There are legitimate problems in the outer world that restrict us or compel us to be something we aren't, but I find inner restrictions to be more devastating as a rule. Each of us takes in an enormous number of ideas, both helpful and destructive, over the course of our lives.

If you don't consciously choose the ideals you care for over the other less desirable ones, taking time to organize them properly, you get a kind of inner indigestion that affects the way you think and live. We become imprisoned by ideas we don't believe in, subtly forced to do their will. The insidious part of all this is the process of coercion is largely invisible, lying outside of our awareness and forming the dark background that frames our everyday lives.

Thoughts become a prison with bars you cannot see, a sentence that you impose upon yourself. An important part of the spiritual life is breaking out of these restrictions on a regular basis, expanding your horizons and bringing more spontaneity and choice into your behavior. An extremely useful mantra for this process showed up on a bumper sticker some years ago: "Don't believe everything you think."

When I start thinking about essences to help an issue, I usually begin by paging through some of my flower essence books, looking for flowers that relate to certain themes or personality traits. The "freedom flowers" seemed to fall into two categories: the ones that help you become "free from" restricting issues, and those that make you "free to" pursue your goals without such restrictions. It's almost like a pet dog; first you take the leash off his collar, then you toss the stick beyond his reach and say fetch.

For many people, freedom boils down to pursuing your dreams and expanding your boundaries with a minimum of limitation. It's this question of what you most desire that gives this word so many meanings. Every person has their own unique idea of what they desire that shapes their lives. Freedom is mainly the ability to become who you potentially are.

If there's one flower that most typifies these issues, it has to be Star Gazer Lily, one of my own essences. Energetically, a Star Gazer person is too contracted and held in. Often this state reflects a period of material or emotional privation, a time when you needed to get by on less. This restricted pattern of just getting by can become a habit. The person becomes rigid and dried up on the inside, unable to break free from these habitual limitations. (The flower Dogwood has a similar pattern.)

Star Gazer Lily promotes a release of this contracted feeling, almost like letting the pent-up steam out through a valve. The aura expands and relaxes, indicative that the person's perspective is growing and moving beyond its former cage. Often the person will feel a lifting of heavy emotions that have weighed them down for many years. As these burdens are lifted, you begin to see that life is a joyful path, not the onerous grind you've been laboring under.

The lesson this flower teaches is that we are much bigger beings than we could previously imagine. In short, the path of freedom demands that we continue to grow responsibly. It helps if you stop being your own jailer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Martin Bulgerin founded the BioPsciences Institute (BPI) in 1987. He has been practicing as a flower essence consultant since 1990 and has helped hundreds of people through his sensitivity to human behavior and the subtle energies of flowers. He has also been creating his own line of flower essences, gem elixirs and unique astrological remedies. His other specialties include astrology, homeopathy and a delightful form of therapeutic bodywork known as Ortho-Bionomy. For more information on these activities, including descriptions of his remedies, or to order Star Gazer Lily essence, go to the BPI web site, or send an email. To see more of Martin's articles that have appeared in Vibration Magazine, vist his Frequent Contributor Page

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