Freedom Lies in Your Mind and Your Emotions
What is freedom? Should we really search for it within the boundaries of the physical world we inhabit? Is there more freedom in one part of the planet than another? Does it really have anything to do with geography, or is it actually a state of mind?
This article will try to shed some light on the term “freedom.” Without a doubt, it is something that we easily mention in conversations on many different issues. However, it is a much more complicated concept than it may seem.
Where does freedom reside?
One perspective is that freedom resides in our minds, our emotions, our hearts, and in the depths of our very soul and being. Our conscious can be totally free of ropes and chains, and we can be unrestrained in our thoughts and how we see and understand the world.
It is true that for many people, freedom resides in other concepts that are maybe more commonplace and less ethereal, just as with feelings of belonging, physical boundaries, or living in one place or another.
“The chains of slavery only tie the hands: it is the mind that makes man free or a slave.”
-Franz Grillparzer-
There is no doubt that people have a higher quality of life in democratic countries as opposed to places where a dictator controls the actions of the individual with an iron fist. However, in reality, does simply living in a democratic place make you free?
Let’s put it this way: is a person who is a victim of a given social and political system less free than someone who, regardless of their circumstances, feels like they are able to live outside of societal conventions or pressures?
In these modern times, we are all capable of creating our own personal prisons, and when this happens, it does not matter where you live. In other words, even if you were born in the most liberal country in the world, you are capable of putting up your own fences around yourself simply with your mind and your heart. Fences and barriers so strong that you could not break them down yourself.
However, the person who dreams, imagines, believes in themselves, has their own ideas, reads, experiments, criticizes, tries to understand, loves, hopes, and is able to create, not matter where they live, they will feel free.
Inner freedom
In reality, true freedom dwells within the heart, within thoughts, emotions, and dreams. Only you, regardless of what your passport says, can make yourself feel truly free.
Does a person imprisoned by a toxic relationship feel free? Does a person find freedom if they are dying of a powerful love they cannot express? Are you free if you have a horrible job that you hate doing? Is the fool more free than the wise man?
“If you do not have inner freedom, what other kind of freedom can you hope to ever have?”
-Arturo Graf-
Actually, freedom starts within oneself. If you are capable of feeling, of being passionate, of falling in love, of dreaming, of searching for alternative perspectives in life, of rationalizing positive and constructive criticism, of finding all sides of the same coin, or of yelling out your innermost feelings, you are exercising your freedom.
Furthermore, be certain that in the solitude of your mind, you are truly free. It does not matter what your external environment is telling you, or what any given government party is trying to make you believe, or how much others want to control you. In your heart and soul, you possess all of the freedom in the world for being yourself, intimately, passionately, uniquely…
Our ability to dream, imagine, believe, see, interpret, and to be ourselves in every way is something that nobody can ever take from us if we truly believe it.
Therefore, it is advisable to not search for freedom in physical spaces, nationalities, or within the borders of a city or country. Search for it inside yourself, your emotions, your feelings, your love and attachment. Only there can you find it in a truly pure form, untainted, and holding all of its importance.
Actions and expressions like crying when reading a poem, being thrilled by a movie, laughing at a book, dreaming about what you want to achieve, reaching those goals, being yourself… only this way you are able to find true freedom. All of this resides in just one place: inside of you.
