Accept What Is to Grow into Greater Freedom

by Ryan Biddulph

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Resisting what is leads to enslavement, captivity and the shackles of fear, pain, grief and suffering.

Accepting what is leads to freedom, love, peace of mind, service and success.

I circled the globe for the past 10 with my wife. We stayed with family whenever we returned home to the United States. I always felt love and warmth on returning home but I never felt free because my wife and I chose not to buy our own home. I resisted what was versus accepting my intimately personal choices to:

return home versus circling the globe for a decade non-stop
not buying a home to be free, to feel liberated and to allow me and my wife to solely call the shots in our lives

A difficult but necessary turn of events unfolded 7 months ago that woke me up; I accepted my living conditions in the USA as they were and a chain of circumstances occurred that catapulted my wife and I into a life of full time travel and virtually unlimited freedom we never experienced prior.

Feeling the fear and pain of that change seemed rough at the time but I have never felt more free in my life. My wife and I have house sat and rented AirBnB's through the Northeast USA since July. We plan to stick around until February then likely will travel to the tropics for a while.

Why do I experience my greatest level of freedom now?

I accepted life – and my choices – as it was months ago, versus resisting my living conditions, disowning my choices and sustaining through a somewhat unpleasant, confining situation.

Perfect Place Perfect Time

Like every moment, I lived in the perfect place at the perfect time during my more resistant days. I had to have that experience to learn:

compassion
empathy
gratitude
a sense of contrast about life
how to take full responsibility for my life choices

But I also had to eventually accept how we chose to live and who we chose to live with in order to free ourselves into a more liberating experience for all people involved. I had to be honest with myself; my 10 years of circling the globe then returning home felt fun and freeing sometimes and horrible other times. Versus fighting or resisting these genuine feelings I sat with my emotions, hugged the energies and felt an immense peace of mind about it all.

The break from living in a comfortable environment in New Jersey felt painful at first but I had honestly outgrown the place over a decade ago when I started traveling the world. I love my family and friends but no other aspect of NJ:

liberated me
excited me
inspired me
freed me

save spending time with people I loved. I lived the complete NJ experience for a full 36 years before circling the globe. I had enough. I feel grateful for those 36 NJ years but preferred a sense of contrast and also realized some kind, caring people in our housing development filled their minds – and those around themselves – with fear, gossip and anger, creating a toxic environment I needed to be free from to shine more brightly.

My freedom expanded dramatically when I hugged and accepted these truths.

Do the same to liberate yourself from confining, constraining, difficult situations in life. Stop fighting what is and stop complaining about circumstances. Accept how every experience teaches you something about yourself. Every experience teaches you to face your fears, to live with love and to be free but only if you stop resisting circumstances and fully embrace these experiences.