Recently, I've been asked about the practices I use to live a liberated life. I've been asked a number of times, so I've created this post as a means of sharing for anyone who's interested:
To live a liberated life, I think one best focus on oneself.
When we love ourselves deeply by cultivating an infinite amount of self love, we feel whole. As expressions of the same oneness, I find that when I feel whole (which I am), all feels whole.
I think we need to be uncompromising in the love we express to ourselves. I'll share with you some of the practices and tools I use to do so:
1) Play: play is a celebration of life. It is the acknowledgement that what I am now is enough. I am whole, and therefore, I have every right to play. I play every day as an act of gratitude for this life I get to live.
I play every day for one, three, sometimes twenty-four hours. For me, play typically takes the form of movement: dance, weightlifting, gymnastics, hand balancing, hikes, walks, etc., or hanging out with friends, watching something that inspires me, or simply doing nothing.
Play brings you into the present moment. Play helps you realize that there’s nothing more we need. There’s nothing to want for. There’s nothing external that will make you whole.
If you wait to play because you think you need to accomplish some goal first, you could be waiting forever, since there are always more goals to accomplish.
Playing signifies to the universe that you’re grateful for what you have—so grateful that you’re celebrating.
2) Unconditional Love: to the best of my abilities, I love everyone and everything, and I treat each and everything as a sovereign being that’s free to make its own choices. Therefore, I don’t judge anyone or anything for their choices. I recognize that they’re on their journey.
The unconditional love includes unconditional love for myself. I truly love myself.
3) Gratitude: I’m so grateful that I get to experience this life, and everything about it. I’m even grateful for the struggles, since I GET to struggle. I thank everything, including myself, every day.
4) Movement: movement is one of the most foundational elements to health and happiness. Exploring the realms of physicality expands our consciousness. The world begins to feel more like a playground, and life more like a dance.
There is no human endeavour not enhanced by the freedom that comes with a healthy and able body. Each day, we are given the opportunity to expand our movement capacity. Take something as simple as getting up off the floor. Many people's movements look ugly while they do this. But, what happens when we improve our ability to move, so that every movement becomes beautiful? To move with grace is to live with grace. And, to expand your movement capacity affords you the freedom to play. Your physicality is limited only by your imagination. What could be more fun than that?
5) Health: strongly tied to movement. By focusing on our health, we give ourselves the opportunity to vibrate at our highest vibration.
6) Nutrition: it’s important to be mindful of what you eat and drink. Everything you ingest influences your well being. I've researched nutrition extensively, and I observe the way different foods make me feel. Just because some study, book or expert suggests that a food is healthy does not necessarily mean that my body will respond favourably to it. Nutrition and health are dynamic, so I do my best to remain flexible with my nutritional beliefs and understandings.
7) Meditation: my daily meditation practice has radically enhanced my relationship with life. Meditation has the ability to improve all areas of life, and in fact, all of life can begin to feel like meditation.
8) Dance: dance has been one of the greatest things in this life for me: it's movement, a form of play, a form of meditation, it's celebratory, it promotes health, and dance expresses love and gratitude to the universe.
9) Exploration: there is so much to explore in our lives, and I've found it tremendously enriching to step outside of my boundaries and beyond my identity to see what exists in the places I'm unfamiliar with. I actively explore the world, my body, my consciousness, my emotions, other dimensions, relationships, ideas, concepts, people, and things. You never know where you might find your next greatest love, passion or lesson.
10) Acknowledging Darkness: when I encounter darkness or limitations within myself, I work to address them. As an example, I was recently reminded of an act of theft I committed when I was 17 years old. In that moment, I had the opportunity to rectify my wrongdoing, or to suppress the memory. Rather than suppress, I chose to contact the person I stole from, apologize, and offer a financial compensation. In doing so, I liberated myself (and everything else) from the energy of the wrongdoing. Whereas, had I suppressed the memory, I would have limited myself (and everything else), and that limitation could have manifest in any number of ways.
11) Purpose: my purpose is enjoyment, infusing the multiverse with love, and liberating all things from limitations. This purpose expresses itself through clean energy, storytelling, play and being present, amongst other expressions :) What excites and inspires you the most? Pursue that.
Love,
Michael