You may be surprised if I say that most if not all people do not enjoy complete freedom. We are enslaved in various degrees and in many ways, and sometimes we don’t know it, but freedom is very precious, it gives value to love, and love is the precondition to happiness, so it is important.

Most of us understand freedom as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants, or put simply doing what I feel like. I do not think that is completely true. For starters we all have laws to abide by, and provided they are just laws, that is a good thing.

Freedom can be misguided, for example, people may think that they are free if they can choose the sex of their children or their own, or thinking that they are capable of doing anything until they end up going too far, and sometimes with fatal consequences.

A fundamental mistake about freedom is to always make it just something external and exclude the internal aspect which in most cases is more important.

When I say external freedom, I mean getting rid of those restrictions and limitations imposed on us from outside our control. There is nothing wrong with that, and sometimes these things need to be remedied.

Inner freedom, however, is the freedom of our mind, emotions, and actions. It means that we are not to be controlled and driven by vices but by our intelligence and free will. Interestingly, in that space only we, have a say.

You may find it strange to say that we can use our freedom to actually enslave ourselves. We do this if we make bad choices. This happens if our decisions take us to where we either no longer see all of our choices, or maybe we can see them but can’t make them.

A simple example. If I choose to use drugs for recreational purposes, I may reach a point where I become addicted, possibly affecting my health, work, and relationships with family and friends. I can get to a point where if I want to stop I cannot, because the addiction is in control and therefore, I am not free to make that decision, or if gets bad enough I can get so sick that the choice of stopping is no longer visible.

Those choices need not always be extreme, it could be associated with many things such as lying. A compulsive liar starts by justifying small lies, but will reach a point where they cannot help themselves, and stopping is no longer an option, let alone reverse the damage to people’s lives and reputations.

Maybe we need to find genuine freedom inside ourselves. Maybe if we loved more, we would not feel so hemmed in because love opens up horizons and liberates us from fear and selfishness. Maybe we need to always try to make the right decisions, no matter how hard that might be. I think if one does that, one will be truly free, always able to see all of their choices all of the time.

Freedom, however cannot exist without TRUTH. How can anyone be free to make a choice about anything if one does not know the truth about that choice. In the Gospels Jesus says “the truth will set you free”.

Truth is especially important in understanding the meaning of life, and the purpose of my existence. Our happiness depends on it.

The problem is usually in recognising the truth, because we all have biases that are driven by our comfort levels. Nevertheless, there is only one truth immaterial of how we feel about it.

I suppose I am suggesting that we all should challenge ourselves. Freedom like all things begin with each individual’s choices and true conscience. If all individuals exercise their freedom correctly, and respect the freedom of others, then I believe our world will be a better place.

Finally, respecting the freedom of others, should never mean staying quiet when your friend makes decisions you know they will regret. We owe it for the sake of love to enlighten them, keeping in mind that the final decision is always theirs.

I welcome the conversation.