Never be Under Anyone's Thumb Again

I made sure everyone in my family had everything that they needed today and forgot to eat breakfast myself. That’s not how to be free. I cooked and cleaned, and then cooked and cleaned some more. That’s not how to be free. Like every night, I switched on the alarms of my home because I don’t want someone to break in. That’s not how to be free. I’m in a job that I hate but cannot quit because I need the money. That’s not how to be free. I’m starving myself for over a month now, so I can fit into that size 6 dress on my birthday. That’s not how to be free. So what is freedom? And can we live free? 

Mahatma Gandhi showed us how.

To truly learn how to be free there can be no better example than the struggles of Mahatma Gandhi. He was just 18 when, as a young man leaving India and his family, he traveled abroad to England to study to be a barrister. At the time there were taboos against traveling abroad. The young Gandhi had to deal with a young wife and child and a mother worried about the meat-eating, womanizing ways of the West! It was difficult to overcome the shackles of tradition, parental pressure, and fear of the unknown at the time.

Later in South Africa, the systemic racism and apartheid meant being kicked off a train, and being assaulted and humiliated numerous times. Gandhi learned to fight not only his oppression but also that of other compatriots who were similarly oppressed. Later in India, he fought for an entire enslaved subcontinent against the mightiest colonial power in the world at the time. How did one man manage to break so many taboos, unjust practices and laws, and other limitations? How did he inspire a whole nation to break their chains and to break them using peaceful nonviolence? In my latest episode, I speak about the formidable will of the Mahatma that made it possible.

How to be free in body, mind and soul.

Firstly, identify what limits and binds you. There could be external forces that limit you and bind you and place shackles on your freedom. Equally, there may be internal issues that bind you. These could be emotions such as anger that prevent you from truly realizing your potential. Or it could be fear that limits you – the fear of failure is often something that is a part of our conditioning, but it can be a powerful deterrent.

So to begin with, identify the chains that bind and limit you. If it is anger, what is the anger really about? Are you angry at the resistance from others or are you angry about your own diffidence? Think about what limits you – is it the inability to say ‘No’ to others so that you can say ‘Yes’ to yourself? It can be difficult to overcome the instinct to say yes, to agree. To transform those limitations into possibilities, there may be some unlearning for you to do, some breaking of those internal chains.

What you need to do is to truly understand the truth about yourself to take that first step towards breaking those chains. To understand how to be free in body, mind, and spirit, watch this video. Don’t miss it!