A Life of Attachment to a Way of Detachment
This year I established that championing my freedom is purely that which is not something that sits externally or found in some other person or thing I need to take stock that my entire life and being is constructed of solid bricks of Attachments.
I also reflected that getting in touch with my body is the way of freedom for me but in exploring this further, I discover that the ways of the body are just as defining as the way of the mind.
The progress I have made is realizing that living in one's own head has been the safe thing to do and that safety is not naturally a good thing. Safety that serves us and provides us freedom is intelligent safety - which can be shortened as "wisdom".
The attachments that are stored deep within the body have means to unfreeze what a lifetime of defensiveness and negativity has stored up. This is the prison within the prison. Releasing the past is the first step I am taking but that does not guarantee freedom, but simply a freeing of some of the attachments of the past.
My mind-body relationship is between a rock and a hard place - so both mind and body require attention. The roots of attachment are decades in the making - so I do not underestimate that there may be a need for short-term pain to facilitate long-term wisdom.
The mind and body does not give up easily what it thinks is best for me - but the mind cannot distinguish between the real and the not real. That is good news because this means I can count my imagination to create sources of release - just as my fear created imagined things.
For sure there is a lot of things that create trauma as a child but they are attachments to coping strategies that have long since been rendered useless - one needs imagination to create freedom from these attachments - and discipline to loosen up the past and to let go of those things that no longer serve me.
My way has been solitary - with a huge investment in control. While I might rail against command and control structures in the workplace - I should first look at how command and control have been levers and decisions that emanate from within me.
The need for control is informed by the attachments that exist very deep within me - and autonomic attachments need a refresh and more to the point a spring clean, albeit this is the autumn of my life. Better late than never to begin this revitalization path.
Fear is the sum of the signals and responses that I created - we tend to think fear is what protects us from others or situations that are dangerous - but we took that on board because at one time we did not know any better or we took the easiest way and settled for convenience.
2025 should therefore be a transformational year for me - because I will be spending much time on exploring my attachments - but the path forward is recognizing where detachment is a life wisdom. The weight of the past is holding back that wisdom - so it is time to throw out unnecessary mental and somatic furniture.
Even if my detachment leads to a wiser life - I need to be alert to ensure that I am not accumulating the next hoarding of attachments - and that what I choose is actually freedom.