Free To Choose: A Guided Practice

Settle in and explore a felt sense of freedom—right where you are. This guided practice helps you notice tension, soften around it with breath, and create more inner space for choice. You’ll be invited to observe thoughts and emotions without struggle, reconnect with what matters, and gently release what you no longer need. Expect a calm, steady pace with spacious pauses so you can rest, open, and feel more free.

Transcript

So we'll do a meditation today.

I think we'll start with some breath work,

And then we'll do a meditation.

Are you up for Wim Hof?

Can we do three rounds?

What I like about Wim Hof is that the playing with,

So Wim Hof is where you do a repeated inhale,

Like full body,

We'll do like 30.

And then on your 30th,

You exhale,

And then you hold the exhale,

And that's where you play with freedom.

So what you'll notice is on the exhale,

There'll be all of the inflexible mind,

Inflexible heart,

Inflexible self,

Inflexible,

You know,

All the things that will show up.

I don't want it to be this way.

And then can you experience freedom with that discomfort?

So it's a good little physiological practice,

And then it also makes you feel really good when you're done with it.

So we'll do three rounds of Wim Hof,

And I'll guide you through that.

And then we're gonna do a freedom practice.

And I'm in,

I am an ER doctor.

If you pass out,

Please wake me up.

You would really like someone to have a medical emergency at any time.

We feel,

Finally he's being utilized.

Brian's like.

Okay.

Okay,

So bell ringing.

But what's nice is you don't have to put the microphone at it anymore.

That's good,

Because it was causing a lot of feedback.

Okay,

Okay,

Here we go.

So we can do this breath work with eyes open if you want to rest your eyes sort of unfocused on something in front of you,

Or you can close your eyes if you like.

But it's really important to have that nice,

Long spine.

So you can imagine that there's like a zipper at the base of your sacrum.

And then you want to zip that zipper up.

And as you zip the zipper up,

Make sure you get the back of your neck.

You draw your chin slightly in and the crown of your head up to the sky.

Zipping up your spine.

You can also let your shoulders drop a little bit.

Shoulders drop and your heart open.

And then you can place your hands in a mudra on your lap.

You can place them palms down if you'd like to sort of maintain the energy within your own system,

With your own body.

You can place them palms up if you want to have more of an exchange of energy with the space around you.

And you can just play with it,

Whichever seems to fit for you.

And I like to place my first finger and my thumb together to make a little bit of a circle.

And we'll take just one slow,

Long breath in.

Just one big,

Long,

Soothing,

Nourishing breath together.

Breathing in.

And breathing out.

And then we'll do maybe two rounds of Wim Hof.

So this first round,

We're going to breathe in together about 30 times.

And you just breathe as much oxygen as you can,

Full body breath and less focus on the exhale.

So 30 breaths,

We breathe in,

Deep breath.

Get your whole body into it.

Don't be afraid.

See how you lean forward.

So free to breathe.

Breathing in.

About 10 more.

Last one,

Big breath in.

Hold at the top.

Exhale completely.

Complete and utter release.

Letting go.

Holding at the bottom.

Letting go of your face.

Letting go of any tension.

Letting go of your hips.

Letting go of your grip.

Noticing your mind.

Let go of your mind.

Notice the discomfort.

Let go around it.

And when you're ready,

Deep breath in.

Hold at the top.

Allow your lungs be full,

Nourished.

And then exhale.

One soothing rhythm breath.

One soothing,

Nourishing breath.

And then we'll do it again.

We get a chance to try again.

30 breaths in.

Really go for it.

Can you make it bigger?

Whole body breath.

Deep breath in.

Allow your lungs be full,

Nourished.

Really go for it.

Letting go of your hips.

Allow your lungs be full,

Nourished.

Letting go of your hips.

Holding at the top.

Letting go of your hips.

Holding at the top.

Can you let go a little bit more around it?

Can you experience peace,

Even with this?

Can you open up the back of the body?

And if you need to breathe in,

You can breathe in.

Can you hold it a little longer?

Without holding.

Can you surrender?

And when you're ready,

Deep breath in.

Exhaling and letting your breath come back to its natural ease.

And we can begin with freedom of the mind.

Can you notice the spaciousness in your mind right now?

The space in your head.

Maybe even dissolving the edges around your head.

The space around your head.

Freedom in your mind.

So that things can flow through your mind without you grasping or gripping or believing.

May your mind be free.

There's lots of stories that come into your mind that block your freedom.

So can you,

Just for this little bit,

Let them go,

Let them be,

Without picking them up,

Noticing their pull,

Without being pulled?

So many stories pulling.

But you are free in your mind.

Your mind is free.

And you take the responsibility of choosing this freedom.

You can choose to be free in your mind right here and now.

And then you can bring that awareness down into your heart space.

Noticing a soft,

Open,

Spacious,

Flexible heart.

May you be free in your heart.

You can actually physically feel the spaciousness of your heart.

You can open up your heart.

