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Recently, I led a workshop on a life of “yes.” A life of embracing, self-realizing, and seeing bigger meaning in small things. Why? For freedom, peace and joy. A life of ‘yes’ is a life where we realize that we are all a part of this interwoven unity that threads through our world and our universe. We see that small things have bigger meaning. That negative things do, too. And that bigger meaning is liberation. Liberation of our essence, our soul and the deepest truth of who we are. Liberation from the shackles of any limiting beliefs, self-doubts or paradigms that don’t serve us. Liberation.

Freedom. Peace. Joy.

A life of embracing means that we get to experience miracles–because we align with the interwoven unity that connects us to them. By embracing everything–good, bad, big, small–and understanding it all has big meaning, we begin to move away from the part of us that feels small and stuck, and into the part of us that is free and powerful. There’s two primary ways we block ourselves from being that part of us, from liberating ourselves until that part of us guides our life and illuminates our world.

1. Over-identification with the verbal part of our mind and our thoughts

We believe the part of us that says “I don’t think you can do it.” Or “You’re crazy to consider making this big change.” Or “People will not be happy with you, and you should make their happiness your priority.” The thing I love about the verbal part of our mind and thoughts that come from this place is this: they come from the part of our brain that knows less. The verbal part of our brain processes about 40 bits of information per second. Which is pretty impressive. BUT the non-verbal part of our brain processes between 8 to 11 million bits of information per second. That is very impressive. And that means the part of our brain that communicates to us through verbal sensation–that felt sense of freedom, peace and joy–knows more. So even science is backing up the idea that we are born to listen to our soul longings.

2. Ignoring or silencing soul longings

Soul longings feel different than wants. They feel like things that are hard to ignore, things that seem impossible, things somebody in our life once told us wasn’t a viable goal. And yet–they’re still with us. Soul longings feel different than wants because they feel like freedom, peace and joy. Wants can make us feel very shackled, very constricted. Soul longings don’t do that. They’re part of the part of us that’s part of the interwoven unity, and universal consciousness. Very often, they’re something we are born to do. When we ignore them, we opt out of liberation–freedom, peace, joy–and into constriction, feeling stuck, and often powerless.