My Everyday Mystic by Jan Puta: blog for the soul

The right to speak your truth, be who you are, and live your life to the fullest can be compromised if you loose your self-esteem or surrender your personal power.

At first it sees like a trivial thing – giving in and doing whatever someone else wants to keep the peace or to make friends. The more you give in, the more they demand. Eventually you find yourself trapped into doing whatever you have to do to be accepted into the gang, the club, or the clique.

Like the characters in the spiritual allegory, “The City of Chains,” you’ll feel like you’ve got chains around your neck, wrist, and ankles. Chains that keep you from saying the things you’d like to share because you think no one will listen to you. Chains that keep you from offering your skills and talents because you’ve heard that there’s always someone out there who will take advantage of you. Chains that keep you from moving ahead because you’re afraid you’ll make a mistake.

And like them, you’ll go on pretending that this is normal and just something to put up with.

Until you see people showing up around you with such freedom, joy, and happiness that you can’t wait to find out what they know that you don’t. They know how to unlock the chains! They know how to regain their self-esteem and personal power.

In the story, the people are told, “Tell me how it feels to have a chain, and I will tell you what your chain is made of. When you know what makes your chain, you will know how to break it.”

This is how you can do that:

• Ask yourself how you feel? Put a name on your negative feelings (anger, abandonment, fear, betrayal, failure, guilt etc)
• Look at how those feelings keep you from speaking about your ideas, sharing your time with others, opening up your life to new experiences.
• Then choose to set yourself free. Create affirmations or empowerment statements that reflect your areas for greatest growth. For example: I give myself permission to share my ideas and value my own creativity. I choose to take on challenges and give them the best I’ve got to offer. I give myself permission to be healed and whole, happy and prosperous.

Have you found a bit of wisdom and support in these suggestions? Please drop a line in the response box below (or click on the comment link in Facebook) and share your thoughts with us.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Janice M. Puta
Author of Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker

P.S. If you want to read the story of “The City of Chains,” you can find it in my book, Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker. This link will take you to the order page on my website.