To me freedom is simple. It means living life on your terms. Getting up every morning and deciding what you want to do today and not what unwanted obligations, expectations, and beliefs of the world want you to do.
I am sure, if you are reading this article today, freedom is something that matters to you too.
I believe that even though we all are different with different life goals, deep down we all have a common desire to be free. We all want to do things that make us feel that we matter. In fact, if you think carefully, our everyday efforts are constantly directed towards becoming poverty-free, diseases free, and conflict-free.
For me, freedom matters and it is the highest form of success. To achieve this on a daily basis I pay a price for it. Because freedom isn’t free. It doesn’t mean that I do nothing in the name of positive thinking and sit to feel free. That may work for the monk in the mountain to remain in a Zen state and cause it but for someone living in the city, it’s a cost. There is always a trade-off that I make every day to live in freedom. I’ve given up on many things and it was not easy, it’s a continuous battle.
Freedom is not a fantasy. Freedom is responsibility.
I am not a Zen monk and I don’t wish to become one. Let’s be practical, I have a family, pollution, consumerism, and socialization of a city to live with. Positivity fails when you have to deal with these things. You can pretend to be compassionate with the people outside, but try doing it with your family members. They make you feel miserable with the attempts. This is because we are too afraid, to be honest with ourselves and with others.
When it comes to freedom and by living on your terms, it is important to ask two questions to yourself.
1. Who am I?
2. How do I want to live my life?
Finding the answer to how I want to live my life is something I call voluntarily choosing suffering. This is because the other side of suffering is freedom. Knowing this is freeing.
There is always a choice, to live a life of loathe — slave of unwanted obligations, debt, social pressure & expectations or to live a life of liberty — doing the thing that is good for your well-being.
Living life on your terms is slow, it demands being patient with your choice and way of life. Since it’s all about not doing the obvious, we don’t know the rules, parameters, or milestones towards living a free life. This is freeing too. Because everything that you do now is decided by you.
