christevens1000
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| Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:09 am The Freedom of Abundance |
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© Copyright, 2003 - Teresa Romain. All Rights Reserved.
The Freedom of Abundance
by
Teresa Romain
It's early in the morning and the weather has cooled enough for me to be enjoying a
wonderful and life-giving breeze as I sit on my front porch writing these words. The sky
above is a gorgeous blue, the grass and trees all around me are a vivid green, and all
types of birds are chirping energetically. After the heat wave we've been experiencing, it
seems to me they are enjoying this cooler morning as much as I am.
Once again, I am awestruck by the abundance that is all around me - and often in the
simplest of things like a cool breeze or the freedom to be able to sit outside on my front
porch and "work".
A few days ago, as I was beginning to think about a topic for my writing, suddenly
"popped" in my head - a question I have not been able to get out of my mind. The
question was simply this...
"Freedom FROM what?"
This question was immediately followed by another, equally simple...
"Freedom FOR what?"
As I reflect on my own Journey of Abundance in recent years, I have become more and
more clear that abundance is, more than anything, about FREEDOM. So - I ask myself
now, "Freedom FROM what?" and "Freedom FOR what?"
My answers to these questions are different today than what they would have been 5-6
years ago when I first began my Journey of Abundance. In my earlier stages, my
answers were probably not all that unlike the answers most people would give.
Freedom from DEBT. Freedom from having to work in a JOB I didn't like. Freedom
from a BUDGET. Freedom from a busy schedule. Time freedom. Freedom to sit on my
front porch on a cool summer morning and "work". Freedom to travel. Freedom to set
my own schedule. Freedom to spend money any way I wanted. Freedom to do nothing.
Freedom to visit family and friends. Freedom to do what I love to do when I want to do
it. Freedom to exercise for an hour or more every day. Financial Freedom.
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© Copyright, 2003 - Teresa Romain. All Rights Reserved.
Get my picture? And, more importantly, is your picture anything like it?
I still consider many of the above answers to be valid and true for me when it comes to
what I mean by freedom and abundance. It's just that, in recent years, I've learned that
when it comes to abundance and success, the internals create the externals.
All of the types of freedom I mentioned above have to do with the externals. And so I
have begun to realize that - if I desire freedom in an external way, then it will and can
only result from internal freedom.
And so I'm back to my questions, i.e., "Freedom FROM what?" and "Freedom FOR what?"
I now understand that the process of accessing external freedom and abundance in my
life requires that I engage in a process of freeing myself from my internal thoughts,
beliefs, feelings, fears, limitations and "scarcity".
Most of all, I can only be FREE when I am free of all the conscious and subconscious
judgments I have about myself - as well as the ones I fear others may have of me. I can
only be free from a perpetually busy schedule when I free myself from past experiences,
messages or conditioning that does not let me ask for or receive help, that values being
busy and thinks that busy-ness is a sign of importance or responsibility or leadership.
More succinctly, I can only be FREE when I release the judgments I have about having
or not having a busy schedule. For example, if I fear the judgment of others, e.g., "If I'm
not busy all the time, people will think I'm lazy or not living up to my potential" - then I'll
never allow myself to have a "non-busy" schedule!
I can only be FREE to sit on my front porch and work when I FREE myself from previous
paradigms or beliefs about what work should look like, that "I'm not supposed to have
fun when I'm working", or that "work needs to be taken seriously".
I can only have the freedom to set my own schedule when I've FREED myself of internal
beliefs and past conditioning that tells me that "what I want to do isn't important", that
tells me that I need to be like other people, and/or that I should be a certain way, act a
certain way, or live my life a certain way.