Open up your heart at the back.

Open up your heart at the front.

Dissolve the edges of your heart,

So that space of your heart is expansive and big enough to hold whatever difficulties may be in your heart.

You can feel their pull without being pulled.

Your heart is spacious and free.

And you take responsibility for this heart,

Choosing freedom.

And then can you feel this spaciousness and this freedom in your whole self,

Your whole being,

Your whole body,

Your identity,

But also the you that is so much more than this body or this identity,

Your big,

Expansive self?

Dissolving the edges of yourself.

You are free.

And can you notice the pull of the self without being pulled?

Settling into freedom,

Spaciousness of the self.

The self that's behind you,

And above you,

And around you.

Free,

Expansive self.

And from this free mind,

And this free heart,

And this free self,

You are also free in your actions.

You are freedom.

You are free to choose how you want to be.

Skillful actions.

Because you can feel the pull to act in a certain way or do a certain thing without being pulled when you are free.

You are free in your whole being.

Free to choose.

And often what bubbles up when you experience freedom in this way,

Natural sort of bubbling up or rising up is an experience of compassion or love,

Openness.

When you are free,

You're more loving to yourself and to others.

You're more open.

You're more giving.

Because you have everything that you need.

And from this place of compassion,

And love,

And freedom,

I'd like to bring into mind our Sangha member,

Susan.

And just offer to her this mantra that you've received for yourself.

May you be free in your mind.

May you be free.

May you be free in your heart.

May you be free in yourself.

May you be free in your actions.

May you experience total and complete freedom right now.

And then I'd like for you to bring into mind a person,

Or a group,

Or an animal,

A space or place in nature that you would like to offer this reminder to,

This mantra of freedom to.

So bring to mind whatever comes to you and bubbling up of compassion and desire to offer this love.

And imagine this person,

Or this space,

Or this animal,

Or this group before you and wish this for them.

May you be free in your mind.

May you be free in your heart.

May you be free in yourself.

May you be free in your actions.

May you experience total and complete freedom right here,

Right now.

And then we can gather up that same mantra and offer it back to ourselves.

Receive what we have sent out.

May I be free in my mind.

Placing a hand on your own heart,

May I be free in my heart.

Placing another hand on your belly,

May I be free in myself.

Placing your palms up on your lap,

May I be free in my actions.

May I experience total and complete freedom right here and right now.

And just take a minute to experience it,

To feel it.

And then we always close with three bows.

First bow is to allow yourself to be free.

We bow to our being,

True nature.

We bow to ourselves,

Our true nature,

Buddha nature.

And the second bow is to becoming to the truths,

To the Dharma,

The teachings and teachers.

And the third bow is to belonging to each other.

We belong to each other,

To our Sangha,

All beings.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

My God,

That bell.

Wow.

I would love to hear anything you guys have to say about anything and particularly about freedom or anything else that came up or meta.

I have a meta practice that I learned and then put together that I'll do for us sometimes where I think is really cool.

But I'm going to pass this mic around.

This mic is hot,

Meaning it's being recorded.

So if you don't want to be recorded,

Then hurl the microphone into the sun or just talk.

I think freedom comes when we have ownership of our own self,

Own happiness,

Own feelings,

Own issues.

So when we believe in ourselves that no one else is responsible for our own happiness,

It frees us.

So it's me,

Like I'll make the decision.

I'll make sure I'm happy and healthy.

Not you,

Not my parents,

Not my kids.

That frees your spirit,

I think.

Yeah,

I love that.

You pass that around to anybody with their hand up.

Thanks.

That's a long way around.

Thank you,

Aaron and Diana,

For talking about freedom.

I was thinking about what it meant to me and very much like you said,

Aaron,

When I was a kid,

I had a lot of constraints.

I had to get up when I was woken up.

I had to go to bed when it was bedtime.

I had to go to school at a certain time.

And for me,

What I craved was to get those constraints removed.

That's what I wanted.

I wanted to be free to get up when I wanted to,

Go to bed when I wanted to,

Drink whatever I wanted,

Whenever I wanted,

Go to class or not,

Depending on how I felt.

And I engineered my life to make that happen.

And I engineered my life to basically work from home so that I could work whenever it felt like it.

And if it didn't feel like it,

I didn't do it.

And that was not a good way for me to live.

That was not.

It was a downward spiral that ended up with me in an extremely bad space.

And I ended up going to,

As many of you know,

Going to AA.

And one of the things I learned there was paradoxically,

It's the constraints on my life that provide me with freedom.

So for example,

I was a smoker for one year.

And at the end of that one year,

I was smoking three packs of cigarettes a day.

So I thought that was freedom.

That's not freedom.

And when I stopped,

I recognized this constraint.

I cannot smoke.

I got a new freedom.

When I stopped,

When I really learned that I cannot drink alcohol,

I got a new freedom.

And so now,

There are so many things.

Like I don't ever question whether or not I'm going to exercise.

