Emotional Freedom: Getting Unstuck and Finding Inner Strength in Soul Recovery

Have you ever considered that true freedom might come from within? Join me in this powerful episode of the Recover Your Soul podcast as we uncover the depths of Soul Recovery and the power of personal freedom. Drawing from my own experiences of transcending alcoholism, codependency, and control addiction, I share how turning inward and embracing spiritual practices can lead to profound changes. Learn how self-awareness and conscious choices are the keys to a happier, healthier life. We reflect on the modern significance of spirituality and how it reshapes our understanding of freedom and independence.

Empowerment starts with personal responsibility, and this episode is filled with inspiring stories of clients who have achieved remarkable transformations by recognizing their choices and breaking free from old patterns. Hear firsthand accounts of overcoming high levels of anxiety and how spiritual practices play a crucial role in healing from past traumas. I also share my journey of detaching from others' behaviors and focusing on internal well-being.

For more information about Rev. Rachel Harrison and Recover Your Soul- visit the website www.recoveryoursoul.net  use the code TRYASESSION for 40% off your first Spiritual Coaching session when you book on the website.  Visit the website for all events and groups to get involved in Soul Recovery and the community.

Soul Recovery Support Group on Zoom -The 1st Monday of the Month, 6PM Mountain Time. This is a drop in support group where we can come together to explore, connect and support each other on our Soul

Join us on August 5th for the next FREE Soul Recovery Support group on Zoom from 6-7PM Mountain Time. ALL ARE WELCOME!!!
Soul Recovery In-Person Retreats coming up!! September 14-15th in Lafayette, Colorado and October 25th and 26th in San Diego.
Visit the website www.RecoverYourSoul.Net for details, dates and registrations. 

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not allied or representative of any organizations or religions, but is based on the opinions and experience of Rev. Rachel Harrison. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Take what you need and leave the rest.

Transcript

Rev Rachel Harrison: 1:22

Soul recovery is the process of finding freedom in your life freedom mentally, freedom physically, freedom spiritually. We get so caught up in these complex, dense lives it's true we all have and at some point you wake up. At some point you have this moment where you say this is enough and I am ready for change. I'm ready to stop wanting the world and the people in my life to be different and I'm ready to take charge of my own life. That's stepping out of the prison of our own making. And soul recovery are these processes, these teachings, these spiritual tools that allow us to step into a happy and healthy life by choosing our own path, realizing we have choice over everything in our life, that our thoughts are powerful, that our feelings are telling us something. Today's episode is all about finding that freedom. Enjoy the episode. Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast a spiritual path to a happy and healthy life.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 2:29

My name is Reverend Rachel Harrison. I started Recover your Soul after having profound changes in my life from my recovery of alcoholism, codependency and control addiction. I was guided to share the tools and principles of spirituality and soul recovery to help others transform their lives as mine was transformed. For us to overcome external circumstances. We need to turn the attention to ourselves, focusing on our inner change and healing. Positive results in our lives will follow. Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast. I'm Rev Rachel, and here we are on another Monday together. Thank you so much for being part of the soul recovery community.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 3:14

Whether you're coming back time and time again or whether you're joining us maybe for the first time, I think that it is by no mistake that you have found yourself here and that this serendipitous moment is something that has been calling to you to remember your wholeness, to come back to your higher self, to let go of the outside world, what feels painful or out of control or unmanageable, and utilize the tools of spirituality to bring yourself to a happy and healthy life. This path of awakening, this path of checking in, turning inward and doing this work, which doesn't feel like work, it feels like a gift to be able to be set free. Being that we just had the 4th of July, I wanted to really tap into this concept around freedom and this awareness that we have. In starting to awaken just a little bit, some of you are awakening deeper. You're maybe having real awarenesses around like wow, I have been choosing to see it a certain way, or my perceptions were so caught up in judgment and anger and fear that I couldn't even stay in my own lane. I couldn't stay out of being a people pleaser or codependent, or in addiction or consumed by somebody else's life that I had lost my way. And some of you are already on the path of starting to recognize. Ah, I have some choice here. I have awarenesses that I can make in my own life that are going to reflect how I choose to see it, how I'm going to be in my own life and how I'm going to work with the people in my life to let them have their own experience. You know, it's interesting to think about how years I think are so fascinating, as I hit 54 and a half and having this real shift, this next shift in my awakening and realizing how much can happen in such short periods of time and really how short life is.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 5:30

