Paige! It makes me think of a quote I read earlier this week that went something like “we’re sometimes free to choose our circumstances, but we’re ALWAYS free to choose how we respond to them”.
I’ve been focussing on choosing my responses more mindfully over the past while, and your post and reminded me of that focus.
Blessings – TANJA
Thank you Tanja!
Your quote sounds like a similar quote from Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning. He was a prisoner in a concentration camp in Germany during WWII (couldn’t choose his circumstances). His quote: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Another of his gems is: “Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Choosing different responses can make dramatic impacts in our lives. Keep with it!
Hey Paige,
Whenever I come here I am reminded of so much life has to offer and how less I am actually doing and just thinking more. There are opportunities but certain things bind us from taking advantage of them, and most of these boundaries are set by our own personal inhibitions. We need to break out from these inhibitions and lead life as we originally thought we would.
Thanks for this Paige. You are definitely an inspiration!
Thank you very much Hajra!
You’re right on about almost all limitations being in our minds. The ultimate question when faced with an opportunity: What’s the worst that could possibly happen? That usually gets me into action.
Keep being an inspiration yourself!
Paige,
I love you thought process and the way you are writing about it. When I see your posts I want to read them. There is always real life good stuff in them.
This one rung out to me as well. Just today I had a huge realization. One of the things I have been working with some of my coaching clients recently on is when you don’t like someone or someone makes you angry, for the most part it somehow points back to you. Today… I had a big awwhaa. It was one of those “tiff” things with my own husband who I view as really different then me. The things that bug me so much about him having nothing to do with the way I react to things or my choices! Right. Like these things don’t apply to me.
I do actually practice what I teach. I found out today that what bugs me about him is really about me! It may look a lot different in the “things” we are doing but never the less. On any account, your article said to me, yes, I did make all these choices and it is me who can choose to react differently to that person I live with all the time too! Some of that comes in what I choose to do every day.
Huge Mahalo 🙂
Thank you so much Jt!
Funny that I’ve been going through the same thing with my husband. For years there were two things about him that drove me crazy. While I understood the concept that I have those things in me, it took me years to finally see them. Just like you said – it looks different in me (at least to me it does) but it’s exactly the same thing.
It’s so liberating to finally see the source of the hot button in ourselves so we can finally do something to resolve it. No more hot buttons!
So glad I can help!!
Great, great post Paige! Thank you.
Thanks Brian! And thanks so much for the share!
Love your latest post. After receiving beets in my CSA box, I have learned to absolutely LOVE them!
Hi Paige,
Congratulation on your upcoming program. It take a lot of courage to be stepping out from what is familiar and comfortable. You’re doing something new and you’re passionate about. You are a wonderful example and you’re making a difference with your life. You’re not just talking the talk you’re also walking the walk.
I totally agree with everything you said in this post. It hits very close to home. I spent many years looking for happiness and freedom in all the wrong places. I’m grateful to say I finally realized that indeed I have everything I need within me to be happy, successful and fulfilled.
I too am in the process of transitioning from working for someone else to working for myself. It is so nice to see so many other wonderful people following their dreams and passions. It shows that it is possible for each and every one of us. We just need to have the courage to look within. We have all that we need to be happy and successful.
Thank you for a beautiful message. Wishing you many blessings and peace,
Neseret
Thank you so much Neseret! I think that the more of us who are making this transition get the word out and tell the “real story,” the more we can inspire others to do the same. The process isn’t always easy but it’s so worth it!