Newsletter Archive

• Back to News
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001
• Newsletter signup
• Unsubscribe from Newsletter

November Salon

Nov 30, 2002

The Mystery of the Free Spirit

When it comes to any holiday or holy day, my temptation is to write a Salon that incorporates the theme of that holiday--in this case, Thanksgiving. The obvious approach is to remind you to be thankful for all the many blessings in your life, from family and friends to everything that fills the abundant package of your life. But I should think by now that those who read the Salon would already know that level of gratitude. It's nice to be reminded that the people we love are truly blessings, and that their love is also a gift for us, but that was not enough for me this year. Thanksgiving has come to mean much more to me during this past year -- actually since 9/11 -- because it was shortly after those events that I began my research into my next book, “The Sacred Contract of the United States.” This Salon is written between the polarity points of political and spiritual freedom -- a natural mix for this country from the political and historical point of view, but a departure from the way in which we usually examine freedom of the spirit.

WHO WOULD YOU BE WITHOUT FREEDOM?

Think of who you are today. Think of your spiritual life. And more than that, think of your intellectual life. Look through your bookshelves. Consider the conversations you seek out with people, and the seminars you attend, and the dreams and ambitions you pursue that bring you happiness. The freedoms you have to educate yourself in mystical literature, in the healing arts, in the nature of the human psyche and soul now form the core of who you are and your path of service. I don't have to be standing in front of you in a lecture hall to see this truth in your eyes. I know this to be true precisely because I have stood at hundreds of podiums and witnessed the excitement emerging in your faces and in your eyes when an idea is examined that holds the possibility of enhancing your spiritual life. You are free to embrace every single spiritual teaching that crosses your path, if you choose to. Let me say that again in even more extraordinary terms: You are free to absorb the consequences of truth, to let yourself be changed by a perception so awesome that by the end of a seminar, nothing in your life is the same. You are free to welcome an epiphany. The only thing that limits your personal transformation is your fear of it. Your freedom to let your spirit rise to the heights is a given -- a given so taken for granted that you don't even realize the gift that it is. Was "freedom" on your Thanksgiving list?

PERSONAL WORK

The exploration of freedom is your personal work for this month. I want you to examine your appreciation of freedom. That is, how much thought have you given to all that your life is and all that you want to do and to become that relies on your being "free.” Recently I gave a workshop in which one of the participants was a woman from Lebanon. We had the opportunity to talk privately a few times, and our discussions moved through stages. That the woman in this story is from a Middle Eastern country and a devote Muslim should not hint at even the possibility that there is a political message woven into this story alongside the story of a woman afraid to pursue the awakening of her spirit.

THE FREE SPIRIT

The "spirit" is an inherently free being. We are drawn to freedom as truly as birds are drawn into the air for flight. From the time we are born, becoming ever freer is our only constant motivation. We want to be free to walk, to run, to play, to explore, to speak, to discover who we are, who and what we want to be. We want to travel and meet people; we want to be free to dress any way we want, to go where we want, and ultimately to be free enough to think for ourselves and to make our choices in life based on what makes us happy – once again, we value happiness mighty highly. (A Thanksgiving/Founding Fathers and Mothers reminder: You might find it interesting to note that that value system is decidedly American and is definitely in our grain. We crave the rights of the free spirit.) Most of all, we want to be free to allow truth to change us with its insights. We want to be free enough to allow our empowerment to happen.

ARE YOU AFRAID TO BE A FREE SPIRIT?

I want you to do some serious inner work around your relationship to freedom in all its faces. Honestly address the following questions:

1. Take some TIME to journal about your appreciation -- or lack of appreciation -- for freedom. How much do you take being free for granted?
   
2. How much does being free tie in directly to who you are, who you are striving to become, and to what you do for a living?
3. Shifting to freedom of the spirit, write about the nature of your free spirit. What restrictions do you place on your spirit? What spiritual experiences would you be afraid of having? (Mystical dramas? Dark nights? A Wounded Healer crisis?)

I wish all of you the most blessed Thanksgiving, and, although you might not give this a thought, you'll be in my thoughts as I list all of you among the blessings of my life.

See you in December. Salon Topic: You and the Archetype of the Divine Child

Love,
Caroline

To register for the Caroline Myss Online Salon

NEW! The Caroline Myss & Wayne Dyer Seminar NEW!
(Recorded live Nov 23 2002 in Chicago)

Two of the most widely-known and respected pioneers in the human potential movement collaborate on stage for the first time ever. Both Caroline and Wayne were received with such high praise at this sold out event. This seminar covers discovering our human energy range and how to gauge its effects on our health.
Set of 4 CD's

Click here to purchase this 4 CD set

Myss.com DEC. STORY OF THE MONTH

“Being Held Hostage by Food”