This is probably far truer than we want to believe. Isn’t it easier to tell yourself that you can’t do this or that because you’re married (or not married). Or you have kids. Or a house. Or blah, blah, blah. Insert excuse here.
Many people believe they are trapped in situations and they cannot get out. (Hey, I’ve been there.) And they truly believe it was not their fault. The truth is, every situation you get yourself into is to some degree is your own fault. Yes there are some exceptions, but most things that happen in our lives happen because of what we do. It’s all about personal responsibility. The beauty of it is, you also have the power to get yourself out of anything you get yourself into.
You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choice.
That is something that I’ve worked to instill in my son since an early age. I feel it’s an invaluable, life changing lesson.
The only way to really feel free is to be free of the mind’s influence, to remain aware and have a sense of presence, observe the mind’s movements. Are you having helpful thoughts or unhelpful thoughts. Do your thoughts improve your situation?
Are you in control of your life or is something in control of you?
Deal with the root causes of what seems to be holding you back from freedom and then in turn gain freedom and victory over the habits and unhelpful feelings.
Feeling a sense of freedom comes down to all of the imagined possible responses that our mind can think of in any situation. If you can only imagine two possible ways to respond in a given situation you have much less freedom than if you can imagine fifty possible ways that you could respond. If you can only imagine one possible response then you have no freedom at all as you are not thinking outside of the box, you are not looking at all possible outcomes. An open, exploring mind increases our ability to generate possible responses to circumstance and therefore increases our freedom.
Freedom means knowing you are not stuck in any situation, that you always have the power to choose how to respond and feel how you wish in any circumstance.
Freedom can be realising what are your own issues you need to deal with and what are someone else’s issues they need to deal with. Whose business are you in? Are you taking on other people’s problems all of the time preventing you from feeling free? By accepting you can only change yourself and not another can give you a whole new sense of freedom.
I have been doing this, and it’s helping so much. I’m letting go of how I believe things should be. And in turn, I’m opening myself up to new ideas, things, and people.
Leave a Reply