Transcripts
Hello, dear one, and welcome back
to Remember Why You Are Here,
Speaker:a podcast for seekers and sensitives
where you can relax, receive,
Speaker:reconnect to your own self, and remember
the most important thing of all:
Speaker:why you're here.
Speaker:I am Asia Suler Earth intuitive, teacher,
Speaker:author of Mirrors in the Earth,
and for this episode today,
Speaker:I wanted to revisit the
audio of a video that I
Speaker:made several years ago
now called How to Be Free.
Speaker:As I record this,
Speaker:I'm sitting at my desk and I'm
watching the snow flurry down
Speaker:outside, on this... what is, right now,
Speaker:late February day.
Speaker:And we are having one of the
last snows of the season.
Speaker:We had all the childcare cancellations.
Speaker:Yeah, just a total change of plans today,
Speaker:which is just a theme
often in the wintertime.
Speaker:And I have been thinking about this
video that I made and the three
Speaker:tips that I share in
it of how to feel free,
Speaker:and thinking specifically about how I
still use those three things all the
Speaker:time to create a sense
of freedom in my life.
Speaker:I remember a mentor of
mine saying once that
Speaker:people think the highest octave
Speaker:of spiritual being is love,
Speaker:but actually it's not.
Speaker:That there's a state of being in the
realm of spirit that's even higher than
Speaker:love, and it's freedom.
Speaker:And there's something about that
that really stuck with me because
Speaker:it's almost like love
can always be a part of
Speaker:freedom. It's like freedom includes love,
Speaker:because freedom is this
essential aspect of our being,
Speaker:of who we are at our core,
Speaker:and it's such an important
thing to be able to
Speaker:feel and access in your life.
Speaker:And it was interesting for
me to revisit this episode
Speaker:as I had filmed it
before I had had a child,
Speaker:and I had filmed it...
I think it was very,
Speaker:very early on in the pandemic, if
not right, immediately before it.
Speaker:And so a lot of things
changed in my just physical
Speaker:experience of freedom since
I recorded it. And yet,
Speaker:I was really blown away
by the reality that
Speaker:what I shared is still real
and are still my primary
Speaker:tools for creating a sense of
freedom when I don't feel free.
Speaker:And one of the things that I have found
in life is that no matter what is going
Speaker:on or how hard things feel,
Speaker:if I can access a sense of freedom,
Speaker:then I'm always able to open up
to the possibility of healing,
Speaker:the possibility of newness,
Speaker:the possibility of a
shift in change or state.
Speaker:So if you're someone who
is wanting to feel free in
Speaker:your life right now, wanting
to tap into that feeling,
Speaker:then keep listening for a replay
Speaker:of this episode I made years ago.
Speaker:So this is called How to Be Free.
Speaker:One of the greatest feelings
on earth is freedom:
Speaker:the feeling that you have, all the
space that you need to be yourself,
Speaker:to grow, and be at peace.
Speaker:Many of us experience this
sense of freedom as kids,
Speaker:and then the older we get and the
more responsibilities we have,
Speaker:we start to feel much less free.
Speaker:Freedom can start being something
that we only experience on vacation,
Speaker:or for brief moments in the
morning before we start our day.
Speaker:But it doesn't have to be like that.
Speaker:Freedom is our natural state of being.
Speaker:This is why it feels so
good when we feel free.
Speaker:Every other being on earth has that
sense and that feeling of freedom inside
Speaker:of themselves.
Speaker:This is why it can feel so healing to be
in nature or spend time with an animal
Speaker:companion.
Speaker:It's heartening for me to remember
that freedom is the natural
Speaker:state of the world and a
natural state of being,
Speaker:because it means that for as
weighed down as we can feel,
Speaker:that sense of freedom is just a step away.
Speaker:Even though we've "grown up,"
we still have the ability to
Speaker:be a child in this world.
We are the earth's children.
Speaker:And so there are some simple things
you can do to feel that freedom again,
Speaker:of being young at heart.
Speaker:The very first thing is
to spend unstructured
Speaker:time in nature. Now,
Speaker:many of us like things like
hiking or wildcrafting herbs,
Speaker:and that's beautiful,
Speaker:but it tends to be going out
in nature with a purpose.
Speaker:It's just another way to
have a checklist sometimes.
Speaker:So if you really want to feel free,
Speaker:get yourself out in nature
without any plan whatsoever.
Speaker:I like to call this "the
medicine of rambling." I am a
Speaker:notorious rambler.
Speaker:It can be hard sometimes for people to
hike with me because I get sidetracked.
Speaker:I want to veer off, go off the path,
Speaker:look at a certain tree, sit with a
certain rock. But if you think about it,
Speaker:this is how you operated as a kid.
Speaker:You weren't trying to go
from point A to point B.
