Stepping Out of Expectation

Getting Outside of Your Comfort Zone By Brynn Brisk

Today we hear from Brynn, a recent graduate of Live Free Trainings as she explores her freedom and transformation journey with yoga...

It feels so icky in the moment. “What will my friends think of me?”, “What if they don’t like me?”, “I’m feeling judged”. Working through the Chakra System, I’ve learned that your Solar Plexus is the home for self-confidence, energy, will, fire, power, and transformation.

Stepping backwards for a moment, the first two chakra systems are respectively the Root, whose element is Earth, and the Sacral, whose element is Water. These lower two Chakras provide us with the information to understand who we are at our core. The root of who we are. Not who we think we should be, not who our parents want us to be. Who we truly are.

The Sacral Chakra allows us to be fluid, to change, get in touch with our emotions and sexuality. To experience life’s pleasures.

Typically, these are the first two to work on when learning to balance Chakra energies, and this may take a while. To be frank, I still don’t think I quite have them down yet, and I’m okay with that. This is a journey, meant to take time.

Building off of these first two Chakras, we enter the third, the Solar Plexus Chakra. The element being fire ignites upwards through our body up into the next 4 Chakras.

Here is where we begin the work in self-confidence and self-esteem, energy and power, true will, and transformation. Getting out of your comfort zone. Breaking free of habitual ways that no longer serve your higher self. Discovering and becoming tuned into your true will.

If you grew up in the Christian religion or took a philosophy class, you’ve likely heard the term “free will”. The gist is basically this: God gave humans free will, the opportunity to choose for themselves and make their own decisions. Philosophers break free will down to 3 levels: Determinism, Libertarianism, and Compatibilism. All three of these levels essentially argue whether humans inherently have free will or if decisions are predestined to happen. (Disclaimer - I have a biology degree and have only taken 1 philosophy course, so do your own research if you’re wanting to dig deeper).

As humans, we may feel like we’re using our free will to choose for ourselves. However if we’re being real, a lot of us are people-pleasing, following what’s expected, making choices based on our friends, going to university because “It’s what you need to do to get a good job”, etc., etc.

Think about recent decisions you’ve made. Have they truly been made for you, by you, using your will? If yes, congratulations! Your third chakra is well on its way to being balanced! If no, congratulations! You’re about to embark on a journey of deep relationship with yourself!

When we’re always making decisions based on the latest trends or what our parents expect us to do, we’re closing off our innate and intimate connection to our true will.

Wherever you find yourself now, reading this, is due to your choices. Your will.

In order to truly be in touch with our will, we must have confidence in our decisions. True will takes connection and communication with yourself, and the openness to be different even when it feels really scary. You accept and welcome the responsibility that comes with your choices.

Subsequently, self-esteem and confidence can be really challenging to cultivate by yourself for yourself. To be vulnerable— it took many, many years for me to develop this relationship with myself. I was self-doubting, people-pleasing, doing literally everything and anything I could to prove to others I was worthy of recognition. I think that is why I feel such a connection to this Chakra. I was deficient in all that energy. I’d need so much reassurance and words of affirmation to feel confident, to even begin to love and trust myself.

Slowly, gently, giving myself permission to genuinely listen to my true will, I began to feel the spark of the third Chakra ignite within me. Confidence began rising, self-empowerment was blooming. Transformation was beginning and started to feel like I was really in control of my sense of self.

I'm continuing my story of transformation in tomorrow's upcoming Live Free newsletter. I would love to continue to share with you. I've added Asana suggestions for your practice as well, if you are on this same journey, I would love to share it with you.

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