Grecia, Costa Rica
During one of our dawn walks we journey through the forest here in Costa Rica.
I love this sign.
The translation: “If you want to hear the song of the birds do not buy cages. Plant a tree.”
Prior to passing this sign we saw parrots in the neighborhood.
Parrot, Grecia, Costa Rica
Freedom is beauty. Freedom is peace. Freedom is outside of cages.
Caging any sentient being for:
- personal pleasure
- companionship
- admiration of beauty
symbolizes mental enslavement of the ego.
Since you and the bird are one in mind you only hurt yourself and the bird in the process.
Would you enjoy living in prison? Since you and the bird are identical in mind/spirit, then he does not enjoy living in prison, either, no matter the egoic excuses one makes to explain the use of cages, confinement and limiting movement.
Why not let it be free? Why not allow yourself to be free?
Listen to its beautiful song during a trip to Costa Rica. Wild parrots are some of the most flamboyant, playful beings on earth. Perhaps a simple YouTube video of parrot calls works for someone resistant to flying.
Plant a tree. Grow forests. Restore the bird’s home. Allow it to be free.
Symbolically, bloggers cage themselves mentally, not unlike caging birds. Bloggers also cage their blogs on the level of mind.
Limiting beliefs dripping with fear form the cage:
- “I fear that I cannot write long form content.”
- “I fear that I cannot afford to buy a domain and hosting.”
- “I fear that I do not have the time to engage in genuine blogger outreach.”
- “I fear that no one will read my blog.”
- “I fear that no one will buy my eBook.”
Fear is a cage but an illusory prison since fear is not real. Love is real. Fear seems to be real. Fear appears to be real. But facing, feeling and looking past fear reveals that it is a ghost, a mist of no-thing, really, that one steps through seamlessly if one so chooses.
The cage is not there.
The cage is in your mind.
Bloggers actually believe that the beauty, freedom, peace and worldly success is inside the imagined blogging cage.
The ego deceives you into believing that thinking, feeling and acting within the illusory cage of fear makes life freeing, peaceful, prospering and freeing because it seems to be safe, comfortable and orderly. Pay close attention to all worldly laws. Every one is backed only by fear and punishment. Reasons for fear and punishment backing laws abound. But none change the fact that all form the cage, or prison, that every body appears to live in, on planet earth. Unsafe, uncomfortable and chaotic madness still manifest despite the fear and punishment simply because fear is an illusion. Attempting to use the illusion of fear to cage spirit is as silly as trying to imprison air. or to harness the power of the oceans with a thimble.
Personal Examples of Caging Myself in
At various times during my blogging career I caged myself and my blog in by believing:
- I could not afford to upgrade my hosting, played small and struggled (when I could easily afford upgrading).
- Nobody would read my blog and buy my eBooks since I feared that I was a fraud.
- Playing small would be the safe choice to avoid reputation-destroying critics; failure followed.
I slowly began to leave these – and more – limiting beliefs forming my imagined cave by facing, feeling and forgiving each fear outside of my blogging comfort zone. Conquering fears proved their illusory nature. My peace of mind expanded; worldly success slowly, steadily and gradually followed.
Freedom Peace and Success Sit Outside of the Fear-Cage
Every blogging-related desire sits outside of your imagined mental cage of fear.
Freedom waits beyond your limiting beliefs. First, face your fears by doing liberating but uncomfortable things. Gradually, as you feel and forgive fears, peace flows in. Worldly freedom gradually follows.
For example, imagine if you pictured this mental cage:
“I cannot write and sell an eBook because no one will buy it.”
This idea is a limiting belief in your mind. We already established that fear is not true so this belief is not true.
You sit down to outline and write the eBook even though discomfort-fear often arises in your mind. But after facing, feeling and forgiving each fear you notice your peace of mind gradually increases. What seemed scary at first inside of your mental cage actually feels kinda fun as you step outside of the cage.
After finishing the eBook you create detailed, targeted content which earns you credibility and markets the eBook.
Sales slowly increase.
Worldly success expands.
Choosing to step outside of your blogging cage mentally put the action-oriented aspect of this process into motion.
The eBook and sales never happen if you did not choose to step outside of your mental cage, however uncomfortable the journey felt at times.
Is This Concept Practical?
Yes.
Most bloggers desire to know what to practically do to succeed.
Few ask: “Why do millions of bloggers with simple, practical, successful strategies right in front of their noses ignore successful advice and fail?”
Millions do not understand that each mentally imagines a blogging cage for themselves and their blogs. Seeing the exit seems impossible. Stepping outside of the cage feels terrifying. Screaming at imagined captors appears to make sense (“Google wiped out all of my traffic!”); the insane solution appears reasonable to the terrified mind.
For these millions, the peace, freedom and worldly success appears to be (meaning in their frightened illusions):
- inside the cage of Google traffic
- inside the cage of Google AdSense
- inside the cage of building an email list
“Do these 1, 2 or 3 things and success is yours!”…says the ego.
But as we have logically established, if you do not understand that fears *only in your mind* are imprisoning you and your blog to only 1, 2 or 3 channels, you will be blind to the fact that you are caging yourself in to only Google traffic, Google AdSense for monetizing and building an email list for communicating with your readers.
Following successful, practical blogging guidance calmly occurs only after you step outside of your imagined blogging cage.
I’d say that the spirit of this post is about as practical as you can get from an action perspective.
Step Outside of the Mental Cage Then Follow Practical Strategies
Mentally, right now, accept this truth: billions of humans use millions of websites to get what they want.
Face, feel and forgive your fears enslaving you and your blog to Google alone.
Proceed to optimize posts for SEO and explore other traffic-building strategies. Comment genuinely on blogs. Guest post. Increase your publishing frequency. Not only will your peace of mind multiply while outside of your blogging cage, you will be pleasantly surprised as passive, organic traffic flows to your blog through these other tactics, in addition to driving Google traffic.
Some of those targeted people buy your eBook (Yep; you broke down and wrote it after mentally stepping outside of your imagined cage). Human beings who bought the eBook after finding you via a genuine blog comment or guest post prove that the money is not only in the cage-prison of the email list but through genuine blog comments and guest posting, too. Never mind the fact that you made money through writing and selling an eBook versus Google AdSense, alone.
Conclusion
Blogging is mindset-oriented.
Step outside of your imagined blogging cage.
Follow successful guidance calmly to cultivate peace of mind and to build worldly success.
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