Freedom is a state of mind
We forge the chains we wear in life. ~Charles Dickens
Metaphorically, the chains are those things that tether us to whatever is robbing our freedom. The freedom to move along our merry way and continue with life. When we are bound we are just not free.
Please read Revelation Six: Make Peace, where I discuss the idea of not holding on to regrets or hop on over and read the whole series My night revelations.
How do you know if you are shackled?
Maybe your Dad left when you were 16 and you never saw him again (like mine), maybe you became estranged from your brother after an argument years ago, maybe you were always ‘picked on’ in school, or a few years ago you were fired from a job you loved for no good reason.
These are all difficult situations, everyone can likely think of one. Doesn’t even have to be as ‘dramatic.’ Often, seemingly minor happenings take as big a toll and cause as powerful of reactions as major life events.
You are shackled only when you can’t get past them. When those experiences have control over who you are and how you proceed, that’s when you are bound by the jingling, jangling chains of your own making.
Here’s a suggestion for deciding whether you are tethered. Pull that experience out and sit with it for a while. Be still, be quiet and just think about it.
What kind of reaction does it cause? Get emotional? Irritated? Upset? Distressed? Sorrowful?
First, to negate emotion or to be unfeeling is to be inhuman and not at all what I’m suggesting. Emotions help us function and filter events.
What I am suggesting is that the wise and intelligent are able to exhibit control over an emotional event with rational thinking and reason, feeling the emotions but separating from them in order to move on.
Allowing your sensibilities to dictate your emotions instead of your emotions dictating your sensibilities is freeing.
The difference is subtle. Can you experience the feelings without being controlled by them? If so, those chains grow very weak.
When you decide to no longer be bound to a time, to people, or to events that can’t be changed and exercise control over emotional responses, the chains break and you get to move along your merry way. Freedom, it’s a state of mind.
