Freedom: What Is It and Where Do I Find It?
freedom
/ˈfriːdəm/
noun
- the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
2. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
3. the state of not being subject to or affected by (something undesirable).
Freedom is a term that’s used in our everyday language. To be “free”, whether it be from physical, financial or emotional burdens is a desire, of all humans.
Perhaps we see freedom as having the ability to dictate our own working schedules, to be unapologetically who we are without judgement or criticism, maybe it’s to financially be able to afford all the earthly desires we wish for, without worry.
Perhaps it’s literally just to live. To just be.
But, let’s think about what freedom really means.
When I personally first think of the word, the idea of searching for freedom comes straight to mind. Because, in my eyes, freedom was something to chase. Something to seek. Something that could be found. But it was also something that could never last.
Even when I tasted freedom, I knew it would be short lived. Because, how could freedom possibly last forever? How could the blissful feeling of being free come home with me to my everyday world? How could it ever be possible to feel free when I had commitments back home?
This is where I was wrong.
Freedom was always external. It was found on a gap year travelling the East Coast of Australia on the Greyhound, or on a summer’s night with friends, or on the night you first tasted alcohol, the afternoon you got your drivers license, or the day you finally left home, knowing you were about to found yourself at University, hundreds of miles from the place you always knew.
My whole life, I couldn’t wait to grow up. I hated being young. I wanted to be an adult so badly, because I was desperate to finally do whatever I wanted, to create my own rules, to live where I wanted, to finally be free.
But, as much fun as it is to romanticize these moments, although they were a taste of freedom, it always drifted away. Because, the truth is, freedom can never be found in external pleasures, true freedom can only be found within.
No thing, no one or no place can cultivate true freedom within you. Because external factors cannot wholly improve the desires of your Soul. Only you can do this.
Freedom is not a thing which we can find. Because to be free, is to be free within.
Nothing that surrounds your physical body can affect your freedom. Freedom is an inner knowing that can only be accessed and expressed from the Soul. It Is not something which can be located or fully known outside of the cells of your body.
You may feel physically free. You may taste what freedom feels like in different parts of the world, but true freedom pulses through your veins, it is felt within the cells which vibrate within your body, it is a desire and an expression of the Soul.
Once you come to fully acknowledge this, you can begin to fully know it and this is when the true journey to true freedom finally begins.
