I’m coming from work, riding in the trunk of a pickup. It’s all open air. As I’m looking up I realise that there’s something about the sky that I’ve always been fascinated with. I’m not sure if it’s the sheer size, the clouds and moon at sunset, or if it’s the way it appears to hold everything together. For some its meaningless. For others like me it symbolizes freedom.
Freedom… that’s what Im doing all this for. Its the reason I strive so hard, why I over think, why I’m writing this piece. Up until now I had been seeking freedom from so many things: stress, sickness, fear, poverty, but that just didn’t seem to cut it. It seems like a never-ending cycle: you try to run from these things and before you know it there’s more waiting. But this ride had me thinking…
Freedom from? Or freedom as?
When we seek freedom from circumstances and situations, we want to distance ourselves from them. Now that’s not completely bad when you have something that has been stressing you for a really long time. All you can think about is getting away from it. But what if I said to you that distancing yourself from every single thing that bothers you, that puts you in a tight spot, that presents some sort of challenge, will not make you fulfilled. In fact, the only way that will happen is through death. It is impossible to live life without encountering some stress even when you are growing and becoming better because for every level there’s another devil. As soon as you overcome one obstacle another one materializes.
It is now my belief that, to live fully, we must seek to experience freedom as these turbulent situations. And what I mean by that is to be completely engaged in them and pushing past every single one to continue growing.
Freedom AS means that we feel and experience everything: every nuance. It means that we are flowing with everything around us. It feels like time has stopped and your body intrinsically knows the right movements and your mind is quiet. We can experience that but we must change our perspective and get the maximum return on bad times. Now this is not a post about positive thinking. I don’t believe it only thinking positive. Thinking negatively had saved me alot of stress and time in some circumstances.
What I’m saying is to feel free to feel the anger, pain, joy, and happiness. Alot of people dont express what they truly feel. They feel the anger, the hurt, or even joy, and suppress it. They pretend to be okay when something is boiling their insides, and pretend to be unmoved when their favorite song comes on because of what people might think of them dancing. I was that way and I know from experience that that course of action only leads to more pain.
Realise that your ability to feel different emotions is a gift, both the good and bad ones. Through pain and struggle comes massive strength, and through joy comes the spice of life. Either way, if you begin to let yourself feel, you let yourself loose..set yourself free. I trust that you’ll find life a little bit better.