All my life I followed the rules. I made sure my I’s were dotted and my T’s were crossed, I read the manuals before using a new tool or device and I ALWAYS made sure I knew what was expected before I engaged in any new venture.

We all carry rules…some we know, some we don’t know, until they are challenged. Then, we either dig in, or consider shifting or releasing the rule. I’m in the process of releasing the rules I have held as truths, and it’s funny all the things that are coming into my awareness of how life is supposed to be lived, or how we are supposed to act in certain situations. All there to draw attention to the rules that have held me in check. Sometimes it’s like navigating through a maze, created in our mind, and our rules are the barriers to us living fully alive and awake.

What does life look like if we choose to look beyond the rules we have created for ourself? What would we be willing to say and do? It’s an interesting process…to come face to face with all the rules we hold every day, in every situation and ask:

• “Does this still hold meaning?”
• “Am I willing to be vulnerable or to play it safe?”
• “Am I willing to show compassion or to judge?”
• “Am I Willing to act from a place of fear or fearlessness?”

Don’t get me wrong, rules serve a valuable purpose, they allow us to engage safely in our physical world. No one wants to put their hand on a hot element, or dash across the street into oncoming traffic. Yet how we define the rules that keep us ‘safe‘, ..emotionally are different (see my older blog on safe).. These rules are learned from example and/or through experience, they filter how we see and engage in our world. And sometimes, the rules we put in place to keep us ‘safe’ as children no longer serve us, and in fact become the very thing that locks us into a living a life we know we are so much bigger than.

If we believe we are the creators of our life/world then I have to believe that I create the situations and circumstances that allow me to challenge the rules I put in place. In those moments I get to choose. Choose the stedfast route and apply the rule I know so well, that may no longer be serving me. OR choose another path, one that has be releasing the rule and choosing what will move me towards the LIFE I know I am here to live.  It’s like being given a blank canvas or a blank sheet and giving mySELF permission to paint a new picture or write a new story.

Now that is what I call living beyond the rules….

Until the next time!