In a deeply personal account, the therapist and spiritual seeker Sara Trevelyan describes falling in love and marrying Jimmy Boyle and their life together for nearly twenty years. However, their paths gradually diverged, and, in her book, Freedom Found Sara explores this journey and what freedom means for her.

‘What is freedom? I see freedom as a choice. It is what we experience deep inside, independent of our circumstances. Jimmy used to talk about setting himself free in prison by being able to choose his own thoughts. He developed a rich imagination, which opened up inner landscapes which helped him to deal with the drabness of his outer surroundings.

In the outside world we can allow ourselves to be driven by our habitual feelings and responses, or we can make a choice to turn within and see things differently – to see the best, understand the lessons, and welcome life as a gift – an ongoing opportunity to grow and develop. The doorway to finding freedom lies within. Everything that I have experienced shows me that I can choose to live freely, joyfully and abundantly, trusting that the deepest healing happens in it sown time and way, through forgiveness, surrender and letting go.’

Trevelyan sees this as requiring patience and learning to trust the slow passage of time to help transform us ‘in accordance with deeper cycles of life embedded in our own nature’. She contrasts this slow change in the soul with the impatience of the ego that thinks it knows best and tries to manipulate the desired outcome.

We are healed over time and although shaped by the past we don’t need to be defined by it.