Part 1...June slips in on the heels of May, and quite suddenly amidst graduations, end of the school year and travel plans, we are plunked into the deep end of summer! When the timing of this letter coincided with Independence Day, I recalled this simple, yet enticingly profound quote from the famous poet, Robert Frost.
Freedom lies in being bold.
In this
season of warmth, restful replenishment and restorative deep breaths, sand
between toes and mounds of watermelon to be consumed, “being bold” really
doesn’t seem to match the lazy, hazy days of summer. With kids out of school, we exercise our
freedom of sleeping in, loosening the schedule and enjoying life without a
stopwatch of “where to next!” We are
free to read that book collecting dust on the nightstand, free to eat frozen yogurt
for dinner, free to let the kids wear the same shorts and flip flops day in and
day out and free to indulge in a Netflix series, or two J. Summer is a wonderful
opportunity to feel the splendid relief of checking “R and R” off your “to be”
list. So go ahead, enjoy scheduling
freedoms AND begin to set your sight on being very bold, as this next half of
the year awaits and unfolds.
Loving
to interpret another dimension of the concept of freedom and being bold, and at
the risk of embellishing Frost’s poetic intention, let’s consider delving into
the heart of “emotional” freedom. While exploring this concept of “emotional
freedom” with a client recently, I asked her what she would feel like if her
inner world was not plagued by guilt and shame.
Without pausing, she calmly replied “I would feel free.” Yes, she captured it. Emotional freedom is being relieved of guilt,
shame and self-remorse and experiencing contentment and appreciation. When we frequently struggle with feelings of
anger, despair and sadness we are imprisoned.
We become restricted and enslaved in our habits of passivity, fear,
clinging to what is the “norm” and believing there is no way out? How do we break free of self defeating
patterns such as the heaviness of shame, the digested pain of guilt and the
simmering resentment of being misunderstood or overburdened?
