By Leo Babauta

What would it be like to free your mind in a way that feels liberating and expansive, and leads to inner peace?

That’s the question that philosophers and sages have been asking for as long as we have existed. Some of them have come up with pretty great answers, too. Inner freedom is possible.

Today, I invite you to try an exercise in this kind of mental freedom. Really give it a shot, if you’ve ever craved inner peace and contentment.

Let’s walk through it, one step at a time.

First Step: Notice How We Create Bad Feelings

Notice how we create so many bad feelings about ourselves and others. These are creations of our minds — they’re not “imaginary,” but real constraints and real pain that we create for ourselves.

Let me list a few ways we do that:

• We make ourselves feel bad, all the time. I wasn’t as productive as I’d like to be, so I feel bad. I didn’t meet my expectations, didn’t exercise, wasn’t as on top of things. So I feel bad about it. I might have been a bad parent, or friend, so I feel bad.

• We create expectations for ourselves, that make us feel bad.

• We want to make others feel bad, because they’re not meeting our expectations.

• We shy away from things, because we’re worried about being inadequate. We avoid, procrastinate, and stay in safety, out of fear of being inadequate.

• We get anxious a lot, because we’re worried that others might think we’re inadequate. “What do they think of me? Do they think I’m dumb, or ugly, or awkward, or mean? Do they like me?”

You might notice that the expectations we create make us feel bad about ourselves, feel bad towards others, feel inadequate. These expectations are mental creations.

These creations are not a problem. I’m just asking you to notice them.

Second Step: Notice What It’s Like Without It

Try to picture what life would be like if you stopped making yourself feel bad all the time.

What would it be like if you didn’t have expectations of yourself? Of other people? Of the world?

What would it be like if you didn’t have to worry about being inadequate, or a good enough person, anymore?

For me, imagining this moment without all of that … it feels peaceful. There’s no worry about being enough — I’m already enough. There’s no judgment of others — they’re enough too. There’s nothing that really needs to be done, because this moment is enough too. So peaceful!

Third Step: Try Vanishing or Changing the Mental Creations

It’s a masterful thing to notice whenever you have a mental creation like an expectation, or some idea that you’re inadequate, or some idea that others are bad. If you can notice the mental creations, you can vanquish them. Or create something different that makes you feel more lit up, or at peace, or grateful.

Let me be clear: I’m not saying you should never feel bad. We’re human, we have emotions, and they’re all OK. But even when the emotions come up, what if we let go of the expectation that we should feel any different, and just accepted the emotion as it is, as part of a moment that’s perfect as it is?

If you notice the mental creation — an expectation, a desire for things to be different, an idea that you’re inadequate or someone else is bad — then try making it disappear. Like making a mental picture just poof! Disappear.

Or try coming up with a new mental image — what new way of seeing yourself, the other person, or this moment, will create something new?

For example:

• Gratitude: We can always find something to be grateful for, by imagining this moment without it. I might be more grateful for my loved ones if I imagine a world without them. I can even be more grateful for people I disagree with politically … if I imagine a world without other humans.

• Compassion: It helps me to think of someone else who is behaving badly … as someone who is hurting, anxious, stressed. That doesn’t excuse bad behavior, but I can feel more compassion towards them and be more at peace internally, not having to carry around resentment.

• Connection: When I start to judge other people, I can picture the ways that we are the same. If they’re selfish, can I remember how I’m sometimes selfish? If they’re inconsiderate, can I remember how I’m sometimes inconsiderate? Picturing how we’re the same helps me to feel more connected to others.

• Wonder: I can picture any ordinary object or moment with a sense of awe and magic. This gives me a feeling of wonder — what a wondrous thing this world is!

• Curiosity: When I feel shut down, I like to try to visualize the person or scene in front of me as if it were brand new, and I’ve never seen it before — not only do I feel more wonder, I can get more curious about this fascinating thing in front of me.

These are just a few examples, but we can change our mental creation in infinite ways. And that can free us, in any moment.

Let me note that this is easier said than done, sometimes. It’s hard when we’re stuck in our mental creation and can’t see anything different. That’s OK — we don’t need to always be free.

It’s also hard to notice that we’re stuck in it, and to remember to free ourselves. That can take a lot of time and practice. This article doesn’t solve that, but only point to the mechanism of mental freedom.

You might also notice any objections you have to this kind of freeing. Maybe it feels wrong in some ways, or impossible. That’s a mental creation as well, and I find it fascinating that we have that! Protecting our creations, usually because doing anything else feels somehow wrong.

However you take this methodology, I wish you peace and freedom.