Freedom

The basis of happiness is freedom.  The first part of my formula for happiness states that we need to make wise choices.

Choice requires the freedom to select.  Martin Luther King, Emmeline Pankhurst and Nelson Mandela, like millions of others through history, fought for our political and physical freedom.  However, while we have that for the most part through our culture, traditions, our conditioning and our inherent desire to please and conform we have psychological chains that bind us even as we free the physical ones.

However, while we have that for the most part through our culture, traditions, our conditioning and our inherent desire to please and conform we have psychological chains that bind us even as we free the physical ones.

Choice requires the freedom to select.  Martin Luther King, Emmeline Pankhurst and Nelson Mandela, like millions of others through history, fought for our political and physical freedom.  However, while we have that for the most part through our culture, traditions, our conditioning and our inherent desire to please and conform we have psychological chains that bind us even as we free the physical ones.

Choice requires the freedom to select. Our heart knows what we want… we just need to allow our body and spirit to follow it.

Martin Luther King, Emmeline Pankhurst and Nelson Mandela, like millions of others through history, fought for our political and physical freedom.  However, while we have that for the most part, through our culture, traditions, our conditioning and our inherent desire to please and conform we have psychological chains that bind us even as we free the physical ones.

Today, we have the ability to be free, but still, we are constrained by influence and manipulation.  By the expectations of our society, family and friends.  Ho many people truly feel happy to follow their hearts?

Most of us are weighed down with responsibilities and obligations.  And many of these are real things that we need to take care of.  We can’t just dump our children, spouse and parents because we want to be a professional Poker Player.  Equally, though we do need to find a way to still follow our heart.

Our Work

This is the challenge of being human!

Developing the wisdom and self-awareness to know what is a genuine call of our heart and what is just a whim is our work.

Resisting the world around us that has very different ideas for what we should be… without knowing our DNA and really knowing what tugs on our heart strings and makes us sing with joy… is also our work.

For otherwise we are living someone else’s life, which however good the packaging might look, won’t satisfy our soul.

At the risk of plagiarising Martin Luther King, I too have a dream.

A dream that one day people will live happily and peacefully.  That each will have the courage and honesty to follow their hearts and say and do what they truly feel is important.

A dream that one day fears can be recognised as warnings of potential danger, but no more than that.

I dream that we will have the courage to let our hearts run free and follow them

I dream that one day we can live peacefully accepting and even celebrating each other’s differences.

I believe that the world needs less fear and more freedom.

I believe we need more independence and inspiration and less attempts to manipulate and influence.

Our heart is free.  Free to roam and sift through all of the options and opportunities out there in the world and find those that pull us to them.  We cannot stop this, though God knows many have tried.  You see, to one who does not believe his dreams are possible to achieve, every thought of desire feels like being poked with a red hot poker.  Yet though we may try to deny and sublimate our hopes and dreams they are always there, calling us to them like mythical mermaids.

While the purpose of our heart is to roam freely ahead of us, our head’s job is to navigate our way through the social jungle avoiding danger.  While the heart’s job is to love, the head’s job is to fear.

It is fear that keeps us alive, but love that makes living worthwhile.  Today as you go through your day… remember to fight for your freedom in every way the world seeks to take it from you.  I love the film Braveheart for the inspiration it gives to fight for every freedom.  While their situation was different and they were fighting for their physical freedom today you are still being asked to change your desires to fit in with other people’s ideas and so this can inspire us in our minor battles.

It’s easy to talk and I like to think I would pay any price for what I believe, but none of us know until we’re put in that situation how we’d react. I hope I would be that strong and I like to see examples of people that have been so that I always remember that who you are and what you believe is more important that staying alive and not being true to yourself. So here’s the final scene;

FREEDOM!