Have you been holding yourself hostage?  I know I was. I didn’t know it until I went through a divorce and began my journey to an empowered life of personal freedom. Working to find my inner freedom was a growing experience, crawling through the muck of my divorce, facing things in my life that I didn’t want to face.  I recognized that I had given away pieces of myself.  

In that empty space, I realized that I didn’t love myself.

Through divorce, I realized all those places where I held myself hostage. By hostage, I mean where I gave pieces of myself away which created a cage or a fortress around my heart; not realizing it at the time. Have you ever heard the story about the frog in hot water?  If you drop a frog in hot water it will jump out, but if you slowly turn the heat up it won’t know that it’s boiling to death. That’s what happened to me; I was slowly boiling to death. 

When we hold ourselves hostage, we are not living our authentic life because we have stopped investigating the truth of who we are. Personally, I had stopped living my life from a heart-centered place; stopped feeling connected, loving and stopped being kind with myself.  I realized that I wanted to be free, not just free from the marriage but free from the inner bondage I had created. All those walls I had put up around my heart that kept me from loving life. 

Recognizing that something is empty and missing inside you, is where you begin to see where you sold yourself out, where you’ve been holding yourself hostage. That is where your freedom can be accessed. By making the choice to investigate yourself, ask yourself questions such as: who am I now and how do I want to express myself in the second half of my life?

Love, compassion, and creativity are qualities that always reside within us. We forget them when we give pieces of ourselves away when we lose our self-esteem when we feel imprisoned. Finding your freedom is a very important aspect of living an empowered life. Not just happy, but empowered. The other thing about feeling empowered is that you get to make it up however you want because it’s YOUR power, it’s YOUR life. And who doesn’t want that?

Susan Burrell is the author of “Live Your Empowered Life: A 30-Day Journey Book” and she has a thought-provoking podcast called Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell that can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and other popular platforms. Her guided meditations are accessible through the Insight Timer App. Susan is a feisty Scorpio (was even born with the red hair to back it up!) who has navigated life by learning how to listen within to that Divine urge that keeps pointing her in the direction of her life’s purpose even when she can’t see the road.  She is a guide in the crossroads of life with a Masters Degree in Consciousness. Susan has been counseling and supporting people in transforming from the inside out for over 25 years. Her methods are proven because she has lived this journey to empowerment. Website: https://www.susanburrell.com

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Susan is the author of “Live Your Empowered Life: A 30-Day Journey Book” and she has a thought provoking podcast called Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell that can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and other popular platforms. Her guided meditations are accessible through the Insight Timer App. Susan is a feisty Scorpio (was even born with the red hair to back it up!) who has navigated life by learning how to listen within to that Divine urge that keeps pointing her in the direction of her life’s purpose even when she can’t see the road. She is a guide in the crossroads of life with a Masters Degree in Consciousness. Susan has been counseling and supporting people in transforming from the inside out for over 25 years. Her methods are proven because she has lived this journey to empowerment.