If you want to discover whether you’re a free spirit or not, you need to ask yourself one question:
What’s more important to you in life, complacency or freedom?
I’ll help you figure out what your true answer is in a little bit.
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Table of contents
The Free Spirit Has the Essence of a Wolf
Yes, you heard me.
The free spirit has the same essence as the wolf. (On a side note, maybe that’s why wolves have been so feared and respected throughout millennia?) But this essence deviates from the modern notion of the free spirit. Let me explain why:
Old Ideas
Traditionally, a free spirit is seen as one who doesn’t like to be tied down, who wants to run free, liberated from the confines of family and society. Think of all those famous derelicts, hippies, and brooding heartthrobs seen in TV, film, and pop culture.
But there’s one big problem with this depiction of the free spirit: it’s still enslavement. These supposed “free spirits” that we wish to model ourselves upon are still not free. Superficially, they look liberated. On the surface, they seem to be living the dream.
But if you’ve ever met a so-called free spirit who indirectly models themselves upon the pop culture ideal, you’ll soon realize that something’s off with them.
They’re still running away from something.
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And yes, having the guts to rebel against big corporations, the oppressive modern lifestyle, and society at large is brave. But is it truly freedom? Is it truly what defines a “free spirit”?
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What does your inner free spirit want you to know?
What is True Freedom?
Freedom is not only external– it is also internal. Free-dom, or being free from domination, is just as much about our own minds as it is about the outer state of the world.
If you don’t have the desire to liberate yourself from the outer and inner voices of oppression, but prefer to be a respectable sheeple of society, freedom isn’t important to you. Convenience and complacency are.
If you don’t have the drive to be liberated from ALL sources of enslavement, whether in the outside world or inside reality, the term “free spirit” is just a stylish, feel-good label with no real substance.
It’s on par with dressing in boho clothes, adorning yourself in exotic jewelry, and getting a big “free spirit” tattoo and plastering it all over social media – it looks nice superficially, but it’s not the real deal.
The inner wolf is the embodiment of the free spirit. She can be all things and thrive in all states. She can be the nurturer and protector, the observer and the instigator, the gatherer and the fighter, the solitary one and the pack member.
She is not limited by one state of being. Above all, courage defines the inner wolf, and it is this essence that forges the true free spirit.
Are you willing to use your teeth to shred through outer AND inner oppression relentlessly? Do you crave for freedom more than complacency? Let’s find out …
How to Know Whether You’re a Free Spirit
I’m going to ask you one question.
This question, more or less, will help you to honestly assess your real desires and, therefore, whether you’re a free spirit or not.
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Question 1 – Choose one statement you most resonate with:
a) I prefer my spirituality to affirm me.
b) I prefer my spirituality to challenge and deconstruct me.
Take a few moments to seriously consider this question.
(Of course, you can take our free spirit test if you struggle with answering this question and need more variety.)
If you chose (a) you value complacency – and freedom is of secondary importance to you. If you chose (b) you value freedom and are therefore a free spirit.
As spiritual teacher Adyashanti writes,
Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.
We often think the spiritual path is a feel-good journey – and at the beginning stages that may be true. It’s also fine to use spirituality to affirm your self-identity and find some kind of security. But at the deeper levels, it is a journey towards freedom through self-realization (i.e. enlightenment), and that process is messy, uncomfortable, and challenging.
Ultimately, it’s neither good nor bad whether you’re a free spirit or not. We’re all at different levels of growth, and that’s okay. You don’t HAVE to be a free spirit any more than you don’t have to be a ballet dancer, truck driver, or reiki healer. Different strokes for different folks as they say. Some people need to be comforted and affirmed, others don’t.
Also, if you discover that you don’t have a free spirit essence, I want you to know that a ‘free spirit’ isn’t who you’re naturally born to be, it’s who you BECOME.
Yes, you can choose to become a free spirit.
If you’re starting to discover that comfort and complacency aren’t nourishing your soul any longer, you can absolutely make the decision to live like a free spirit. It will take time, practice, and authentic guidance, but the door is always open to you.
So with that being said, what is a free spirit? Let’s create a formal definition here:
What is a Free Spirit?
A free spirit is a person who desires to be free from all external and internal oppressive forces above all else.
The free spirit is by nature a rebel who may appear eccentric, weird or otherworldly to society.
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They choose to walk a different path in life that empowers them to listen to the voice of their soul, be free from suffering and enslavement, and fulfill their destiny.
Forget the stereotypical image of the bohemian traveler: a free spirit can be a homebody or adventurer, a family person or a loner, an outspoken extrovert, or a reflective introvert.
Being a free spirit is an ESSENCE, not an external image or label. If you value truth and freedom more than you value comfort and complacency, you’re a free spirit.
Free Spirits & Spiritual Awakening
When we walk the path of the free spirit, we simultaneously walk the path of the heart and soul. In essence, we are crafting a genuine spiritual path free of society’s confines and toxic conditioning.
If you are a free spirit, you’re by nature a person intent on soul searching – on finding answers to the deepest gnawing questions of existence such as “What is my destiny?” and “What is my True Nature?” Only a free spirit can truly answer this call to adventure. Only a free spirit can persist on the path of spiritual awakening.
7 Signs of the Free Spirit
Stereotypes aside, here are seven authentic signs of the free spirit:
- You’re a rebel and non-conformist
- You’re an innovator and dreamer
- You thirst for truth
- You have an inner “BS” detector
- You welcome challenge
- Your heart is your compass
- “I will not be enslaved” is your unconscious motto
I’ll go more into depth below:
1. You’re a rebel and non-conformist
By nature, you’re a non-conformist. You don’t like walking the path others set before you. You want to trailblaze your own destiny. You instinctually fight against anyone’s attempt to put you in a box, contain you, suppress you, silence you, or numb you.
Read: How to Embrace Being a Lone Wolf and Walk Your OWN Path »
2. You’re an innovator and dreamer
As a free spirit, you’re not afraid to let your mind wander to new horizons and realities. You have big ideas that may sound far-fetched or bizarre to others. Being rejected for your goals, plans or inventions is a big thorn in your side. Others can’t seem to get on the same page as you! You’re a visionary who always enjoys finding new ways of doing things differently than others.
3. You thirst for truth
How can a person be free when they’re living a lie? Or believing lies? In your heart and soul, you long to find truth both in everyday life and metaphysically. The old aphorism “the truth shall set you free” is something you carry deep inside your heart. You are willing to be wrong and are open to many different explanations. What is most important to you is what is real.
Read: What is the Meaning of Life? (In-Depth Answers) »
4. You have an inner “BS” detector
Part of that thirst for truth is the desire for authenticity – in yourself and in others. You can smell bullshit from a mile away and it disturbs you. How can you (or others) be free when deception and phoniness are running rampant? You despise playing roles and putting on masks and you can’t be around fake people for very long before the desire to run for the hills bursts like a howl from you.
5. You welcome challenge
Life becomes dead and stagnant when there’s no challenge. Although you may find it a bit scary and intimidating, being challenged is welcome by you as a free spirit. You know, deep down, that to be free from inner and outer oppression you must grow. And to grow, you must be challenged. You don’t seek comfort or complacency. You seek to feel and be alive. You seek to transform into the highest version of yourself possible.
6. Your heart is your compass
Your heart is your compass and you direct your life accordingly. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re reckless, but it does mean that you’re always striving to do what you love – because when you accomplish this, you feel free. Furthermore, you don’t just let what you’re passionate about sit on the back burner or fizzle away into oblivion, you find some way of incorporating it into your life.
Even if you have abandoned your passions, you become passionate about trying to reconnect with them. You want to live a life that you love and offer something to the world that you truly believe in.
Read: 9 Exhilarating Ways to Be True to Yourself (Even When You’re Scared) »
7. “I will not be enslaved” is your unconscious motto
As a natural rebel, you seek to remove beliefs, ideologies, habits, careers, and people from your life that cause you to feel oppressed, and therefore enslaved. You do this on both a physical and a metaphysical (or emotional/mental/spiritual) level.
You are attracted to people and paths that encourage the growth of your passionate spirit. You refuse to be tamed by the opinions or desires of others. You may be perceived as selfish, but deep down you know that you must respect and love yourself in order to share your gifts with the world.
If the beliefs, habits, and traumas within YOU are the source of your own suffering, you’ll try your utmost to free yourself from them. You realize that in order to be fully free, you must be comfortable and at home within yourself.
Therapy, self-exploration, inner work, and spiritual practice will all be methods by which you seek to liberate yourself from suffering. Being a free spirit will become less about traveling the external world as it will be about traversing, and mastering the inner landscape.
How to Be a Free Spirit?
You might be unsure about where you stand right now. Perhaps you want to be a free spirit, but your behavior may indicate otherwise. Perhaps you simply don’t know.
As I mentioned before, being a free spirit is a choice that arises from deep within you. When the pain of staying the same becomes more than the pain of growing, you will choose growth more than complacency.
And if you don’t feel that pain intensely enough yet, don’t worry. Just look at flowers: they start as tightly furled buds. But eventually, life demands that they open. You are the same. We all are.
So ultimately, no matter what happens, eventually Life demands that we arise out of our stupors, free ourselves of the shackles that bind us, and unite again with that Divine essence which lies in the heart of all of us.
This may arise out of a sudden spiritual awakening, dark night of the soul, or trauma that besets us out of nowhere. Or it may just be the slow disintegration of our satisfaction with life.
Whatever the case, you are destined to be a free spirit, you can be assured of that.
***
I realize that my definition may be different than others, and that’s fine. But when examining the word “freedom,” in relation to the “free” spirit, I apply it holistically to the entire spectrum of a person, which means the outer and inner worlds.
A major part of embodying the free spirit essence is liberating yourself from everything that holds you back. This is an external and internal process.
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$3Let go of the stereotypical notion that you have to cut ties with everyone and wander barefoot through the world to be a free spirit. You don’t even have to like traveling to be a free spirit. Nor do you have to be a modern hippy or bohemian.
Being a free spirit is an essence, a call that emerges from deep inside. When we are in touch with this inner fire, we are in touch with the inner wolf; that powerful force that craves freedom above all else.
We might have to become a lone wolf for a while, we might have to leave the confines of social convention. But the journey is worth taking, for without it, we’ll eventually wind up feeling empty and dead inside no matter how comfortable our external lives look.
What does being a free spirit mean to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences below!
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Hi all,
please let me start off by stating that I really enjoyed this article!
However, In this article it is mentioned that a free spirit has a built-in “BS detector” of which I totally agree, and, well,, I feel like I detected a little BS in this article.
Now before I start please understand that this is only my perspective,, or,, Opinion.
You mention that no one is “born” a free spirit, that you “have to become” a free spirit.
I completely disagree with that statement on the grounds that everyone is born a free spirit and it is our social, parental, religious etc. ‘conditioning’ that Causes us to lose that freedom, and from these and many other forms of conditioning we tend to run on subconscious programming rather than what we truly want in our hearts. So rather than saying that no one is ‘born’ a free spirit and has to “learn to become” a free spirit,, I say we are all born free spirits and we have to Re-Learn to be what we were all born to be,, and we do that by uncovering, then challenging and subsequently discarding all of the social bullshit we were taught as children that doesn’t agree with what’s in our inner being and follow what we truly want and know in our hearts to be our true selves and thus re-become a Free Spirit.
But that’s just my opinion.
Thank You so very much for this opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings ;)
Thank you B for a thoughtful comment :).
I agree with your point that everyone is born free, and we are conditioned to lose that freedom through our socialization. But I personally like to make the distinction between free spirit and an individual who possesses internal freedom from all the baggage we inherit.
There’s a certain essence; call it a fire or grit that my definition of free spirits have that can’t be found in individuals who are simply internally free. An example of this is the quality of no B.S attitude. We’re all conditioned equally, each in our own way, yet some manage to retain that inner fighter within them that questions everything and don’t let themselves be crushed and others don’t.
Everyone can achieve a state of internal freedom with enough spiritual practice, but the free spirit fire seems to be created as an alchemical process of the friction of the outside world with something within them. Some seem to be receptive to this, other’s aren’t.
You nailed this interpretation of a FS and explained my journey well. I resonate with wolf energy although not my power animal she is a source (inner) of personal power, love and expression.
Thank you!
Love and freedom!
Thank you Nisha, and you’re right, that’s an important distinction. We’ve always used the wolf as a universal archetype outside of the Native American power animal work, we hope more people can bring in this energy into their path :)
Finally a good no BS article. Go on. You are on the right track here. Go on, go on, go on.
Thank you Mateo.
I have been looking for a defintion of a certain type of person, and your description is v ery good. I have only read through once, and am looking forward to reading your article again in more depth. Of your 7 signs: these are truly excellent.
Many thanks again,
Humphrey
Thank you so much Humphrey, I’m happy to provide a definition free from the baggage it’s usually associated with.
Totally agree with Alison, ypu explaind me to my self!
Thank you for being able to coherently explain me to myself! Totally agree with everything you say, most of which I had already determined, but you have helped articulate the pieces I have been struggling to identify. Awesome. xx
I’m happy to hear that Alison, sometimes it takes an external reflection to see what’s too close to us to be able to distinguish. :)
Yes Sol! THIS is a free spirit. It’s not about looks or clothes or lifestyle. When you’re around a free spirit, you feel free, like you’re not bound to the physical earth, your race, your body, your culture, your language, your history, ancestors, etc. There’s this feeling of floating above it all, inside your essence, which is absent of all this 3D programming and contructs. As a free spirit I laugh at today’s problems, because they’re so driven by the ego. Why get angry at a racist joke when I’m not attached to my race? Why follow my families footsteps and work at an unfulfilling job because that’s what they want for me? I’ll do my own thing, regardless of the backlash. Why wear dresses because I’m a girl or ties because I’m a guy? OR let’s go deeper, why should I care what gender pronoun you call me at all?! Why even care about the hundreds of genders that now exist, you can’t label a free spirit, at the end of the day, we know labels can never really describe our essence. As a free spirit, I feel like I’m in a constant battle. This path ain’t easy and this is what I consciously choose everyday. I choose the challenges, I rise above the hardships, I always make decisions that further my growth and get me out of my comfort zone. This looks difference for every free spirit like you mention but it’s the same essence. Thanks for this article, every free spirit should read this :)
Thank you Smitty for sharing your essence in your comment, you’re completely right; it’s such a liberating quality that takes both courage and playfulness to embody and no label can capture but this one can help in hinting us in the right direction :)
Awesome comment Smitty!
You Totally nailed what it is to be free! Everyone should read it,,, twice ;)
Thank you for this article and input. However, A free spirit doesn’t need instructions about “ how to be a ‘free spirit’.” Your 7 signs categorize and define what you choose to see a free spirit as, rather than allowing each person to choose as they please. True free spirits define themselves rather than following steps an article to determine who they are.
Thanks for your feedback Debera, I think you may have misunderstood. The signs provided aren’t instructions on how to be a free spirit, they are ways to recognize one. And in the “How to Be a Free Spirit?” section, I make the distinction that you can’t learn to be one, it’s a choice that is born from deep within you.
As disclaimed at the beginning of the article, this is indeed my definition of a Free Spirit based on my observations of common qualities I’ve seen among our students and readers. I’m happy it seems to ring true with many, but never assume it’ll be true for all.
Thank you for the amazing post. Loved it! ♥️
Thank you Sara ♥️
Thank you for this article. Like what others have stated, I also hesitated to call myself a free spirit because I’m still fighting against the chains that threaten to tie me down. I find myself crying out wishing to be free, relentlessly wrestling against mostly myself, my weaknesses, the pain and traumas that blockade that taste of freedom I yearn of so much, what feels like ages since I’ve last savored. My wounded ego still sits foremost in my mind, something I struggle to let go but knowing if I can just let it go, I can finally be free. The fear of pain and vulnerability is debilitating. It feels like there is only so much the spirit can handle yet I know its capacity is endless. It surely is an ongoing battle.
The ego will be the biggest obstacle to truly channel the path of freedom described in this article. Finding out what your method of surrendering is will be the next stage of the journey.