In a world like ours, where peace and prosperity reign, freedom seems something taken for granted. As long as you’re not in a prison, you’re free, right? Look around you. People complain that they can’t do what they want. They don’t have time, they don’t have money, or other obligations prevent them from being free. People are increasingly sick, have physical and mental pain, are overweight or obese. Why are they like this? Are they free to enjoy life? And look within yourself. How free are you?
In the dictionary, freedom is defined as the possibility of acting according to one’s own will or desire, the state of a person who enjoys full political and civil rights in the state, the state of one who is not subject to a master, the state of a person who is not imprisoned.
The most important value in my life is freedom. Everything I do, what I think, what I feel, starts from the idea of freedom. I remove anything and anyone that can hinder my freedom. My whole life revolves around the concept of “freedom”, and my other values take this into account. I wasn’t always like this. I was chained. That is why I now value freedom the most and consider it my most precious value.
“What light is to the eyes, what air is to the lungs, what love is to the heart, freedom is to the soul. Without freedom, the brain is a dungeon, where chained thoughts die” Robert G Ingersoll
The greatest enemy of freedom are not chains, but fear. In a world where there is no war but peace reigns, fear is still ever present. Fear of failure, of people’s gossip, of being abandoned, of not having enough money, of illness, of pain. Freedom is the opposite of fear. You know what another opposite of fear is? Love. The opposite of love is not hate, but fear. Hate is another face of love.
Only if you are free you can love. If you are imprisoned in the chains of fear, you cannot let anyone come close to you, to be able to love them. You are afraid of them hurting you. If you are afraid of being abandoned, you will not love the person next to you, but you will control and manipulate them so that they do not leave you. If you love, you do not imprison, but give freedom. You let the other person make their own choices. If you love, you are free, you don’t depend on anyone. If you love, you are not afraid.
Fear can chain your mind and soul. Fear can make you frustrated, angry, mad, intolerant, gossipy, lazy, anxious, depressed. You cannot be free when fear takes hold of your soul.
“Freedom will not descend from the sky on people, but people must rise to freedom. It is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed” Benjamin Franklin
When you are afraid, you can be manipulated and controlled. When you fear illness, you can be easily persuaded to buy the latest miracle cure. When you are overweight and afraid of people’s mouth, you buy “slimming” tea or machines “that make you lose weight while you sit on the sofa and enjoy your favorite food”. To show them, to leave them speechless when you appear supple and toned. When you are afraid of being poor, you spend your last money on bets or slot, hoping for spectacular winnings. You want to be free. But you don’t know what freedom is.
Freedom is learned, not earned. Freedom means putting in the work, learning about nutrition, getting off the couch and saying “no” more times than you’d like. Health and a perfect figure don’t fall from the sky just by drinking a cup of tea or taking a pill.
“Freedom is a product of order and discipline” Will Durant
To be free you have to put order in your life, in your relationships, in your belongings and in your expenses. You cannot be free if you live in chaos. You are not free if you play online games all night and wake up at noon. You are not free if everyone around you is dependent on you, your husband does not know how to boil an egg by himself or the 15-year-old child cannot lock the door by himself. You’re not free if you have 15 cats and 150 plant pots and can’t leave home for a day. You are not free if you don’t have a penny to buy a coffee the day before your salary because you spent the money like crazy.
“Freedom does not mean laziness and carelessness. Freedom is responsibility. If you don’t take responsibility, someone else will. This is how you become a slave” Osho
You are only free when you have well-established routines that make your life easier. When all family members contribute to the common good and the smooth running of the house. When you don’t own a lot of unnecessary things. When you don’t let yourself be manipulated into buying things you don’t need. When life isn’t a continuous party where you drink, eat and spend money like crazy, and go to bed at 4 in the morning. This is not freedom, but chaos. And chaos is also a product of fear. Take responsibility for your own life and you will be free. And if you are free, you will want those around you to be free too, not dependent on you.
“A well-governed appetite is a large part of freedom” Seneca
Freedom touches every aspect of our lives. It has been known since ancient times that dietary discipline does not mean drudgery, but freedom. Why do we no longer take into account Seneca’s words from 2000 years ago?
We are not free if we eat whatever and whenever we like. We are not free if we do not know what is in our food. We are not free if we give in to the culinary temptations present everywhere. We are not free if we allow ourselves to be manipulated into buying and consuming unhealthy food in large quantities. We are not free if we eat the same foods we learned from our mother and grandmother all our lives, even though we see that it is bad for us. We are not free if we are not willing to try new foods. We are not free if we are overweight or obese and full of diseases caused by overeating and unhealthy foods.
“Those who give up essential liberty to gain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” Benjamin Franklin
Whenever we give up freedom for safety we die a little. If one of your values is safety, that’s fine. But don’t give up your freedom for safety. Yes, it is normal to have a disciplined and orderly life and to have control over your diet. You do all this for your own good, for more freedom, a satisfied and healthy life. But if someone comes and offers you safety only in exchange for your freedom, they surely don’t want your best. If they manipulates you through fear into giving up your freedom for an illusory safety that only they can give you, if they threaten to take your safety away if you don’t give up your freedom, you will never be free, and safety will be precarious, you can lose it at any moment. Because that person does not care about you and your safety, he only sees his own interests, while you will be a slave.
“Freedom is dangerous” Albert Camus
But if you don’t allow yourself to be manipulated, if you don’t give up your right to freedom, you can become dangerous. Dangerous for an abusive husband, for some manipulative parents, for a controlling boss, for the food or pharma industry, for a hoarding government. Dangerous to all who thought they could gain an advantage from keeping you scared.
“Freedom is one of the finest gifts that heaven has given to man, and it exceeds in volume all the treasures that the earth contains in its bosom or in the shell of the sea. Liberty, as well as honor, man should guard carefully, because without them, life is unbearable” Miguel de Cervantes
The solution to preserving freedom is not rebellion, but a life as clean as possible. It’s not conspiracy hunting, it’s continuous learning. Because if we don’t keep up with the increasingly rapid changes, they will overwhelm us and we will no longer know how to distinguish truth from lies. Rebellion consumes our vital energy without bringing us anything good in return. But a beautiful life, lived according to our own values, preserves and increases our vital energy, making us more resilient, healthier in mind and body.
If we live in harmony with the rest of the people around us, having healthy and well-established boundaries, no one will be able to manipulate us through fear and other negative emotions. No one will be able to pit us against each other. If we are free from fear, we can love everything around us.
