Freedom is a Feeling State

I have been thinking a lot about freedom lately.

Freedom.

What does freedom look like for me? Why do I yearn for it? I want the freedom to...(fill in the blank.) Usually, it comes back to me just wanting to be able to be exactly who I am in any environment.

That's it.

After a recent conversation with a friend, I realize that I feel out of my integrity (therefore less free) when I am in environments that don't allow for me to show up exactly as I am, where I am. Maybe they were with people or places or in conversations that I carry from my past. But, I have changed. We all change. And, what felt free for us in the past may not feel free for us today.

When we are out of alignment or integrity, it shows up in ways of discomfort and yuck. I don't want to feel that. I want to feel free - free to be me!

So, "what does freedom feel like?" is a better question. It is different for every person for sure. Think on when you felt most free? What was happening? What were you doing? Who were you with or not with?

For me, I have many....but one of my moments was when I was driving across country in my Honda in 1997....just me and my stuff...to live in Seattle while doing a summer internship at Seattle University. I felt alive. Alone yet empowered and independent.

I was ready for anything. I was listening to my favorite pump up tunes...taking in the views of this beautiful country...and I am sure I had licorice and a Trip-Tik from AAA on the passenger seat. The sunroof was open, the sun was shining down on me. My hair was flying and my sunglasses were mirrors of the amazing landscape all around me. Then...outta no where, something prompted me to take off my shirt, turn up the tunes and put the pedal to the metal. I was riding across Montana which had NO SPEED LIMIT. I gunned it for a very long stretch....

I was alive.

I was free.

There were no rules.

I had the ride of my life!

That is what freedom feels like.

I want to find more of that feeling - in the little and the big things.

What's yours feel like? I'd love to know.

With love -

Topless and Sunny