Are you a prisoner of your own thoughts? At times we all are but what if I told you that you are in fact FREE. In reality, you are so free that you can choose bondage over freedom. In this episode, we look inside ourselves and tap into the truth that you have the power to FREE YOUR MIND!!!!

About the Host:

Jani Roberts is the Owner of Alignment Essentials, a health and wellness company spanning the fitness, self-improvement, and mindfulness spaces. She is the creator of the Warrior® Workout, Moving Meditations™, Inspirational Conversations™ and all of the Alignment Essentials programming content. In addition, Jani is an International best-selling author of the book, Navigating the Clickety-Clack, How to Live a Peace-Filled Life in a Seemingly Toxic World.

Jani has over 40 years of experience in the health and wellness field. She owned and operated a large gym franchise in Florida, as well as a boutique studio for several years where she specialized in health and wellness related services, products, preventative health education, personal training, small group fitness classes, private nutrition and health coaching.

She has literally trained hundreds of thousands of instructors around the world, and she was the featured choreographer and performer on numerous training DVDs. She has presented for dozens of large Health and Wellness brands such Nike, and Adidas. She holds several certifications through ACE, AFAA and NASM.

Jani travels extensively as a speaker and presenter sharing her Alignment Essentials wellness tools and helping people find more joy in their lives and is currently training at the Shamanic Institute of Healing. 

Web

Instagram

Facebook

 Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.

What? Life isn't supposed to suck. Get out of here. Life is supposed to be good for me? I don't think so. Truth? Did you know that you have the power to create your own reality? True? Did you know that you can live the life that you've always desired? Holy? That's right. And that's why we're here. Are you ready? Unless you're on Joy overload, you've come to the right place, it's time to get out of your own way and start creating more of what you want, and less of what you don't end up with the excuses. I'm your host Jani Roberts. Let's do this.

Welcome, welcome to this inspirational conversation today, we are going to be chatting it up, we are going to talk about the fact that not only do we have the choice to be free in our mind, all the time for your mind, and the rest will follow. One of my favorite tunes, we are so free we can choose bondage. What is up with that nonsense? Let's dive in. Alright, so we are talking about our thoughts, as always. And we're talking about how they can literally incarcerate us into a life of madness. So why is it that we choose these thoughts? Why do we choose? Bondage? Why do we choose to think thoughts that we have actually no real facts to back up? Now, I'm not saying all our thoughts are that way, I'm just saying a lot of the time they are, we get going in our head. And we are all up in a story that we are simply making up. This freedom that is right at our fingertips, means a lot of different things to us. First, we're going to talk about the freedom of the mind, if you have ever had to make your way through anything that was challenging, I was gonna say incredibly challenging, but challenging is enough, right? We don't need to go any more intense than we already are. So when we make our way through something like that, we use our minds in some capacity, we are pushing through. And we are having very, very powerful thoughts about how we're going to make it through whatever it is that we're dealing with. Now, some things are not nearly as challenging as others. But I gotta say that when you're in it, even though if you were to explain it to somebody else, and it might not seem like that big of a deal. If you're feeling like it's a big of a big deal than it is a big deal, because this is your life, and you're presently uncomfortable in it. So what are we going to do about that? What are we going to do, we're going to have to make a choice. And most of the time, I don't know about you, but what I used to do was power through it. Just dig in, grab on with my fingernails, and pull myself out of it with all the energy physically, emotionally, spiritually that I could muster, to survive it. Because I wanted to get to the other side. I couldn't stay where I was in this challenging situation, I had to make my way through. So for many, many years in my life, I just made things happen. And now when I look back on that, there wasn't a lot of freedom than that. Just because I got where I intended to go. I actually took the hard road, I fought my way there. And I'm not saying it doesn't take energy and it doesn't take focus and intention to get where we need to go where we want to go. But if we're forfeiting where we are in the moment completely, and we're allowing it to just swallow us whole, the stress level is so high, we can't eat, we can't sleep or we can't stop eating or we can't stop sleeping. There's got to be an easier way. There's got to be. So what else before we dive in before we react and feel like we've got to do something right now in this moment. What if we just pause for a second and really process? You know, many of us have heard someone say, you know, never make a decision when you're, you know, crazy emotional because it never works out well never goes well. I can definitely attest to the head.

