ARE YOU FREE?

Freedom is one of the two things we are entitled to as our birth right; the other being happiness. Which is why both are correlated with each other. Freedom is a choice which we take in our lives through our actions. Yet it is much easier judging others for acting as victims rather than standing up for themselves. Nobody ever considers the smallest possibility of a person’s circumstances. Yes it is true that we are all given chances in life and should stand-up for ourselves. But is that always possible at a given time? No it isn’t, reason being that there is a time for everything. Life has its beautiful way of unfolding itself through situations and people we come across. One not always has the right resources to be free. And what is being free? Free from responsibilities, free from a toxic relationship, free from a situation we do not want to face, or free from ourselves-from those inner thoughts that continuously keep on popping up in our minds and torturing us.

Most of us are burdened with some sort of responsibilities, but as the famous Louise L. Hay very fabulously stated in her book, The Power Is Within You, “responsibilities are simply our ability to respond to situations.” It is entirely dependent on us how we respond to a situation as other things are not in our control. But what is, is this ability to respond in a good or a bad manner. It is very true that we have our duties to follow with our family, friends, colleagues, boss, partners and the list is endless. Responsibilities will never end but our feeling of stress and at times suffocation can. Why do we feel suffocated when we are in a tense situation? Because we feel that we are in this cage and that there is no way out. Nonetheless there is a solution to every problem in life excepting death. It is just a matter of time. Meanwhile the best we can do is learn to respond positively to situations. We always envy others thinking that they are much happier and successful than us. But ask yourself this question: have you lived with them throughout their lives and seen them go through their hardships? So if we haven’t how can we envy them? People always wonder how I smile beyond all the problems I have; and many a times people even envy me as they think that I have everything in life. In reality, behind every smile there are hidden miseries. We have no clue what that person has gone through or going through in life. But bringing that smile on our faces is a ray of hope and positivity. A smile can be a weapon we use to cut-off all those tensions and eventually problems as all of us have problems in life. But we cannot go around acting like victims. This ray of hope is a freedom we deserve.

A freedom of choice, of beliefs, of living a life that we wish to live. We restrain ourselves from doing the smallest things that make us happy as we fear that they are silly and people will laugh at us. What we forget is to first make ourselves happy irrelevant of what others may think of us. Freedom is essential and we cannot wait for anyone else to give it to us. My freedom is my choice and my responsibility; unfortunately it took me many years to learn that as I used to depend on others to “make me free.” But the kick that you get from attaining your freedom cannot be expressed in words. Nobody said that it has to be easily accessible, but it is for sure that it is certainly accessible. Thoughts are the base of all problems and solutions; likewise you can start off with your thoughts to find the freedom for that inner voice within which we can call “ego.” Now let’s not confuse ego with our inner true self or higher self as both are very different. Such realms are best discussed by highly evolved souls and not me. I know very little but whatever little I know is a tiny step towards a bright future.

There are many ways to find your freedom and express it, yet we are reluctant to express our freedom. In fact for so many centuries, so many women were told to keep silent even though their freedom was sacrificed time and again. But today the situation is very different as we girls can choose our education, partner, friends etc. Unfortunately there still are places where girls are not given this liberty and sadly we cannot do much about it. But what we can do is cleanse our thoughts and make wise decisions when it comes to our freedom. A few channels of cleansing our thoughts which I practice and would recommend are: reading inspirational books such as The Power Is Within You by Louise L. Hay and immersing yourself in activities such a yoga and dance to lift your energies. But above all, just sit down and mediate on the idea of freedom and ask yourself if you are happy with your sense of freedom or not. If you aren’t, how you can best change the situation so that you can enjoy this bliss. Freedom may be a longer journey for some of us but there is a happy destination to it and we will all reach there!