Hello hello, freethinkers, today I am writing to you from the local library. It’s a pretty cloudy, and potentially a  rainy day today, so the beach outside the windows is unusually empty. The birds are singing their usual tune, and the trees are swaying in the wind. Sitting on the reflective table I have my water bottle to my right, my notebook to my left, and the space where I usually have coffee is just waiting to take it’s role in my ensemble, though the free coffee they usually serve has yet to be delivered. Outside of my surroundings, I myself am feeling a bit out of sorts today, it’s been an emotional morning of processing grief so my body feels a bit heavier in my chair today. My eyes and jaw are navigating a bit more weariness, and my heart is feeling tender as I begin this writing session.

As I take a moment to pause and notice my inner and outer worlds, I encourage you to do the same. Notice the weather, the way the objects around you are placed, where the light hits, and where the shadows fall. Notice the textures of what is holding you and what is around you. Notice how your body feels in your chair today, how your heart feels, if there are any tender or tense spaces in you being. Not judging what you see and are experiencing, simply noticing it. Allowing it. Honor it with your brief attention and presence. This is a practice of freedom that you can utalize at any time. A practice to attune to your space, and come home to your power.

Today, is the first week of our five week journey through each the Five Practices Of Freedom so as you listen to this podcast, you can not only evaluate the Dominant Dogma I’m sharing about in the latest episode, but you can integrate this practice into your daily life, evaluating the Dominant Dogma in your world, then intentionally choosing how you desire to embody the freedom you crave.

These five pracitces have been crafted over the past four years while I have mapped my own journey along with the pathway I noticed from each of my coaching clients. It’s a cyclical pathway where you shift your perspective from the Dominant Dogma surrounding you, reclaim inner capacity, and cultivate new more expansive pathways to move forward. The practices can loop and overlap and because of this there is no right or wrong way to engage on this journey. Utilize the practices as they feel good for you, and remember the primary goal is always to live your freedom, right here, right now. Take what serves you, leave the rest, and always put your safety first.

The first practice: Playful Curiosity

Playful Curiosity is both the beginning and end of this Freedom Journey. This phase is that part of your journey when you begin noticing that something in your present world is not quite aligned. It’s where you evaluate your current beliefs, values, and circumstances to begin noticing where things are no longer feeling aligned. This could be due to emotional pain, physical pain, cognitive disonnence between a belief you hold and an experience you’re having, anything that causes a friction between your inner world and your outer reality.

To speak about this phase with more clarity I want to share a writing snippet from some of my recent musings. This writing excerpt is written in first person from a time when I was slowly waking up to the Dominant Dogma that had been running my life. While this does not share specific questions I asked as I navigated this practice in my life, it shares the exploratory phase, when all I could see were the symptoms and the pain, and I knew something had to change.

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Sitting on the edge of my seat, trying to make myself comfortable I soaked in the environment around me. “What was my husband thinking?” That was all that came to mind. Waiting for my name to be called, I sat in a small chiropractic office in Brentwood Tennessee. A Golden Retriever sat relaxing off to my left, and I heard the sounds of a child crying down the hall. The office appeared a bit disheveled and a woman looking equally as disheveled came up to the desk bouncing the crying child on her hip. Now, I have nothing against life happening amidst work, but first impressions of this small office were not giving me much hope for finding answers on my own health journey. 

Thinking back to a few weeks prior, my husband returned home after attending a Business Network International (B.N.I.) meeting as part of his own business relationship building. One of the new folks presenting that day happened to be this chiropractor and kinesiologist sharing her story of working with folks with stored trauma in their bodies. Working with P.T.S.D. war hero’s experiencing extreme symptoms, she spoke about helping folks navigate panic attacks, calming their muscles after being in a state of fight or flight for years on end, and supporting them so they finally got a good night’s sleep again. Hearing their stories my husband couldn’t help but bring to mind my struggles with panic. Of course it wasn’t to the depth that she was describing, but the emotions were similar, the symptoms were similar, and the resulting lack of sleep and distress were similar. Taking her business card home, he encouraged me to give her a shot. So here I sit.

“Megan”

A roughly 5.1” woman appeared smiling at the front desk calling my name. At first glance she felt like a kind human with a dash of fierceness. The type of person you can trust, but you also don’t really want to mess with. She led me to a small back room and thanked me for my patience. 

“Thank you for waiting! I know it’s a little chaotic out there. I just moved from Minnesota and am still in the process of lining up my more permanent office space.”   

Ah, I thought! That makes sense! Hence the other folks and the dog in the waiting area! 