I don't know if any of you are also in middle life and think you know I used to think 54 was really old and now it's not old at all. I don't feel any different really on some level than I did at 20. But on another level I feel completely different and I look and I think God, I raised my kids and I went through really, really dark night of the soul and a difficult phases in my marriage and difficult phases in myself, and then I was consumed by my own addiction. And here I am, on this other side and it feels like I'm free. I feel a sense of freedom that I never felt before, and we can't get there until it's our turn to get there. So, wherever you are on the journey, that's exactly where you're supposed to be, and it's not about wanting to push too hard, but we have to actually work for freedom and the fact that every country that has some level of independence has to celebrate their independence. It's important for us to celebrate our independence too, and that comes in phases, it comes in stages. You don't have to feel like you ever get there, because the truth is we're just always moving one step further into our own experience, and spirituality is such an interesting new way of us talking If you really think about it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 6:59

No one talked about spirituality 50 years ago. It started to come from the Buddhists and the people that were coming from India doing teaching around yoga, and Ram Dass was out there talking and people thought it was way far out their stuff, and it wasn't until really the hippies came and people started doing hallucinogenics and it started expanding people's minds. And now these, these terms that we just have that are so common meditation and consciousness, and mindfulness and those terms have become commonplace, whether you are quote unquote spiritual or even completely agnostic or even immersed in traditional religion. We're bringing in these spiritual concepts, which are these deeper knowings that aren't tied to any one belief system. They're really tied to something even greater still. That is yours to figure out, it's yours to understand. But when we talk about freedom, what it means is not being in controlled environments by somebody else's thoughts or physicality or anything that is on us, that someone is telling us what to do and who to be. And what I think is really interesting is that when I started my spiritual program years and years and years ago and my husband and I found unity for the first time and Charles and Myrtle Fillmore were the co-founders of unity and this concept, that came from new thought and again I want you to believe and some level of awareness and sovereignty over us. And it doesn't feel that way.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 9:14

Sometimes it feels very much like we aren't sovereign over our own lives, that other people's stuff is determining whether we're okay or not, and in soul recovery, what we are foundationally talking about is this concept of recognizing, first and foremost, that we have hit a wall, that whatever is going on in our life, we don't like it, that the contrast, that the difficulty, that the pain and suffering is so great whether it is of our own darkness or our consumed mental obsession over somebody else's life, whatever it is that we are in a place where we recognize with ourself that we've had enough, that we've had enough, enough that we've had enough. And that is a powerful moment when you recognize that you are not free, that you have a desire to be free. You know, people didn't want freedom In many, many, many situations if they couldn't see that somebody else lived a different way. They only knew because that's the only thing they ever knew. And so many of us were raised in situations or just stayed in lifestyles or in relationships or what our mind said or whatever it was, that you don't really realize how bad it is.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 10:43

The frog boiling in the water, right, you take frogs, put them in cold water and slowly rise the water up and eventually they are dying cooking in the pot, but they don't know it. If you drop a frog in boiling water, it's going to pop right out, but if you start it cold, it'll let you boil it to death. And oftentimes, for us, that's what we're doing in our own lives is we're boiling to death. And it isn't until we hit some wall that we get popped, with it being so intense that we recognize we want something else. That is the number one first step of awakening, and then the next step is to start to recognize ah, I think I have to fix it or I want to have control or power over things around me. That is the first step of soul recovery, which is to admit that we're powerless over everything outside of ourselves, that our desire to control people places, things, wanting it to be different, has really, really, really caused us suffering, which also goes to the Buddhist principles around suffering.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 11:54

And so this concept of freedom, this concept of awakening, this concept of starting to look at our lives in a different way, means that we have to want to show up for ourselves different, and that this piece of us that has been pointing the finger at everybody else and saying, if it would just be different because they changed, then I would be okay, and this is where the power of soul recovery comes in. They may never change, they may never think a thought that's different, they may not ever have a behavior that's different, whether it is your children or your spouse, or your brothers and sisters, or your best friend or your parents or the world. But what I want to emphasize in this concept of freedom is that when we make changes, we actually become the beacons of light for the others to see that they too can be free. Right. So here we are. We want to elicit change in others, but we've got to come to ourself. We've got to do our own process, our own work, and we've got to do our own process, our own work. And that's what started to happen in peoples is that there were people who were very oppressed and they didn't know that they were oppressed until they saw other people who weren't oppressed and they woke up and they said I'm going to do whatever it takes to expand and grow and change.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 13:23

And I believe that we're brought here in these bodies to have these experiences of awakening, to have a soul's experience that bumps up against other people, other situations, other relationships, circumstances to bring us to this place where we say how can I turn the attention to myself and begin to heal me? How can I choose my own happiness? How can I let go of everyone else? I was working with a client recently and I just feel so gifted and honored to be working with so many of you as a spiritual coach. And you know everybody's stories are so their own unique experience. And yet there's always these overriding patterns that the people that I work with have. You know either how maybe they have kids who have addiction, or they're healing from a dysfunctional childhood, or they're ready to change their own life because they recognize their behaviors and their patterns aren't working, or they think that they're supposed to save the world and take care of everybody else, and then they wake up one day with an empty nest and a life that got really hard and they're curious about who they are.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 14:50

