I used to assume that being free meant I could just do what I wanted. I could be lazy, I could just go with the flow. It was my life and I made my choices. At least I used to tell myself these things.
Over the years, I have come to witness the misperceptions with this line of thinking. Misperceptions that left me victim to the most difficult of opponents, my brain. You see my brain was, at one time, powered mainly by habits that weren’t really mine. I mean they were my actions, and it’s not like I had strange voices in my head, but they weren’t really me anymore. They were from my subconscious, patterned from early developmental influence.
Not to say that my childhood was abusive or difficult. Not in the least. We all share this aspect of development. But development is a continuum. It’s not fixed nor reduced to childhood alone. To continue to grow we have to first recognize the difference between habit reactions and thought based conscious thinking. Then we have to learn how to unlearn the limiting features of our psyche.
As I got older things obviously changed and I wanted to create new realities. Unfortunately for me that was difficult with my old self limiting habits still running shop. Then I learned about meditation. Meditation taught me how to see these self limiting habits.
Being a slave to subconscious thought patterns means that we are basing our decisions off of a rationale that isn’t even ours. Copycat type behaviour we’ve established in order to survive or make sense of our early environmental conditions. Strong only because it’s continued to be reinforced over and over again.
Meditation teaches us how to be conscious. The practice shows us how to maintain an awareness not tainted with imagery from the past. When we are conscious we are free from our subconscious patterning. Free from that victimized feeling of predestination. We can be creative. We can be whatever we want to be.
Zen, QiGong, Tai Chi, Reiki, Kung Fu. All of it – meditation.