‘In order to fly you must first set yourself free!’
‘In order to fly you must first set yourself free!’
I came across this quote during a seminar about the future of Greek education. It seemed so inspiring already from the beginning, but it is only recently I started to really understand what this really means and how it applies to our life.
Are you really free? I am sure you all have heard the story with the elephant that was imprisoned only by a small chain on a piece of wood. He had tried so many times when he was young, - and therefore not powerful enough- to escape that although now he was all big and he could snap this chain with minor effort he didn’t. He would not even try it anymore. He’s given up long time ago! He didn’t believe he could do it!
And that’s the whole point here. It’s one thing to understand something (intellectually) and totally different thing to know it and believe it at your core. The moment you believe it, only then it becomes possible. Before that, even if you try, you’ll fail. So you choose not to try at all because you deeply believe that because you failed in the past, you’ll fail again. And failure doesn’t feel good. Because again, you’ve made failure to mean something negative. You gave it a negative meaning. And how could you not? This is what was modelled to you around you since you came into this world. And for the first few years you wouldn’t care, because you were still operating from the innate knowing of the human nature: that when we fall we simply get up and try again. Up until then you had given it no meaning -mainly because you were lacking the intellectual capacity of doing so-. You just knew! But then, you grew older and started to perceive life through the eyes of the people around you. People that had already learned to believe that failure leads to pain, disaster and suffering. You were always praised for your successes, never for your failures. And in the best case you were at some point down the road reminded or retaught to treat your failures as lessons that allow you to reflect and see how you can do something different next time. But chances are high that you didn’t. And even if you did, you couldn’t really believe it anymore! I can certainly relate to this in my own life experience so far. So the question now is not if you are really free, but whether you feel and believe you are free!
Over the last year I’m feeling like a wild animal in a cage. I have all the fire and desire inside me to move forward, yet I am not. Or at least it feels this way. The truth is I am moving, I am moving so slowly that feels like a movie in slow motion! The last two months even I feel like I am in a constant dejavu. I am reliving last year energies, events and situations (not the same of course but quite similar). Does this mean I am not moving? Or that I am moving in circles? Does this mean I believe I am not free to move?
And here comes awareness and self reflection into play. What am I choosing to believe then? Is it easy to realize it’s only your beliefs that keep you “stuck” or moving you in circles? And how easy is it to just decide to change your beliefs in the first place? Your beliefs form your identity, your sense of self, and the external environment and relationships you’ve formed over the years. Again, understanding something intellectually is one thing, but it’s totally different applying it in practice. When you choose to change your beliefs and your mindset, that practically means you’re opting to change your whole life; along with your (most intimate) relationships. And changing (specific aspects of ) your life can be very scary for most of us. Because the human nature loves stability and connection to feel safe, which interestingly enough, comes in contrast with our soul’s nature which loves expansion and change! So, can you find your balance between these aspects? That’s the game! That’s the game we are all here to play! Either we are conscious of it or not. Try to balance these two aspects of yourself out and you’re up for a really interesting life experience!
But don’t be fooled to believe that there is only a singular static balance point! That’s an ever changing and evolving balance you’re seeking. You can think of it as the position of a tree leaf in a river. As the river flows, the leaf needs constantly to recalibrate it’s balance point to keep it flowing at the surface. The leaf is “wise” enough to know that it has no control over the current of the river. The river just goes, just flows. The leaf can only control itself, its own balance point! That’s the nature of life, right? So why do you believe that the human nature would be any different than this? The illusion of the human mind, in the analogy above, is that it believes it’s in control of the river current! But the fact of the matter is, it’s not. Difficult concept for the human mind to grasp! The stronger your intellect the more you tend to believe in this illusion. I know from experience…
But this is illusion you need to drop when you’re feeling “stuck” so that you can fly free. The question is…do you believe you can? Because the moment you believe it you’re already free! Just fly…and enjoy the view!