If you're ready for soul recovery, as a spiritual coach I can support your healing to help make real changes that will bring you a life of peace, happiness, connection and abundance. You can also work in smaller groups by taking a deep dive in a Zoom workshop or with me in person at a retreat or an event. Join others on the Soul Recovery Path once a month for the free Zoom support group or daily on the private Facebook page. Visit the website recoveryoursoulnet to book coaching sessions with me or find all the information you need about soul recovery dates that are coming up and how to register for those groups and workshops. To support the podcast and the community, check the links in the show notes to make a small monthly donation or a one-time donation of your choice. That will make a huge impact to support this community and the soul recovery mission. Together we can do the work that will recover your soul.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 15:49

But I was working with this client and she said she took out a piece of paper and she draw lanes on the paper as a reminder to stay in her own lane. And it was interesting because after she said that I heard that in variety of places, variety of people all talking about staying in their own lane. And freedom is this opportunity for us to really recognize that by staying in our own lane we are not only freeing ourselves but we're actually freeing the people around us to choose to also stay in their own lane. And so it's this funny concept of freedom that when we think about being oppressed, either consciously or unconsciously, and you start to really recognize that every thought that you think, every thought that you think has power, and every way that you take in the world around you has power. And so are you going to allow others to have power over you?

Rev Rachel Harrison: 16:59

Or are you going to release all of that influence and stand in your own sovereignty, in your own lane, and begin to realize that when you do this process of soul recovery, spiritual growth, whatever it is for you I like soul recovery it doesn't necessarily mean you have to do the nine steps. It just means that you're here saying I'm going to awaken, I'm going to do something that changes how I live in the world, I'm going to connect to my higher self, I'm going to connect to higher power and I'm going to begin to shed and let go of all the old woundedness, all the pain, all of the beliefs, all the stories that have been holding me back and keeping me locked in this prison of my own choosing. And when we start to do that and we start to just wake up every day and take little, tiny steps towards freedom, it's a slow and steady walk towards freedom. It's a slow and steady walk. It takes a while to get there and sometimes there's two steps forward, five steps back. Sometimes it's five steps forward, two steps back. It's not a straight, easy race. It's a long, long and steady race. But the hope is that you recognize that you have choice. You get to choose.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 18:28

I had another client who's worked almost all of the nine steps of soul recovery with me and made incredible. Everybody I've worked with has had such incredible strides. I am just blown away. When you are ready to do the work, when you're ready for change, just being in reflection of time with me is really allowing you to see yourself for the truth of who you are and not being too woo woo, but on some level I just sit down and I open up a space and the universe really works through me to speak to and work with whatever's going on with you. It's a pretty profound experience really. Anyway, so she's working on her steps and she's had great movement and release and freedom from her life, from her mental obsessions. And one of the things that she said I wrote it down because it was so great. She said I realize I have choice over everything in my life. When we realize we have choice over everything in our life choice of how we allow things to come in choice of how we say things, choice of how we show up, choice of whether we're going to be harmed or not, choice of whether we're going to let the stories continue to repeat and pattern for us.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 19:49

I can't even begin to describe the change in my emotional, physical, mental state that I have experienced in the last six years, and it hasn't been without a lot of deep digging in there and being willing to rattle those belief systems and touch them again and again and again. And it doesn't mean that I don't walk out into the world and have continued opportunities to look at what's going on inside of me. It just means that I am free from level nine anxiety I was between a seven and a nine anxiety and obsessive thinking every single day. I've been on antidepressants for my entire adult life, since I was 18 years old. On and off depressants, I used alcohol as a way to try to regulate my system.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 20:45

And what I found, by doing spiritual work and really opening up to this place, was that when you start to make a choice to step into a spiritual life, to be curious about the light, to step into your knowing and to actually leave behind the past, it's not about going in there and processing all of it to death. It's about recognizing that today, this moment, today, right now, you get to decide what are you going to put into your mental, physical sphere? Are you going to be consumed with somebody else's information, with how somebody else feels about what's happening in your kid's life or your husband's life or what's happening in the world around you? There's so much energy that is constantly bombarding us that we then take in and think that we have to reflect on and do something about that. We have to fix. That determines whether we're okay or not.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 21:51

