Labor Day weekend has me in a reflective mood.  It’s been just over three months since I started my journey in being partially self employed and it has been a wild ride thus far.  Boston saw three double rainbows this summer and four within the last year.  To me this is no coincidence.  Astrologers have been talking for some time about how 2013 is meant to be the year of breaking down old paradigms and making way for a new way of life; one that is built on connection and community.  Well old paradigms have been breaking and crumbling all around me this year.  The new foundation still feels quite rocky and uncertain but has created and opportunity for a new way of being.  Like any big shift that rocks your world lessons are learned along the way.  Here are some that have been a part of my process.

1. In order for dreams to become real you need to be willing to risk everything falling apart.  In doing so, you then have the opportunity to learn that you were never truly the one holding yourself up fully all along. The Universe was holding holding you up as well, you just couldn’t see the help because you were too busy living the American dream of being independent. When I closed my eyes and stopped off the cliff, I thought “well the Universe wouldn’t have given me this opportunity to set me up for my demise.”  The job I have now landed in my lap and yes, it wasn’t meant for my demise but instead for my freedom.

2.  You may have miserable experiences because you are miserable.  You may be drawing more misery to you because that is what you are putting out there.  Yup it’s the old Law of Attraction I wrote about in my post, Psst I have a secret…..  These days I have fun with my work.  Some of the work at my new part time job is similar to my old job, some is different.  But I have fun.  I laugh, I joke and I am a part of witnessing people’s true struggles along the path to trying to become healthier.  I seem to be attracting grateful, funny, interesting people my way.  Once you liberate yourself from your own jail cell, you are free to be, create, and love fully.  My relationships have shifted too.  I imagine it’s happier for them to be around me as well:)  You will reap what you sow.  You will draw to you what you put out.  Free yourself and your journey becomes enjoyable.

3.  Just because you have liberated yourself from lock down, does not mean that everything will work out in the time you want it to.  It’s not a Hollywood chick flick.  Life is a process.  For me having patience with this process has been incredibly challenging.  I am a doer hence why I had to learn lesson number one.  I do have to say though, that I am noticing that the freedom I chose has begun to make everything fairly simple. Things only become complex when I go backwards in time and try to make decisions from fear based thinking.  When I meditate and be still, everything becomes incredibly clear.  Letting my intuition guide me rather than te fear seems to be making this process effortless at times.  Follow the yellow brick road, Follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow, follow, FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD!  Very, very true.  My gut is so much wiser than my head.  It knows who, what and where is good for me and what is not.  If I sit still with my gut instincts, it seems the rest will just flow. It has been a sobering lesson to learn that using my brain to create my future was what was keeping me locked in my jail cell. Things are now so simple without fear based thinking.

4.  The final lesson I will share for now is how useful it is to live from a grateful heart.  There are things in life that won’t go your way.  Opportunities that don’t become your opportunity.  Relationships that don’t work.  But instead of chasing after what you don’t have or seeing these as missed opportunities, it is helpful to see that they were never meant for you in the first place.  There are no missed opportunities, only space left wide open for what is truly meant to fill your heart and soul.  My fearful mind has me chasing what seems to be short term opportunities that take me way off course of the path I want to be on.  My gut and ultimately my heart, tells me “NOOOOO be still, right here, right now, something else is waiting for you to be calmer.” I get calmer and voila, it appears.  Having a clear mind has helped me to see that this journey I am on is far more than creating a business to be of service to others, it is to find my way back to my own heart.  On that journey along the way, I hope to share that love with all I encounter.  No longer trapped in my own jail cell of fear, I can laugh, play, joke and teach from an open hearted place.

I share these lessons with you to let you know if you are caught up in your own personal jail cell, life gets better when you set yourself free.  No one has to set you free from the career that doesn’t work, the relationship that is broken, abusive or lacking in love, the variety of other relationships, situations or places that no longer feed you.  You have the key.  All you have to do is choose when to open the door.

May you be free:)
Cheers!