Self-Liberation
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It’s been said that better questions lead us naturally to better answers, and that it’s in not knowing that we open the doorway to knowing. I’m Scott Lennox and you’re listening to The Beautiful Question, a consideration of things that truly matter in a complex world.
Photo: Team One
We talk a lot about freedom, but what if I told you that true freedom is self-bestowed and that each of us is holding our own key to liberation? What then?
Join me this week as we consider ways of liberating ourselves from the ideas we’ve been using to hold ourselves hostage. Stay with me.
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You know, regardless of what you’ve been told or what you may have been taught along the way, you weren’t breathed into existence to become a better person.
The truth is, you’ll never be a better person. It’s not your job. It’s not your function. It’s not your purpose. In fact, it’s just not possible.
Having said that, I’m aware that countless books and seminars and classes and legions of people will tell you otherwise, and will be more than happy to take your money in the process. “Be a better person” is one of the grand myths that’s offered to us in a thousand different forms, some of which even seem credible at first glance.
But let’s take a deeper look.
Without a doubt you can learn more effective ways of doing countless things from changing jobs to changing a flat tire to changing your behavior to changing your thinking. You can learn better ways to crack an egg (That was a big help to me in the kitchen—fewer pieces of shell to dig out.) You can learn how to crack a safe (Probably best not to try that one!) You can learn how to be in a healthier relationship with someone else or with yourself (I highly recommend that one.)
You can learn ways of carrying yourself with greater integrity or ways of building a successful business that will earn you piles of money that you can philanthropically give away to others. You can study medicine or firefighting or a hundred other things that will help you spend the rest of your days saving lives if that’s what you choose to do.
You can go live in a monastic life in the mountains of some far away country or spend thousands of hours volunteering or earn any number of advanced degrees.
But through it all, regardless of what you do or how well you do it, you’ll never, never become a better person.
The reason for that is a profoundly simple one. The person you are—your true and incandescent self—is already completely valuable, completely wonderful, completely whole and intact, and completely and wondrously free.
Let that sink in for a minute.
The person you ARE is already good enough (whatever “enough” means), right now.
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I’m not suggesting that you throw out your self-help books or that you stop going to counseling or attending seminars or working out every day, or that you stop learning and growing. Any of those might prove to be extremely useful in helping you accomplish new things.
What I am suggesting is that regardless of how much or how little you change your outer self, your inner self—your innate self—is exactly the way it needs to be, right now.
If anything, we’re here to learn how to step out of the way of the things that block that our luminosity—things that keep us from fully shining every day. We’re here to get out of our own way and become more resonant with the good things that are built-in to each of us.
To paraphrase Albert Einstein, we’re here to liberate ourselves from the self-imposed prisons of our own thinking and ideas by living with greater compassion and kindness, starting with loving and accepting ourselves exactly the way we are.
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To consider that from another perspective, here’s a simple exercise for your heart and mind.
From the place of your wise and compassionate inner self—the deep part of you that doesn’t struggle—imagine watching your three-dimensional outer self coming slowly toward you from a distance. Imagine yourself luminous and intact as you quietly observe the “you” who feels frustrated or angry or defeated or not good enough.
Now imagine spreading your arms wide in a greeting of unconditional love and acceptance and kindness as your outer self comes closer.
What happens next? What happens when you freely offer yourself unbridled love that is absent of judgment or criticism or blame or second-guessing?
Looking at it from the other side, what happens when you step into the warmth of that kind of love and freedom?
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This week’s three Beautiful Questions might be a great way to find out.
One: What persistent thoughts or ideas have been keeping you from fully and openly loving yourself?
Two: What do you know about where you got them and the kinds of personal restriction those thoughts have been producing?
And Three: Whether it’s self-compassion or deep listening or something else entirely, what inner key are you carrying, right now, that would unlock the door and liberate you from your personal prison of self-restricting ideas and beliefs?
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As you think about these things, as you consider them well, I’d love to hear what comes to you. Write and tell me about it.
As I say each week,
My Light with Your Light!
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Thank you for joining me in these podcasts as we keep doing the things we can to respond to life in increasingly effective ways. As always, I’m open to your comments and feedback.
You can be further inspired by visiting my friends at Kosmos Journal. That’s K O S M O S Journal. Their mission is to inform, inspire, and engage global transformation in harmony with all life. You can easily find them online at Kosmos Journal dot O R G.
And at thebeautifulquestion.com, you can read the illustrated transcript of each podcast as you listen. You’ll also find an archive of all previous podcasts, including episodes three and four, guided relaxation audios that can help you practice letting go on a daily basis.
If you find these podcasts useful, don’t hesitate to share them or tell others about them. That’s a great way of helping me get a voice of calm and collaboration and balance and encouragement out into the world.
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I’m Scott Lennox, and this has been The Beautiful Question.
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The Beautiful Question is a One Light production, written, produced, and engineered by Scott Lennox at HeartRock Studios in Fort Worth, Texas, as a way of paying forward to life, being fully present, becoming better engaged with things that truly matter in a complex world, and committing to a healthier future for all of us.