Freelancing to Freedom

“Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.” – Astrid Alauda

I’ll admit it — I’ve cried in yoga. The first time it happened, I was a bit embarrassed. “C’mon Rach, pull it together here. What’s your problem!” Then the instructor clarified for me.

“We hold enormous amounts of tension and even emotions in our physical body, and certain postures help release this. You may find certain emotions coming up unexpectedly. Try not to focus on them — just acknowledge the emotion and then let it go.”

“Ok good, I’m not losing it!”

At a yoga class this week, another instructor reminded me of this phenomenon, which made me think of my goal for the week in a very physical sense: Don’t let the past weigh you down.

Month to month, year to year, in order to grow and improve, we must constantly reinvent ourselves. I remember being so excited to move out of the small town I grew up in and go to university just so I could become “someone new.” No one in the city knew me — I could break out of my old mould. Exciting stuff.

One of my high school teachers told me that the average person will change careers seven times. Seven times. I didn’t believe him. The number still seems high to me, but it’s clear to me now how often people change jobs, get inspired by new ideas, and take off in different directions, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But imagine going through all that change, all that reinvention, and never letting go of the past. We’re human. We hurt people, we hurt ourselves, we make huge mistakes that hurt our careers. All we can do is forgive (ourselves as well!), learn, move on. If we held other people to the same standard of perfection that many of us hold ourselves to, no one would ever progress or succeed. We would be angry, resentful, and ineffective.

Don’t look at your past as a burden — this will only hinder your future freedom.

I’ve recently been working with wonderful writer, Bob Chomany. His quotations always inspire me, and I thought this one was fitting for today’s post: “The future will bring only what we can carry. Any more than that becomes baggage in the past.”

This week’s goal: Remember the beach.

Song of the week: “Somebody That I Used to Know” – Gotye (Such a unique-sounding song!)

Namaste 

Rachel