Speaker:You were just trying to
experience the world,
Speaker:and you let yourself slow down
enough to see the delights that are
Speaker:there.
Speaker:As an adult now one of the things that
you can do is schedule this time for
Speaker:yourself to take time in nature. And
then once you're there, just let go,
Speaker:explore, see what calls you in.
Speaker:It's amazing how much our sense
of time can change when we let
Speaker:go of our agendas. Notice
when you're in nature too,
Speaker:how all the other beings feel around you.
Speaker:Literally hug a tree, or put
your feet in a cool stream,
Speaker:or hold a rock. What is
their sense of freedom?
Speaker:How do they feel about existence?
Speaker:I promise you that there's
so much medicine in just
tuning into the freedom that
Speaker:is all around you.
Speaker:The second tip to feel free
again in your life is to turn off
Speaker:all clocks. So that includes
computers and phones,
Speaker:as well as watches. So time as we know it,
Speaker:it's a construct, right?
Time is always shifting.
Speaker:The length of the day is shifting.
Speaker:Our experience of a minute
can be really different.
Speaker:Think about how long a minute feels
when you are doing pushups or holding a
Speaker:plank, versus how long a minute feels
when you're scrolling on social media.
Speaker:Totally different, right?
Speaker:So when we take the factor
out of being able to see time,
Speaker:we actually unchain ourselves from time.
Speaker:We unchain ourselves from the to-do list,
Speaker:and we instead can just experience reality
Speaker:as our body is perceiving it.
Speaker:So one of my closest friends observes
an orthodox Shabbat every single
Speaker:week,
Speaker:and she has really inspired me
to try this by starting to turn
Speaker:off my clocks at sundown on one day
and leaving them off until sundown the
Speaker:next.
Speaker:I often do this on one of the weekend
days when I'm a little bit more free with
Speaker:my time, and I can let go of my work.
Speaker:And it's amazing to see how
much my perspective of reality
Speaker:shifts when I don't have a clock
to look at to know what time it is.
Speaker:All I can go off is my body's time,
Speaker:my body's rhythms and the
rhythms of the world around me.
Speaker:Not only does it make
moments so much richer,
Speaker:but it slows me down into this
sense of complete spaciousness.
Speaker:So if you're feeling any sense of
being constricted by life right now,
Speaker:if you're sensing that
you need more freedom,
Speaker:try turning off your clocks for a day,
Speaker:and it can be incredible
how much will shift.
Speaker:The last freedom practice
is to learn about one wild
Speaker:edible that's growing near you.
Speaker:I think part of why we struggle with
feeling freedom is because we live in a
Speaker:capitalistic society, where
our time literally means money,
Speaker:and where we need money to take care
of our basic needs. That's stressful.
Speaker:That's something that inherently
heaps upon us a sense of being
Speaker:constricted.
Speaker:So when you learn something like one
wild edible or one medicine that's
Speaker:growing in your garden or growing
as a weed in your neighborhood,
Speaker:you start to unchain
yourself from the shackles of
Speaker:capitalism and materialism,
Speaker:to see that truly everything
we need to survive is
Speaker:here around us.
Speaker:True freedom is knowing
that you're taken care of,
Speaker:that you have the space to be yourself,
Speaker:and that the elements that make
our life possible don't require
Speaker:us to fit ourselves into a box or deny our
Speaker:body's natural way of functioning
or taking pleasure in existence.
Speaker:It's amazing how just finding one
herb to interact with-knowing that
Speaker:you can nibble on that
herb when you're hungry,
Speaker:or collect it when you need medicine-how
that can really help us create this
Speaker:sense of being so free. Human
beings are meant to feel free,
Speaker:and the natural world is here to help
us remember just how free we truly are.
Speaker:I know when I first
started studying herbalism,
Speaker:one of the most incredible side
effects was realizing that I am so much
Speaker:more free than I think.
Speaker:And it's been so amazing to see
how that sense of freedom has
Speaker:only grown the more I've learned.
Speaker:So if you're interested in
deepening your herbal knowledge,
Speaker:definitely check out my
online catalog of classes.
Speaker:Each class is a deep dive
into a particular topic and
the plants that can help
Speaker:support you along the way.
Speaker:Plants are so good at helping us to
connect into this essential state of
Speaker:freedom. They know exactly what
it means to be free in this world,
Speaker:and they will show you.
Once you're on my website,
Speaker:you can also sign up to become a
part of the inner circle. Once there,
Speaker:I will send these videos directly to
your inbox as well as bi-monthly missives
Speaker:that can help you open the portal to
connecting to the world around you and to
Speaker:the nature that surrounds
you and your home.
Speaker:And so now I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker:What is it that's helping you
feel free right now in your life?
Speaker:I think when we take a moment
to share with each other,
Speaker:we can often realize that the freedom
that feels so far away is so much closer
Speaker:than we think.