I do it.

I don't have to think about it.

And that provides an incredible amount of freedom.

And throughout my life now,

I think that that's had a very significant impact.

Paradoxical.

I wonder how everybody,

Well,

I wonder how everybody feels about constraints because one of the things I think I had the opposite and my opposite was just holding myself down the whole time and I would put too many,

I would just constrain all over the place.

It doesn't make me not,

You know,

I smoked two cigarettes in college and I was like,

Just because it was cool and I just let it burn out and like look around make sure nobody knows I'm not really smoking it.

But it's interesting because I think and maybe there's a middle path somewhere because you know,

It means different things to different people.

It's fascinating.

I don't really have much.

I just have like a little quote that I like to think about every time I don't know,

Get caught up in the everyday stuff.

You guys might have heard it.

It's what did Buddha do before enlightenment?

What did Buddha do before enlightenment?

Chop wood,

Carry water.

What did Buddha do after enlightenment?

Chop wood,

Carry water.

So I really like that.

I kind of live by that.

It's overwhelming sometimes to be in the now but just got to surrender to it and just keep living.

Thank you.

That's my freedom.

Over this way.

Hi everyone.

So what came to mind for me was in the last year and a half I fell in love with my best friend and I had,

It was a woman who had never had feelings for a woman before and I had all this stuff come up naturally and I recall like being in that divided state in myself and all the fear and all the things and so I think of freedom when I finally shouted on the mountaintops my love and I'm living it.

I'm living in that freedom now and it's amazing.

So that's what came to mind.

Wow,

Thank you.

Other people,

Yeah,

I like that.

And I've ran into these two women in Trader Joe's with so many children and two women grocery shopping with that many children get it done.

It was like so phenomenal.

So yeah,

Incredible moms too.

And Diana facilitated our love picnic which was amazing.

Wow.

Freedom.

Freedom.

I do a lot of yoga.

I practice down at Yoga Soup and I think everybody in their life should take a class from Eddie Elner the owner there.

He's eclectic and wonderful and will expand your definition of what yoga means.

And one thing that he likes to say that feels a lot like freedom to me is your hair has never had a bad hair day.

That your hair is just your hair and if it's tangled and if it's perfectly,

You know wavy,

Styled,

Whatever luscious,

Beautiful then it's that and your hair doesn't care.

And when you look in the mirror you assign a label or a judgment on it and you do it with your hair you do it with your life with your outfit with your relationships or your love or whatever it is but your hair has never had a bad hair day and it never will and the river doesn't have a bad day of being a river.

It'll go through rocks and twists and turns and ups and downs and it's never going to have a bad day being a river.

I have a frivolous comment about the breathing is that it reminded me of Lamaze and I it made me so happy because I loved having babies.

I loved the whole thing of having babies.

So it just made me happy.

That's similar.

I was going to just comment on the idea that sometimes you look at all this Eastern mindfulness Buddhist stuff and you're like oh it's a lot of surrender it's a lot of like you know it's like should I not have any desires it's like no clinging and no aversion so I just be a blunt vanilla wafer and it's really not that but it's really hard to describe why it's not that you just have to sort of it's an experiential thing you have to feel it but I've started to really hook on to the idea that this part this freedom part just like what's his face you can't talk about Mel Gibson anymore because he's a monster but like you know the freedom you know that freedom is brave like stepping into the river and letting it all go that's brave it's not being small it's being huge and I feel like that gets me out of sometimes the feeling like oh you know is this just cutting off things that matter just like we talked about with the being and becoming the unfolding of each moment is still you know you can still steer somewhere you can still do amazing things all of these you know deep practitioners of meditation are deeply concerned with the rest of the universe and other people and other people suffering and stuff a lot of stuff gets done as Diane has told me you go to Plum Village and they're out there trying to save the world every day they're not just eating I always say eat bugs in a cave they're not doing nothing anybody else about I appreciate the distinction Aaron on that because sometimes the freedom is like oh do I just not do anything just not give a shit about everything because yeah because sometimes the freedom for me is when the worries go away you know the stories and all that and there is some of it so I appreciate it I also appreciate the new bowl what a beautiful my goodness I'm a very I'm finding out that I'm a very visceral person I think one of the early meditations we did we talked about the back of the heart and we're opening doors and all this and I freaked out I was like wow that's amazing and I realized that for me it's very inside and so with bowl and sound I think a lot of you know this but there's different bowls traditionally are tuned to different chakras different energy centers and I think the bowl we had before was a little smaller and it was a little higher on the body when you rang that I was like whoa like hips and my belly and maybe first second chakra I don't know but it was there's a depth to that one and it feels different anyway so thanks yeah thank you I like it anybody else yeah well so that thing that you guys had written at the bottom the noticing the pull but not being pulled by it I think there's a term for that called metacognition it's your ability to think of your own thinking and yeah just wanted to share that in case you guys were wondering if there was a term for that yeah guy behind the guy