“Ok, for this test I want you to stand here in the middle of the room facing this wall. Perfect. Then I would like you to close your eyes for me and march in place. You’re doing great!”.

I proceeded to march in place for about a minute and then opened my eyes. I must have turned a bit to my left in the process, so I turned back toward the wall where she was standing, and waited to see what was next.

“Did you realize you just walked in a full circle?”

I had not.

She proceeded to share with me that this test revealed that my mind was working on overdrive and was likely fight or flight. While my eyes were closed and I thought I was maintaining a singular stance marching in place, my mind was essentially running in circles around me, causing my whole body to respond accordingly. She continued sharing what this meant and performed additional diagnostic practices, but after that initial statement sharing that my body is likely in a state of fight-or-flight, the world around me blurred as I turned inward to process. 

Fight-or-flight.

Deep inside I knew this, but to have my body say the same thing my pounding head wanted to believe was unprecedented in my current world. What else was my body trying to communicate with me? And what specifically had caused this to occur? I had experienced a lot of trauma as a child and growing adolescent, but why now? Why here? When I had my whole life ahead of me, had started the business I had always desired, and while I was living in the city I had dreamed of for years. Something, somewhere along the way, was not right…but what is it, and how can I change it? 

It was time for me to find out, it was time to explore the world I was living in and the world that was within me, a world that was seemingly wiser than I ever gave it credit for. It was time for me to get deeply curious.

–

This was the very beginning of my experience walking through Playful Curiousity, though at that time I had not yet mapped these five pracitces. So in the days, weeks, and months that followed this experience I was deeply curious, but with less of the “playfulness” that I now recommend and teach. 

If this experience sounds familiar or perhaps like it is where you are right now, I encourage you to take a deep breath as we continue. Notice any sensations your body is sharing at this time, and begin to not only enter into the Practice of Playful Curiousity, but also integrating the second practice: Non-Judgement & Awareness. Not judging the sensations, thoughts, or memories that are coming up, simply noticing them.

As you enter into the Practice of Playful Curiosity, whether it’s for the first time, or the one-thousandth time – because conditioning is REAL and these Pracitces are a life-long journey of choosing Personal Freeom – Inviting play and joy into the journey is key. While I became a, “curiosity bulldog” of sorts when I began, it wasn’t until I learned to balance my curiosity with play and levity that I could truly integrate what I found along the way. This has been shown to be true as I’ve researched these phases and witnessed them unfold for my clients as well. This Playful Curiosity Practice and the process of reclaiming freedom for a new aspect of yourself often includes asking vulnerable questions about your human experience, noticing where your worldview is not serving you anymore, and unraveling years or even generations of internalized Dominant Dogma. Staying grounded through play, laughter, and joy, essentially living your freedom now, while also expanding into more free spaces, is what invites integration at the conscious and unconscious levels.

Think of a young child playing in a puddle. They are getting messy, picking up the dirt and muck, learning and exploring what the puddle has to teach them. And at the same time they are laughing, giggling, jumping, and feeling fully present in their little human selves. All is welcome. All is valid.

As you begin, or return to Playful Curiosity in your own life, here are a few journal prompts to support your journey:

Journal Prompts:

Begin this practice by integrating play into your journey:

• How can I integrate play on my Freedom Journey?
• What lights me up? 
• How can I add more of that into my day-to-day life?
  

Next, utilize the prompts below to uncover your internalized Dominant Dogma. Selecting a single topic/area you desire to experience freedom around, then respond to the questions.

• I currently feel a lack of freedom…
• I know this because…
• The new feelings, beliefs, and values I desire for my freedom are…
• When I think about this experience/situation I remember I was taught to believe… 

This is what I want to leave you with today! If you begin these journal prompts, I would love to know! Tag me on instagram @megscolleen or shoot me a dm and fill me in on how this lands with you! Additionally, if you want support on your Freedom Journey I would love to invite you into a one-on-one coaching series.

If the experience from today’s episode sounds a little too familiar and you desire support to handing back old narratives in your life to embody the freedom you crave, I would love to support you on your journey. 

I typically start coaching folks for a period of 3-6 months where we meet bi-weekly via zoom or phone call and in each call we may enter into a beautiful mix of honoring the past, tending to the present, and ultimately cultivate beautiful capacity within you so you can embrace your most free self and go after the goals you desire for yourself.

Whether you are struggling with anxiety, navigating a life change, or breaking free from toxic Dominant Dogma, I’m here to facilitate breakthroughs and coach you step-by-step so you can embody your freedom, right here and now!

You can learn more about my 1:1 coaching and book a FREE Clarity Call at megscolleen.com!

All right, I’ll see you next week!

Freedom is yours, 

Megan