And the last three weeks we've done a series on criticism, because criticism is really judgment, and judgment is really our desire to understand, to control, to choose how we see things, to try to fix something, to head off pain by judging ourself, maybe by repeating those old patterns that are deep in there that tell us whether we're valuable or whether somebody else can be valuable, or, if someone says something to us, how we're going to process that. And this process of standing in a new way of being, where you begin to open your mind and just notice that those are all just thoughts, that, the feelings that you have from those thoughts, that's what is telling you something. That's what's telling you where you need to go in terms of, maybe, things that need to get worked on or maybe where there's blockages, and it isn't straightforward, but it's a slow and steady walk towards freedom. Because the freedom that I feel now is that I have things that come into my life right now and I'm hoping Bodhi will come on to the podcast. He said he would. We just got to find time to talk about his current sobriety story and he's in this moment where he's trying out sobriety again.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 23:27

My old self wants to attach incredibly tightly to this concept of oh, please let him get it this time and please make him be sober and if he can just see it. And the truth is, alex is in a situation in his life where he's trying to cut way back on the partying and rein it back into quote unquote California sober, which means just much less partying, and I want to attach to those systems in old patterns, which is fear for my children, a lot of shame that I raised them in an alcoholic home, a lot of that complete mental obsession with what somebody else is doing, what somebody else is thinking, what somebody else is feeling, that desire to judge what they're doing, because if I can control it, then I can make it be better. And then I come back and I go whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute, I'm powerless over everything outside of myself.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 24:30

I recognize that when I'm in those behaviors and in those feelings, it doesn't benefit me. It makes me not feel well physically, emotionally, spiritually. It makes me go back into those levels of anxiety and I need to be free from this concept that I have to do for others. I'm outside of my lane, I'm weaving all in their lanes. Now it doesn't mean that I don't share with them advice if they're asking for it. It doesn't mean that I don't give praise to Bodhi for his being in a place where he's being sober, for making it through multiple big events, musical festivals, big one wheel events. I'm so proud of him and I want him to know I'm so proud of him. I want to just fill him up with the sugar that says yes, yes, yes, you've got this, but I'm not doing the other part that I used to do, where I would get attached to. If he can be okay, then I can relax and I can be okay, because that's not freedom anymore. Now you're back in the cage of needing somebody else to be a certain way for you to be okay.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 25:44

So this concept of freedom is really around recognizing where you're getting stuck and just being mindful of it and then starting to use the tools that we've learned here in Soul Recovery, tools that you've learned in other ways of your spiritual learning or development that you're doing, or mindset growth that you're looking at. Whatever is calling to you, go there. Go there and read and pay attention, because I believe source is speaking to you in the words that you can hear, in the modalities that align to you, because everybody is just a little bit different enough that there isn't one single path for everybody. This is your individual soul's journey to experience. But we're here to be free of this belief that somebody else is responsible for our happiness. We are responsible for our own happiness. We are responsible for our own physical, mental, spiritual freedom and if you are not free in a way that somebody else is controlling you and you don't have awareness of it, you'll boil to death.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 27:03

But if you wake up one day and you say you know what, I recognize, there's nothing I can do about whatever these things are, this person's behaviors, and it doesn't work for me, it isn't a judgment of somebody being a good person or a bad person. It's you walking out of the prison on your own, because the door is always wide open and it can feel really scary to go out into the world, sometimes to the unknown, even when you know that what you're leaving is not good for you anymore. But can you begin to truly step into your spiritual, grounded, resourced self and recognize that the universe has you, that you can indeed make it through anything, because that's freedom Stepping out into the unknown and trusting and knowing that everything is indeed working out for you. I am here always as your spiritual coach or life coach. If you want to do one-on-one sessions with me, check out the show notes for a coupon for a first visit and also check out the new work, the steps on your own. Step one is up, which is the letting go of control, knowing that we are powerless over everyone else, and I will be working on rolling out additional modules as well. I also have upcoming in person retreats, both in Colorado and in California, and check out the website recoveryoursoulnet. There's always new things happening in different areas.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 28:37

Until next time, namaste, thank you for listening to the Recover your Soul podcast and if you loved what you heard here, every Friday we have a bonus episode and you can access this by becoming a subscriber through Apple Podcasts for only $3.99 a month, or become a Patreon member and on this platform, you can choose $5, $15, or $25 a month to show what you want to support the show with On both of these subscriber platforms is an entire catalog of back episodes intended to inspire and support you on your soul recovery journey. I really want to invite everybody to attend the free once a month every first Monday of the month support group. This is on zoom. Everyone is welcome to attend and by giving a like or a review and sharing this with your friends and family really helps us to share the soul recovery message with even more people.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 29:34

We are on social media. We are on all the platforms. I am on TikTok. You can listen to guided meditations by Rev Rachel Harrison on Insight Timer. Thank you for supporting the show. Thank you for being part of the community. To find out more about soul recovery and everything that's being offered, visit the website wwwrecoveryoursoulnet. Together, we can do the work that will recover your soul.