How a bird Metaphor could be your key to living a freer life
“Tell me, when was the last time you ran through a field just to feel the freedom of creating your own wind? -unknown
Like the birds we were meant to be free. Free to spread our wings and fly, free to explore places and ideas, to sing happy songs. But we weren’t just meant to be free: we were made for freedom.
Just because we have physical freedom doesn’t necessarily mean we are free. From the time I was a teenager and beyond, I cared more about what other people thought of me than what I thought of myself. This spilled over into every part of my life. I walked around in fear of judgement, and adjudicated myself harshly when I made mistakes. I held myself to unreasonable standards, and said yes to everything, even when I was uncomfortable. As a result, I not only lost my identity, but I became a prisoner of other people’s opinions.
I went like this for a while until I became filled with exhaustion. I did not know where to begin, but I knew something needed to change. So I started analyzing my thought patterns. And the more I analyzed, the more my mental prison made sense. I discovered that my thoughts were fearful, limiting, and self-demolishing. No wonder why everything in my life was small: I had put myself in a box. I would look up at the birds and ask myself, are they singing because they can fly, or because they are free?
I believe that we bury ourselves beneath the carcasses of people’s opinions and judgements, and become trapped by our own self-set limitations. In reality we have no limitations, only the ones we have constructed by our own fears. The birds have no fear as they meet the dawn face-forward with a song. But what about us? Why do we hide?
Are we afraid to fly? Or are we just afraid of what falling looks like?
I have fallen many times, but have plucked so many lessons from the falling. And interestingly, flying has fewer lessons in it than falling does. This is the beauty of falling. Part of living free like the birds is embracing both the flying and the falling. Because sometimes the perfect life exists in the messy and unplanned. Life isn’t supposed to be perfect…it is just supposed to be lived. So what does a “lived” life look like to you?
For me a “lived” life started with sitting alone with my thoughts as I listened to the birds. Since then, I have become more peaceful, less stressed, and I laugh a lot more. The other day someone in the local cafe spilled their water all over the floor, and before I could prevent it, out tumbled a laugh. Luckily, they realized I was laughing with them, not at them. The point is, our lives are meant to be lived with freedom, not with restriction. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be free, just like the birds.
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For further reading: The Cages We Live In and What It Means To Be Free, The Flow in Letting go
