Where to Start? What do you want?

Edition 108 -- Estimated read time under 5 minutes

When clients come into my office one of the topics that often is brought up is a sense of feeling frozen or blocked. What would it be like to be free from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to find this kind of inner peace and freedom. Be untethered and truly walk an authentic path.

To some those questions may seem rather unreachable or profound, especially if you are in the midst of a crisis, addiction and feeling the pressure to make a choice. Whether this is your first exploration of challenging these questions or you have been on a consistent search of liberation I am going to offer you some tools to transform, make choices and live authentically.

The Voice Inside Your Head.

Why can’t you sleep? Why is it that you never seem to get anything done? Are you finding your self over consumed with everyone else’s life via the Internet, porn, or television shows about nothing?

Have you ever wondered why we distract? I like to think it’s because we are afraid to hear what we are saying. In case you haven’t noticed, you have a mental dialogue going inside your head that never stops. It just keeps going and going.

Step One –Embrace the inner voice. Please take the time to step back, examine this voice, and get to know it better.

One way to liberation is embracing your true voice. True personal growth is about transcending the judgment of what you are thinking by exploring it.

Make It Bigger!

Carl Jung, a brilliant psychologist who coined the term Active Imagination. This is when you let one thought lead to the next and then to the next. In a sense this is daydreaming. We ask are kids to do it, we actually encourage it.

Step Two- Keep growing the story. How often are you able to talk about a goal or a dream only to stop it or tell yourself you can’t do that? It is argued that active imagination can be achieved naturally during intense states of relaxation such as when listening to a story or drifting off in thought. Just when your about to squander the thought, squash the idea –Make it BIGGER! Continue to develop the thought, let the idea grow. Tremendous fear and turmoil can freeze you in making a decision. Active imagination opens you up to possibility. And yet I am not asking you to jump into the idea just yet. It’s a way to manifest what your possibilities are.

Give Yourself The Possibility To Consider.

I know exactly what you’re thinking… Now I have lost it. I’m asking you to – Be authentic, be imaginary, talk to yourself and now your adding be non-committal. The possibility to consider? What I am suggesting by this is that when people are exploring transformation, it takes a great deal of courage. Transformation, authentic living – even simple change takes a great deal of bravery. I am simply asking you to know that all of your transformation can be done with a viewpoint of considering the possibility of what it would look like on the other end of making a commitment to change.

Step Three- Find your sweet spot. We all know when we are getting pushed too far. Explore your comfort zone by considering when enough is enough.

For example, you’re struggling with staying in a relationship or facing the addiction that has been on your back for years. Use the active imagination and turn the volume up in your head and ask yourself—what is the possibility to consider what life would look like in a new relationship model, or living without the burden of addiction.

First Thing – First

Again, so simple right? Ok then why are you still lost living someone else’s life, doing things you don’t want to do. Break down what you want by doing the first thing you can manage to do. Don’t try to climb the mountain in one day and don’t get caught doing things that are last on your list.

Step Four- Find out what needs action now. Maybe it is as simple as recognizing you need someone to talk to about your thoughts OR maybe you realize that your lost in doing everything for everyone else and have never put you first.

Unfortunately, transformation and authentic living often times can be masked with the essence of truth and diluted with mystical words. If you want to find your authentic—true self, you must take it very slowly and keep it very simple. Otherwise, you may miss it, though it is right in front of you. And of course be gentle…

Dr. Ryan Westrum is a clinical psychologist that specializes in working with individuals and couples searching for authentic living and being true to themselves. You can reach Ryan for a complementary consultation at ryan@healingsoulsllc.comor 952-261-5269.