Freedom of The Spirit

Freedom of the Spirit by Owen Waters
True freedom is the ability to express who you are through a natural flow of love and creativity.
 
It’s an Inside Job
Freedom is first gained within your consciousness. Then, because your outer life always reflects that which is within, you gain freedom in all aspects of your life.
Often, much of this potential flow of authentic life experience is reduced by inner blockages. These blockages of the natural flow of love and creativity are formed by the fear-based emotions that come with the challenges of human existence.
Fear is the common factor underlying all disharmonious emotions. For example, fear of inadequacy can lead to jealousy and hatred, fear of lack can generate an over-reaction of greed, while fear of being overwhelmed by life’s challenges can lead to control issues.
 
Welcome to Planet Earth
When you are born into the human race, you arrive with your own, self-made, personal life plan. This plan includes a list of the personal and societal issues that you intend to work through during this lifetime. Your carefully made plan includes the location and surroundings of your birth as well as your choice of parents. It also includes the friends and associates that you will be likely to meet as your life unfolds.
The personal and societal issues that we adopt in our lives today are generally based upon the consciousness of separation, or duality rather than unity. For example, one issue being worked through today is equality of the sexes. The Old Reality of separation consciousness demanded separation of the power of the sexes into societies based on either matriarchy or patriarchy. The New Reality, into which we are shifting, requires an equality of the sexes; an integration of that which was formerly separated into two. Every woman and every man today is playing some part in this massive societal adjustment towards equality of the sexes.
As the purpose of the entire human experience is to work through and transform such issues, it is appropriate that we seek an elegant solution to all of these fear-based issues. When enough people pass through the gateway into freedom of the spirit, then the hundredth monkey phenomenon will click in and, suddenly, the whole world will wonder why it hadn’t seen such an easy solution all along.
The Shift to the New Reality is a shift to heart-centered and heart-powered consciousness. Society is building up to a critical mass where consciousness will flip from ‘you versus me’ to ‘you and me,’ a shift from competition to mutual cooperation. Every day, more and more people are making this shift to heart-powered consciousness. With a little inner work, these individual transitions to the New Reality happen sooner and more easily.
 
Dissolving Blockages to Love
Inner work, primarily, means daily meditation. When you make meditation your number one priority each and every day, then you are putting in the time that it takes to transform those societal issues within yourself and to work through your own challenges.
During meditation, you also connect to a wider range of your own consciousness. The deeper layers of your own consciousness can provide you with insights that literally catapult you out of issue-based blockages. As you allow these blockages to dissolve into the light of spiritual consciousness, you become free to express your true nature and to follow your inner joy.
Spiritual study helps adapt your mind to expanded views of reality. There is a recommended reading list of modern spiritual classics on this web site.
 
The Illusion of Fear
Some concepts in spiritual philosophy also help along this journey into freedom of the spirit. For example, love and fear seem to act like two opposite poles of mankind’s duality consciousness. Actually, from the viewpoint of unity, love is all there is and fear is an illusion which detracts from the natural flow of love through you. Love is a basic component of the original Creator consciousness that fills the universe. Love, therefore, is always available and ready to flow naturally through your heart. You do not have to earn it or demand it, just let it flow.
 
Allowance and Acceptance
Another key philosophy in gaining freedom is “Live and let live.” When you allow other people to be the way they are, your energy is not absorbed in anyone’s futile dramas. Instead, you are able to use all of your energy to follow your joy and help make the world a better place. You can recognize, love, and accept the inner essence of every person you know, regardless of their outward behavior or how much it may seem to need improvement. It is this unconditional love which heals the world, person by person, and there is no shortage of its supply.
Acceptance of yourself is also vital. Accept who you are now, unimproved, with your current motivations and be thankful that you are exactly who you are. You planned to adopt a certain package of feelings and circumstances in your journey through life. There is nothing ‘wrong’ with you at any point along the journey. Things that appear to need improvement are challenges, not faults, so enjoy the ride and gain the most from the experiences that you came to explore. For example, the inventor, Thomas Edison, carried out over 6,000 experiments before perfecting the first electric light bulb, but he never referred to any of those experiments as failures. Instead, he called each one a step closer to success.
 
Gaining Freedom of the Spirit
Freedom from fear-based emotions allows true, unconditional love to flow through your heart and true creativity to fill your mind as you pursue your deepest inner joy.
When you see fear as the hollow illusion that it is and allow your heart to open to everyone in your life, then your actions are influenced, not by fear, but by your unconditional love for the people around you and, equally, for yourself. Unconditionally loving yourself means allowing yourself to develop loving relationships where mutual cooperation, not competition or contention, becomes your daily reality.
People’s greatest fears melt away in the face of heart-powered, inner awareness. Your intuitive insight is your connection to the part of your mind that knows each situation, even before it occurs. When you listen to that still, small voice within, you know where you need to be and when. With intuitive insight, you will never become caught up in unfortunate events that are not of your making. For example, if an aircraft is destined to crash, you simply won’t be on it. If you need information to bring yourself back to health, you will know where to find the answers that are the best for you. Even the fear of loneliness will never cloud your heart because, with love in your heart, you will never be left wanting for good company. 
Love and insight will pour from your heart if you let them. Give yourself the gift of true freedom, the freedom to express who you are through a natural flow of love and creativity.
 
This article was written by Owen Waters, author of "The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness"