I’m exploring the beliefs and behaviors that keep me bound and what it takes to free them. I chose a golf ball to demonstrate the constricted self. I remember as a child, growing up in Bountiful, UT, spending sweltering afternoons unraveling golf balls. I can still feel the suffocating heat stuck in my throat and lungs, the smell of hot, sizzling sidewalks and crispy, dying grass. It’s a similar sensation when I’ve uncovered one of the bonds that is choking me, preventing freedom of movement and action.
It was quite challenging to find a golf ball with a core surrounded by rubber bands. Apparently, most new golf balls have a solid, plastic core. And, I forgot how hard it is to cut off the hard plastic shell and pick away all of the bits that keep the rubber bands in place. As I worked, I found myself pondering the beliefs and behaviors that I’ve encountered recently that imprison me. It took over and hour to finally reach the center. The exhiliration I experienced when I finally reached the core as it lay unbound and untethered was real. I had forgotten what the center looked like and the joy I felt as a child when the ball was finally free.