The Path to Freedom

About 15 years ago I set a goal to retire by age 45. I started forging my career, starting my own business, making investments to secure income and stability for the retirement days. Things were coming along and I could see this as a dream come true. Ten years ago, I reevaluated my situation; business was picking up but the growing debt of running a business was growing too. In various occasions, I had to use my investments and savings to keep the business alive and to pay the bills. Yet, I pushed through and reframed my goal to achieve financial freedom by age 45. The scale of balancing life and work was always tipped to one side. I was making tons of money but I was neglecting my family, my home because I was traveling all the time. I started to feel lonely, underappreciated and isolated from the life I wanted leaving a feeling of emptiness. Happiness was disguised as hard work and paying the bills.

Riding this roller coaster of life led me to the proverbial fork in the road and into the path of knowing thyself. I’ve studied martial arts for more than a decade, exploring the physical and psychological aspect of pain. A series of events throughout this period of time, prompt me to do a deep soul searching and explore suffering from a spiritual perspective. I’ve learned then that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. In exploring my spirituality and expanding my consciousness, my eyes were open to a new awakening. I’ve realized that my pain and suffering were the results of an empty hole in my soul which I was filling with external things like money and vices. With the help of plant medicines, I experienced a spiritual awakening, knowing that I have everything I need within me and can take that every way I go. I have burned all the bridges of my past and faced my feelings and emotions head-on. Only then the healing process started to happen. All of my life’s challenges, problems, fallouts, disappointments, frustrations, and even mid-life crisis were actually blessings in disguised all this time. Pain became my teacher turning lessons into learning experiences and I turned suffering into an opportunity to grow and become stronger, wiser and better than before. I have rediscovered my true self.

So today I turn 45 years old. The deadline has come and it’s time to show up for it. It’s time to reap the rewards of hard work through all these years, and live a good life.

I am happy to report that I did not reach my goal of financial freedom. Life got in the way and though I did enjoy the journey, traveling across the nation, working and playing into what was then my lifestyle, I didn’t accomplish what I set my mind to over a decade ago.

I have instead gained something invaluable. At 45, I have achieved emotional freedom. This freedom knows no boundaries, no limitations. Leaving my emotional baggage behind open up to a new path in my life, the path of service. I learned that when I help others, I am helping myself and it is in this path where I found healing beyond measure. Walking on this path, I have found community, acceptance, compassion, deep soul connections and unconditional love.

So I welcome this new year in my life with God, Love, and Service in my heart. I am nature’s greatest miracle. I will begin my days with love in my heart and will live my days as if it is my last, being the master of my emotions. I will lead my life with courage, kindness, and passion, in service to others. Lending a hand to those who want to help themselves in becoming the best version of themselves. Turning those who once called themselves “victims” into warriors. And I will persist until I succeed.

Aho!