Freedom seems to have been an ever-present theme lately. I started thinking about freedom as it related to the past episodes of this podcast and how it was a common thread among so many of the conversations. Then it seemed to keep expanding, from the ways in which freedom was showing up in my life to the relevance with world affairs and the turmoil effecting Ukraine. 
We first experience freedom typically between the ages of 6-12 months, when we begin crawling and exploring our surroundings. And then onto walking and as we gain this sense of freedom, we also first experience the restrictions. Gates are put up, we are told ‘no’ and from there the two become intertwined.
Then comes driving and next up college. I remember as a kid longing for the freedom of being 18 and on my own. I frequently dreamt about what that would mean and what I would do.
The end of that relationship gave me a glimmer of hope that I had not expected. My divorce became an opportunity for me. If I had to do it all over again, would I have made the same choices? Probably not. Which caused me to evaluate my options. What would I have done differently?
It allowed me to once again dream about what freedom meant, what it could look like and what I would do with it. For me, it meant that there were no longer fences, or what sometimes felt more like concrete walls around my life. It meant that I could take the time to discover who I was and what I truly wanted in my life.
When we don’t feel free, we feel stuck or controlled by another person or another source. We feel restrained or restricted. The definition of freedom I am choosing to reference here says freedom is the power or right to act, think or speak without restraint. How often have you felt restrained or constrained? What was the situation?
Did you feel controlled by another person? Did you feel as though you didn’t have the ability to choose for yourself?
Not to go off on a tangent but freedom covers a wide breadth of situations from home life to relationships, to work environments, to uprisings such as that which is currently being experienced in Ukraine. I don’t want to get political, but I do want to say there are areas in which we have less ability to stand up for what we want, such as government mandates (ahem, we all experienced this with mask mandates and vaccines) or even war. However, this should help us realize that when we do have the option, we should not hold ourselves in situations that don’t feed our soul.
Of course, we all can feel stuck for a variety of reasons. We can feel as though we have no other choice, we can feel as though this is the hand we were dealt, we can feel as though we made this commitment, and we don’t have the option to change it. In what areas do you feel stuck now? Or another way of thinking about it, what areas of your life do you feel are out of your control?
It is our duty to honor the freedoms that we do have. It is our birth right to know that we are deserving of a life of love, of acceptance, of respect and value. But how do we honor that if we feel stuck or feel that we don’t have the ability to choose?
If you are searching for more fulfillment in your life, it may be time to get skeptical. Is this really out of my control? Is there really nothing I can change to improve my level of happiness, joy or satisfaction? I am not saying to leave your relationship if you feel stuck or dissatisfied. The first step is always awareness. The second step is action. Using your freedom may be using your voice to speak up about what doesn’t feel good or what you want to change about a relationship. It may be using your voice to ask for a raise at work. It may be discovering a new sense of freedom through travel or a new experience. When we take life in extremes, it can become detrimental, however, as I often say, it comes down to one day at a time, one step at a time.
It’s time to experience a little more freedom in your life.