“Freedom is never given; it is won.” – A. Philip Randolph

Shackles of the past, chains of negative feelings, bars of reactivity and prison of bitter memories, regrets ‘n’ pains… Psychological bondages tend to create a lot of turmoil in our lives. These scars or wounds not only take a toll on us physically, but also create a lot of havoc in our psychological world as well.

When you are engulfed in the dark smoke of past bitter memories, emotional bleeding of twinges and unfathomable grief; your life comes to a halt. Your ability to forget and forgive becomes crumpled; you become unable to move forward in life and all the dimensions of your life (physical, psychological, emotional, familial, social, and professional, etc.)… Everything seems to get stuck at a dead end. Therefore folks, in order to lead a happy and well-balanced life you need to be psychologically liberated or free from the negative aspects that are bothering you. Many factors lead to psychological bondages. These bondages culminate in pain and suffering. Some of the common factors are:

Factors and life events leading to Psychological Bondages

  • Loss or death of a loved one
  • Break up in a relationship or marital discord
  • When afflicted by pain by someone you trust or love
  • Stress, anxiety, inability to cope in life’s situations and apprehensions
  • Loss of job, bullying or becoming a drop-out
  • Inability to forgive someone
  • Inability to get over the past negative and painful experiences
  • History of abuse, assaults and violence
  • Stringent relationships with family, peers, relatives and/or significant others
  • Prolonged ill-treatment by others
  • Failure and frustration; depressive feelings
  • Other triggers like environmental issues, alcohol or substance abuse, etc.
  • Social behaviors, social values, customs and norms
  • At times through observational learning

On this note, I would like to share some of the wonderful words of wisdom on psychological liberation by Andrew Cohen (March 29, 2010). He opines that:

“In the way that I teach, the key to our liberation is simple and direct: it occurs when we discover and recognize something that is more important. When you awaken to something that has infinitely greater spiritual, moral, and philosophical value than your personal problems, when you discover a higher perspective that is inherently more meaningful than the woes of your wounded self, those problems and woes won’t necessarily disappear, but they suddenly appear to be dramatically less important. Now, in a deep and profound and significant way, you are just not as interested in that personal world any more. And that’s how you find liberation.”

With the help of some amazing daily-life changes and techniques you can attain psychological liberation from your pains and sufferings. Here are some of the important ways that would help you in the process:

Accept and do not avoid

First of all you need to accept the negative situation and the truth that it has happened. The more you tend to run away from it or avoid it, the more it will run behind you and clutch you hard. In order to be free, you need to understand the boundation and its implication first.

Do not assume or apprehend

Assumptions and apprehensions are like the mental thought clouds that normally do not turn out to be true. Psychological liberation is possible when you have a crystal clear mind with an unflinching determination to deal with a given situation in the most effective manner.

Meditate and exercise

To fuel yourself up for the liberation process you need to recharge yourself with exercise and meditation. Physical work-out plus mental relaxation and meditation will help you remain strong, rejuvenated and focused on your motives.

Good lifestyle

Apart from meditation and exercise equally important is a well-balanced lifestyle. Hope you have heard the saying “Mens sana in a corpore sano”. It means, “a healthy mind resides in a healthy body”. This is possible only if you have a good lifestyle. Remaining sad and sick will thrust you off-balance and will make the liberation process even more difficult and gruesome. The more you are physically fit, more will be the ease with which you can resolve and liberate yourself from the emotional turmoil.

Do not indulge into the blame-game

We often tend to project the reason or trigger of our problems on others. This is quite normal. However, if we ourselves take the responsibility of our actions or try to understand the pros and cons of the emotional/situational turbulence… Then we can flip back to normal functioning a lot easily.

Forgive and let yourself free

I know it is a very difficult thing to do. How can you forgive someone who has inflicted you immense pain? It is a very difficult thing to do. But, folks if you can really achieve this or forgive someone or yourself…liberation will come to you faster. You will be the happiest person around. The more you hang on to the negative things, people or situations, the more you will hurt yourself. I guess you also won’t want this to happen. Try the art of forgiving and see its magic.

Learn the lessons

If we see the past or negative circumstances as lessons to learn from, then psychological liberation will automatically sweep in. We will get to know about the higher perspective of the entire scenario. Each and every situation that takes place in your life has its own meaning and significance. It either gives you something or snatches something from you and makes you even stronger. View life as a book and the experiences as the chapters or lessons in it.

Talk and express

If you seem to get stuck in the emotional turmoil and potential problems of your life, if you think that you cannot move forward any more, then talking to someone you trust or taking professional help also helps a lot. This will give you a direction and a definite flow.

Best wishes,

Sareeta