Different Perspectives on Freedom
2011 has seen mass uprisings throughout the Middle East as ordinary people decided that they were no longer prepared to live in a situation where they weren’t free.
In our last blog we discussed the twin forces in each of us, the force to remain safe, and the force to improve ourselves.
What I found so inspiring is seeing people who were so brave that they were prepared to risk being injured or killed in pursuit of a ‘luxury’ like freedom. I call it a luxury because there’s no freedom when you’re dead.
Freedom is the foundation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and viewed from the luxury of living in a western democracy, it’s easy to hold the idea that we are free. But are we?
My own experience is that up until a certain event in my life I wasn’t free. Not because I didn’t have freedom, but because I didn’t express that freedom.
I was locked into a career that was deeply unsatisfying. I kept at it because I needed to provide for my family. As a child I had suffered some hurts, and learned to protect myself by keeping people at a distance. I left school at 16, and needed to prove myself, show people how clever I was, and I did that by proving how ‘right’ I was.
All of the above kept me in a stultifying comfort zone. It was so small it was suffocating, but I couldn’t see it. I was just completely unaware of how I was, the power of the external conditioning on me, and that I had choices and power to change. So to describe me as free was an insult to freedom.
Unfortunately our society has evolved in such a way that we only pay lip service to freedom.
Anything non-conformist is pounced upon as weird. Any success generates jealousy, accusations of cheating, or luck. Any genuine emotion is met with embarrassment, swift changes of subject, or ridiculed, like Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscars.
Fortunately for me I was persuaded to attend the Outlook Course. (I nearly didn’t, I was so stubbornly clinging on to the idea that “I don’t need something like that – I’m comfortable”. Of course I was comfortable, I never left my comfort zone!).
The course was a life-changing event for me, as it has been for many others. I wonder if you are reading this because it has been forwarded to you. Which camp are you in? The “I don’t need that stuff” group that I was in, which is definitely the majority in our society, or are you in the other smaller group?
People who are prepared to examine themselves to see where they can make improvements. People who recognise that there is a subtle but significant difference between who we are and what we do. People who recognise that over the years we have picked up false negative ideas about ourselves that don’t serve us and can be eradicated, leaving us energised, effective, and happy.
When I came out of Outlook I felt like a freedom fighter. If I had a machine gun, I’d have let off a few rounds into the night air I felt so liberated.
Freedom is the elixir of life. Come and discover true personal freedom, and the power it gives you. Viewed from a very small comfort zone it may well seem frightening, and you’ll be able to come up with a load of rational reasons why you can’t.
But if you listen to that quiet voice, you’ll know that not only you can, and that you deserve it, but also you’ll know that a better quality of life awaits you when you embrace and express your personal freedom.
Posts: 3
Reply #3 on : Tue January 03, 2012, 15:40:17
Posts: 3
Reply #2 on : Fri March 11, 2011, 16:48:51
Posts: 3
Reply #1 on : Thu March 10, 2011, 17:09:42
Write a comment