The Prison Break

-Devlyn Steele

Imagine if you were sentenced to a prison term, what would you be thinking about? Most people would be thinking about the length of their sentence, and awaiting their release.  In your mind, you would constantly be thinking about how to get out sooner. You would fantasize about a prison break. You would be thinking about how to get out because you would want to be free.

Freedom is a liberty we treasure. Freedom is an idea we fight for and believe is our right. How are we using this right that we deem to be so important? After all, we consider freedom/liberty a core value that we regard as one of the highest in importance. As the Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

That all men are created equal,

That they are endowed by the creator

with certain unalienable Rights,

That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-

If freedom is so important, are we living lives that are not free? Are we using our liberty to truly live a life of being free, or are we trapped in our own prisons? We live in prisons that we create for ourselves by the thoughts we think. Thus, we are trapped from creating the lives we truly desire.  Freedom is not just a physical concept, it is also created and experienced in the mind. If we develop beliefs about ourselves that limit us from experiencing the life we want, we are in a prison. We are behind bars looking at the life we want, but unable to reach it. This experience is no different than if the bars were physical in a real prison, and we were looking out the cell window at the world we wish we could be in.

How often have you looked through the bars feeling trapped from the life you really want? On the other side of the bars is the body, the career, education, relationship, mood, addiction cure, and more, that you want, but you can't reach it. You don't see how you can achieve your desires. You believe you cannot change or create that type of success you desire. You restrict yourself from the life you want and continue as you are.

What is holding you back? Are there really any physical bars? Aren't your thoughts the only thing that is holding you back from achieving your true desires? The life you want is right there for you to have. The bars that are holding you back from creating that change is yourself.  It's the definitions of ourselves and what we believe, or what we believe is not possible that defines our life and the choices and actions we take. These thoughts hold us in a prison that we create by what we are thinking.

We do want to get out, and we search and search for ways to free ourselves. The ironic part is that the way out, the key, is hanging from the belt we are wearing. It is there clanging around making noise, saying here I am, open up the bars and get me out. Let's workout, don't eat that food, we don't need to charge that, we can do x, y, or z. It clangs around, but we ignore it, looking at the bars wondering why we can't be free.

If you really want to be free, know that freedom starts with how you are thinking. You can break free of the prison you have created for yourself by consciously choosing not listen to the voice that's telling you what you cannot do. You can truly change your life at any moment, but the change you are looking for must come from within. Be the change you want in your life.

Break out of prison today by taking one step into freedom. Decide today to take one step by changing a thought and taking an action. Truly breakout, and let go of the self limiting beliefs that you have held on to, and declare that you are letting it go. Then, state one action you are going to take in the opposite direction of the beliefs that you have held on to.

Either on Tools, Facebook or a private journal, write  "I am breaking out of the prison I have lived in by thinking _____________. I now believe I can _____________. I am taking the following one step: _____________, in my new free world.

If you decide to share your prison break story, you will help motivate others. After all, we love escape movies. Let's consider this "The Great Escape"

See you on the other side...

This article was inspired  by an interview I conducted with Terry Moore. I worked with Terry while running the Men's Support Group for Chrysalis, an organization which helps the homeless get back to work. At 47 years old, and having served 6 prison terms, a drug addiction, no education or support, Terry changed his life. What I realized while working with him, was that the prison terms are not what held him prisoner, but rather how he was thinking. When he changed his thinking, he changed his life and truly became free. I shared this during the PFR and thought everyone should get exposed to this story.

Take a moment to listen to the interview and watch the video, and it will inspire you to really break out of your prison.