As I continue to evolve I have really come to the realization that for a lot of my life, I had falsely imprisoned myself from my highest potential. I can say that I haven’t completely broken free from the prison complex, but I am in the midst of a good old “Prison Break”.  It is a good analogy to personal enlightenment.

In this scenario, I define the virtual prison is the place one sentences themselves when you don’t feel you are worth your dreams and desires. Some may construct these thought-form jails like the old ones of an old western with a some iron bars and that’s it and others may construct a SuperMax federal prison where once you are in, you are practically never going to escape. Even though we are not physically confined to a small, dank room, energetically it is no different. We have used the infinite power of our consciousness and soul to construct the walls with misbeliefs we tell ourselves or the misbeliefs we agree with when others put us down. The craziest thing of all is that deep down in the core of us, our inner architect of our highest potential purposely didn’t allow a lock on the door! If we just tried to walk up to it and push it open, we would be able to break free and bask the now of our hearts desires!  But instead, we just toil in our own dark place because we have spent SO MUCH time in our cells that it has become home.  Even though it is an awful place, it is familiar and “safe”.  One decides that it is better not to put yourself out there because it will probably go wrong and I’ll be hurt even more.  So we put another layer of bricks down around the jail and just simmer in our own despair.

From my belief and perception, we have entered the New Age of consciousness where we have help from on high. The universe has started to send little care packages into your jail and hidden within the cake is that metal file one sees in old time movies. That file represents the inner subconscious realization that that you have falsely imprisoned yourself and now you have a team to help get you out of there. There is no “Prison Break” without a desire to be set free especially if you have been falsely imprisoned. You start looking at your prison walls for the first time and start to see all the cracks and the light from outside shining through and you feel that warmth on your skin. That light may the realization that something is not right with your life and that you deserve better.  It may be inner unsettled feeling starts to creep into your bones making you so uncomfortable that you finally start to fantasize about what it would be like to be free to do whatever you want.  The key to bust out is to start to realize you are priceless, that your matter, and that the universe is here to give you your wildest desires.

One of the exercises I have incorporated into my meditation is to visualize what it would feel like when I conquer all my inner demons and truly open that cell door and just take that step out onto that plush green grass of paradise. I try to feel the shackles of my limitations just bust off my wrists and ankles and I breathe in the peace and feeling of true freedom. I can hear all the inner voices coming from that dark place telling you to come back into the safety of your cell because the future is unknown and that you are going to get hurt or recaptured. But I just keep on walking and never look back, knowing that the dark place is no longer able to contain me and I jump into a beautiful clean lake and wash the dirt and grime of my personal prison away forever. That feeling of freedom that I focus on while meditating sometimes brings me to tears of joy. I know it is so easy yet quite possibly the hardest thing ever. I feel that I’m so close to being 100% free and that the time is nigh.

It makes for a great movie plot and it is no wonder why one of my favorite movies of all time is Shawshank Redemption. It is a perfect metaphor for the concept I am writing about.

Here is a great narration from Red (Morgan Freeman) from the movie that flashed into my head while writing the above:

“In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I used to think it would take six-hundred years to tunnel under the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I guess it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes really, pressure, and time. It turns out Andy’s favorite hobby was totin’ his wall through the exercise yard, a handful at a time. Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can’t even imagine, or maybe I just don’t want to. Five hundred yards…that’s the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile. Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.”

That vision of Andy standing in the rain looking up to heaven, arms out wide, after crawling through a sewer pipe to freedom is priceless. We are all capable of this prison break. Even Alcatraz was not able to hold the human spirit of freedom. Please know that you are worth your freedom and don’t listen to the jailors in your head that you aren’t worthy of it. It is your God-given right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So start filing the bars off the windows, or digging a cave like Andy, or just walk up and open the cell door and walk out! It’s up to you how long it takes but just know that your freedom and light of unimaginable joy awaits!

BWPN (Be Well. Peace. Namaste!)

Josh