You know, we do the best we can and sometimes sit is just too big. We can't We can't we just go right we just react but with practice. If, and if we're willing to look at how we're responding and how it truly is affecting us on so many levels, then we can use, the situation's the challenges that we've been through to our advantage to make it so much easier next time. I truly believe this. But we got to be willing to look, we've got to be willing to stop. And that's not easy. That is not easy. When fear and panic have come in and taken over. They swoop in and grab a hold of you. It's not easy. But it really frees you to find an easier way, a less uncomfortable, I don't want to say comfortable because none of its comfortable, but unless uncomfortable way to deal with it. And I don't know about you, but when I'm in stuff like that, I, I need time is never gone. Well, when I've done it quickly. It just never has. I'm trying to think of a single time, but I can't think of anything, can you think about it. And if you can acknowledge it. Now I'm going when I say I can't think of anything I'm not talking about recently, I'm not talking about in the last five years of my life, or maybe even decade. But that's recent, right? I'm talking about before I was really in the work, working a practice, understanding who I am what makes me tick, and falling back in love with myself. Prior to that, yeah. So this idea that we're so free, we can choose bondage is so true. It's not just maybe I see it all day long. And I know that I can slip right into that, particularly if I turn on the television. So I don't do that very often. I'm one of those people that I just kind of absorb it in. If you are that kind of person, I feel you. If you're somebody who can, who can allow things to bounce off of you a bit more easily, great gift. But check in and make sure they're really bouncing. And they're not just being buried. Because things like that would chip away at us. You know, it's like, it just, it's just like a little tick. It's just there. It's an itch, it's always a little bit of a bother. And that builds up. And that can set us off. That can take us out of that feeling of freedom, and into that feeling of bondage. When we free our mind. From the bullshit that's just simply not real. Unless we choose it to be. We're in control of everything that we can be in control of our thoughts, control, ultimately control our experience. Go ahead, try it. Grab something quick, something that's been on your mind today. Jot it down. Close your eyes focus on it. Which way did it take you toward freedom or toward bondage? Did you feel more empowered or less empowered? Did you feel way like like heavy weight on your shoulders? Or did you feel light and like I can really breathe? Instead of I can't breathe, I feel like I'm suffocating. We got to check in. We absolutely got to check in. When we are able to work a practice is just so big. When we're able to clearly work a practice. It's going to be a little hazy in the beginning when we get started, right. That's anything that's any anything that we start, that's different, that's new that we haven't tried before. They're a little nervous about, maybe you've been terrified of we don't want to fail, we want to fail again. When we dive in, we can initially feel that surge of energy, that desire the possibilities that letting go of that baggage falling away the monkey off the back. Finally, you know, recently, uh, one of my mentors asked me why I was working practice that I'm currently working. It's very difficult. And I didn't have to think very long because of this conversation we're having right now.

In order to reply, the only thing harder than doing this is not doing it. I can't not do it anymore. I can't deny myself the life I deserve. I can't pretend that everything that happened was okay. I don't want to live that life anymore. I don't want to think the thoughts. I'm thinking anymore. I want this madness to stop. I'm done. And there were so many times in my life when I really thought I was done. But apparently I was not. Because I kept battling. Right? When I fight for my freedom, kept pushing, pulling, trying, crying, but on this day, I felt nothing but ease relief and peace. When I answered that question, and therefore I knew it was true. I'm ready. I'm ready to be done with this. And the cool part about that, is I have no regret that I wasn't ready sooner. Because in that moment, I knew I wasn't ready any sooner and that everything that had happened, up to that point, was profoundly necessary. In order for me to discover what I needed to discover, to unlearn what we, what we all need to unlearn, to move past the fear and into the freedom. That's the kind of life we're talking about here. Inspirational conversation. Sounds great. But it requires action. And that action doesn't need to be hard. It doesn't need to be a struggle. But it's probably going to be a little uncomfortable. I've known people who I've worked with, from the perspective of physical health, nutrition, that type of thing, who are so addicted to their illness or their disease, they've been living with it for so long, they don't know how to live without it. You could say that about a spouse about a marriage that isn't working, it doesn't have to be marriage, just a relationship, all the same thing. You either want to be there or you don't you either feel free and light in it, or you feel weighed down and tied down and limited in it. Is that that other person's fault? Nope. It's not, we are not going to play the blame game. These are inspirational conversations for grownups. We're gonna own it. No one made me stay well, I felt like I had to stay because I didn't have enough money to leave. But that's a reason to stay. But you can find a way out if you want a way out. And you know, if you need that financial aid, and you couldn't get in, there was no one to turn to. And you're completely alone. I am certain that if you haven't already, you have already begun to find a way out. If you don't allow yourself to choose the bondage, I might have to stay here right now, I might have need to be here for a while. But I am wise and I am going to begin to plan my way out of this. I'm going to look for opportunities. I'm going to ask for help. I'm going to meditate, I'm going to quiet my mind. I'm going to go within and ask for help. I'm not just going to go outside of myself and ask for help. I'm going to lay a powerful Foundation. And this is going to serve me later in my life. Thank you so much for showing me exactly what I do not want in a relationship. This is awesome. Not in the moment, perhaps. But eventually. And so many people have told me that when they left a relationship, they didn't leave when they thought they would like one day they just left. They've been planning all along, but not necessarily with a date. But the minute we think the thought, I gotta get out of here. We're already out. Because we just freed our mind. From the non truth on truth, bullshit, that we aren't worthy of anything more. There's no way we can find our way out. We already cracked the door open because we had the thought. That's how powerful we are. And you've all heard stories about people who have been able to do incredible things. We all just shake our head, how did they ever have the stamina, the patience, the drive, the determination, the sheer will? And when you talk to these people.

