Blog Posts
Freedom to be me
Hey friends, welcome back to the blog. Today I am going to talk about ways we as individuals can feel more free in our lives.
Freedom can be having the ability to express yourself without guilt or shame, feeling authentic, and feeling joy or happiness. Feeling free can be important for many reasons. For example, it can help with self-esteem, self-awareness, self-expression, communication, and to help build a meaningful life. Feeling free can also help reduce anxiety, improve mindfulness, and more openness in relationships.
Here are some ways to practice feeling more free to be.
1. Practice mindfulness: Staying focused on the present moment can help us feel more satisfied and fulfilled. Practicing mindfulness such as breathing, grounding, recognizing your five senses or temperature changes can help reduce anxiety. Focusing on tasks in the moment can help thought processes stay more present and reduce the tendency to spend too much time thinking about the future.
2. Speak your truth: We often feel least authentic when we get in cycles of “people pleasing”, we don’t say what we want to say or express how we feel, and don’t hold boundaries or say no. You can practice speaking your truth by sharing you thoughts and feelings with a trusted person. You can also practice speaking your truth by exploring the relationships in your life and determining if any could use more boundaries. Setting boundaries can help reduce toxicity and help us feel more free in our own lives.
3. Laugh & smile: Finding things to laugh and smile about can help reduce stress and improve overall well-being. Both can help reduce endorphins and boost your mood.
4. Practice gratitude: Finding positive things everyday can help us continue to look for the good. When we express appreciation it can help improve our mood and help our relationships. Focusing on gratitude can help us with resilience which can help us feel less weighed down in times of stress and feel more positive emotions.
5. Identify values that make you feel happy and find more ways to live by those values. They can help us live authentically and give us a sense of purpose and meaning. This may include practicing self respect if respect is a value. This may also include exploring your belief systems and how you would like to view yourself, others, and the world around you.
6. Learn to love and accept yourself: This can include learning to enjoy your own company and alone time. It can also include practicing positive self affirmations and self talk. It may also involve challenging negative belief systems that no longer serve you.
7. Practice self care: This may include spending time doing things you enjoy or exploring hobbies. If #7 is challenging you can start with practicing more self care.
8. Prioritize health: Focus on exercise, getting enough sleep, and eating food that makes you feel good. Exercise helps release endorphins. Sleep is vital for us to function at our best. The more our sleep is impacted negatively the more we struggle mentally and physically.
9. Let go of other people’s opinions: focusing more on what makes you happy and less on other people’s opinions can help you feel more true to yourself and less weighed down. This one will probably be hard for my people pleasers. That may be a post for another day. The important thing here is that other people’s opinions won’t help you feel more free or authentic in your own life.
You may notice some of my other blog posts have some similar ideas. They are important when trying to improve overall well-being. The two things I recommend starting with is practicing more gratitude and practicing being present more with mindfulness.
Thanks for reading, until next time.
Emilie Barragan, LCSW
Therapeuo Health – “Tackling physical and emotional pain”