It’s easy in life to feel boxed in – by a job, a relationship (sadly), or people’s expectations of us – or by our own expectations of ourselves. We shoot ourselves in the foot because we didn’t do everything absolutely perfectly. How dare you. And since we’re grown, we have no one to send us to our room for being bad. Instead, we send ourselves to a small, constricted place, and confine our beings. We forget that “mistakes” are part of living – and in fact are how we grow.

My partner and I have developed a little thing we say. Sometimes we’ll look at each other, take a deep breath, and say, “Hi, human.” And the other will say back, “Hi, human.” It’s a way to remember that we’re each on our own journeys, and we choose to grow.

We’ll keep looking at what true inner freedom is and how to cultivate it. But for now…

Action: Meditate on the idea of finding more freedom. And perhaps try this exercise.