I can only have the freedom to create my own life when I become FREE internally of
beliefs about myself that "I'm not deserving", "I'm not important", or "I should be happy
with what I have". Again, all of those things boil down to "judgments" I have about
myself, e.g., what I "should" or "should not" do, who I "should" or "should not" be,
including the judgments I have about having judgments! (Now that I understand how
disempowering and limiting judgments are, I frequently catch myself "judging my
judgments", e.g., thinking "I shouldn't be judging myself!) J
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© Copyright, 2003 - Teresa Romain. All Rights Reserved.
This internal freedom is needed in terms of money as well. I can only be FREE from
debt, FREE to make a lot of money, FREE to have complete financial freedom to the
degree I have FREED myself of "Money Messages" that have told me "I shouldn't expect
so much", that "money isn't important", that "you have to work hard to pay the bills", that
"money changes people", etc.
In truth, I can only be FREE when I am FREE OF EXPECTATION because (more than
you may realize), expectations "imprison" rather than free me - and they will have the
same impact on you. They do this by creating conscious or subconscious fear about the
expectation ("what if it does/doesn't happen?), by "setting me up" for more judgments,
by robbing me of my flexibility, responsiveness and creativity and, more than
anything, limiting my openness. (When I have an expectation - that's the only thing to
which I'm really OPEN...which is not being very open!)
As long as I am constrained, limited and disempowered by these internal messages,
thoughts, and feelings - I will not be able to achieve or experience the external freedom I
desire. One of my mentors, T. Harv Eker, describes the principle known as "The
Process of Manifestation" when he says, "our Thoughts create our Feelings which
influence our Actions which determine our Results." Thus, if I have limiting or
disempowering internal thoughts and feelings, my actions will be congruent with those
thoughts and feeling - and so will be my external results.
In a nutshell, any thought or belief or judgment or expectation or pattern I have that
LIMITS me robs me of my FREEDOM.
This idea of needing internal freedom in order to experience external freedom can also be
described with an analogy I've used for many years. This analogy comes from a
comparison that is often made between traditional, western medicine and alternative,
holistic medicine.
One of the most common complaints registered against traditional medicine is that its
efforts are focused on and directed by the symptoms a person is experiencing, rather than
addressing the body (and the person) as a whole. Thus, if you have a "sore arm", all
attention will be directed to relieve the pain in your arm. The physician may x-ray your
arm, prescribe therapy for your arm, give you "arm exercises" to do, give you a brace to
wear, etc. Again, all attention is focused on your arm.
By contrast, an alternative and holistic approach to treatment would, while paying
attention to your "sore arm", identify other places in your body and/or lifestyle in which
there are energy blocks, toxins, imbalances, etc. that would ultimately create the symptom
called a "sore arm". Having discovered these other blocks and imbalances, and focusing
most of the treatment on the source, the soreness in your arm would go away. In fact,
your entire body would be healthier. The removal of the internal blocks and toxins
resulted in the return of external health.
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© Copyright, 2003 - Teresa Romain. All Rights Reserved.
So it is for us on our Journey of Abundance and our quest for freedom. The process
requires that we begin to become aware of the internal thoughts, judgments, beliefs,
conditions and expectations that limit us, keep us stuck and "not free". Then, with that
awareness, we can then choose to learn how to and begin to reclaim our power from
them, i.e., to FREE ourselves.
This process, I have found, usually requires the support of others - coaches, mentors and
people who can give you a "model" for new thoughts, beliefs, actions and results. It is
difficult to recognize that a certain thought or belief is limiting you until you've been
exposed to a different, more freeing possibility or belief. After all, as Albert Einstein
once said, "A problem cannot be solved by the same mind that created it."
So, just as I have spent these past days reflecting on freedom, I now invite you to do the
same. Perhaps you will find my two questions as empowering, revealing, and
challenging as I have...
"Freedom FROM what?"
"Freedom FOR what?"
What are the internal areas in your life in which you can begin (or continue) the
process that leads to your own experience of having complete freedom and abundance
in your life?
To learn about other tools, principles & programs that
will support you to access abundance in all
areas of your life, visit us again at:
http://tinyurl.com/ktvey |
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