There's always a spiritual context. There's always an aha moment. There's always something bigger than the reality the physical reality of what's going on around them. They tap into their higher self. They tap into source and they free their mind. I've known people who have been incarcerated in prison or during war who have spent long periods of time in very small spaces, and come out of that, only to create practices for people that they created in their mind while incarcerated, and then brought to fruition and changed, the lives changed, altered completely permanently changed the lives of so many. To the point where it's at at a certain time, they are able to say, if it wasn't for that experience this I wouldn't be where I am, I'm a completely different person, I'm in such a better place. Would they recommend you go do that? No. Because we don't need to do that, in order to free ourselves. We don't we just need to begin a practice that will start, how do I want to say this, we want to begin a practice that cracks the door open cracks, our mind open, cracks our heart open to what we consider to be our reality, to what really, could should and will be our reality, by design, by design. So many people, as soon as I have this conversation, in real time with people and they're like, Yeah, right. That's just for, you know, this guy, and that guy, and this woman and that woman, and they've done all these things. And, oh, they're a celebrity. And they're, and I'm like, Whoa, you're here you go, you're just making shit up. First of all, you have no idea what their lives are really like, you're allowed to see what people want you to see. That doesn't make it real. That doesn't make it true. That doesn't make it a fact. So we need to rely on truth. We got to come home, you got to stop blaming. That's not going to free our mind that's going to that's going to cause everything to constrict. It's all going to get tighter. It's going to feel sticky. really sticky. Regret, resentment, anxiety, frustration. For what? Because you think other people have it so much easier than you do? Do you really know that to be true? Do you live in their head? Something to think about? All I know is this, it's time, you could feel it. People are fed up. People are calling out the bullshit. It's awesome. People are starting to realize you know what, we're not as good when we're separated. We're way better when we're working together. And we all are in this together. Whether we want to believe it or not. This is truth. We all come in alone. And we all go out alone. What we do in the middle, what do you think, if you're like me, and you spent some years in bondage, you have a greater appreciation for freedom. That's contrast, you got to know hot to know cold. So I say it's time that we shake off those old patterns. We let that shit go. And we start to ponder some new possibilities. Face what's in our way. Look at those thoughts that simply aren't true, but are embedded use tools. Find tools, create a practice. That's why we're here. That's why I'm having this conversation with you. Because I've been there, I've absolutely been there. When you're lying in a bed, in a hospital, and you can't see and you can't move. And you're all tore up what's going on our thoughts when you're sitting at your kitchen table, and you don't know how you're going to pay your bills, when you can't put the bottle down. Or you don't know what to say to your kids. Because you can't take them on vacation, you can get very sad and very stuck and feel very disappointed and resentful and angry and, or you can free your mind. And you can be transparent. You can be transparent. With your kids. You could say you know what, guys, we're gonna figure something out, that we can do together. That is creative and fun.

We're going to collectively pick what that's going to be. There are so many things, and we're not going to post about it on social media. It's going to be our special time. It's our time, sacred time, not to necessarily be shared with others. Wow. teach our kids to become totally present live in their now free their mind. You know when our kids would come to us and say I gotta have those sneakers or I can't live you know, that kind of stuff. Young age and they really believe they can't live without it. They get all their friends habit and they have to have it and they You can't, you don't understand you, whoa. We use that as a great opportunity to teach because they were already moving toward bondage. If I don't have this, I won't be accepted. If I don't look like this, I won't be loved. But it'll behave like this. I won't have any friends. I don't really think it changes that much when we grow up. Bondage is bondage, we have to choose. And when we get stuck, we will always remember to ask for help. So I say, you grab your phone, if you don't really have already have it on your playlist, get invoke on there, and listen to free your mind. Because my friends, when you free your mind, the rest will follow. That's gonna be it for today. I appreciate you more than you know. Without a doubt. Freedom is our choice. Talk to you next time. Peace.