You see the this outside. What is your reaction?

Disgust? Sadness? Do you want to free the dog of its chains?

What if I was to tell you that you are the dog?  Tied up and bound by what we perceive as our obligations, work, duties, social life and our ideas of what we want to be, leading to stress, unhappiness, illness and exhaustion.Yet so often we fail to realize this, to set ourselves free.

We blindly live as part of a chain gang.

I challenge you to set yourself free, to untether.

I recently untethered myself from something that had been filling up a lot of space in my live, Crossfit. Letting go of this opened allowed a flood of ideas, desires, and new experiences to flood my life and over the past couple days I’ve had to sit down and prioritize of those things what was most important  I’ve never had to do that before. By letting go of something that had run its course I stepped closer to my authentic self and was seemingly rewarded.

It is essential to take time for ourselves to reflect on what fills our lives. It become so easy to fall into habit and forget why we engage in our routines. As I’ve written before this “autopilot” can take over days, months, and years and when we try to reflect on the past it comes up as an empty slate. Don’t let this become your reality.

Untethering doesn’t have to be a radical change. Perhaps start out untethering from technology, something that gets wrapped up in a false belief as a need rather than a luxury. Take a throwback to the time before cell phones and laptops. Talk a walk without your phone and schedule a couple of hours aways from your computer.

Untether from your material possessions. Before you buy that next pair of shoes ask how much you really need them? Are they really useful or are they just going to fill up space in your closet, cluttering your space and your mind?

The media perpetuates the idea that we need all these things. Case in point, the yoga industry. I see this from the front lines once upon a time as a retailer and now as an instructor. Fancy yoga pants, mats, props, food.  You name it and it is out there.  We have become tethered to the commercialization of yoga. All you really need for yoga is your body, breath and mind. A mat is obviously useful, but one can most definitely do yoga sans mat, even if it feels awkward!

Challenge yourself to simplify your life, to free yourself from your own chains. Prioritize what you fill your life with and why. Figure out what is important and what just fills space. Create your true life. You have the power.

What can you untether from?

Photos: flickr.com; clker.com; the-tum-tum-tree.blogspot.com