In a time of great societal upheaval, it would be wise to understand what freedom is, and more importantly, how to find it.

While many consider ‘freedom’ as a term used to measure the level of oppression or restriction placed on someone by another, I would argue this is not the true meaning of freedom.

The word itself is defined in the English language as:

‘the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.’

Which is in line with what I am about to say.

Freedom is a state of mind. Any restrictions we feel may have been placed upon us, are illusionary. They are the desires of another.

Our level of freedom can be measured by the level of fear and compliance we chose to maintain. For the large part, most of the restrictions we feel imposed on our life are not even defined by law, they are defined by societal expectations. ‘Keeping up appearances’, can be a very hard habit to break. So many struggle on with their lives in a permanent state of stress and relative discontentment because the fear of ‘what others will think’ holds them there prisoner. Most pack their life’s dreams and desires up carefully in a little place in their mind, occasionally revisiting them in times of need. But as life goes on, and time passes by, these dreams become fantastical impossibilities of a life you’ll never have.

All of this, because of one’s own doing. Not because of the government; not because anyone physically restrained you or locked you up in a cell; but, because you allow your mind to keep you prisoner using fear and deception.

I urge everyone to really look deep into themselves and think about all the things they feel they are unable to do which they attribute to someone or something else, and then write down exactly what is stopping them from trying anyway?

We are free to attempt just about anything we want. Freedom has nothing to do with whether someone or something else may intervene and stop us mid-path. We are free to try and fly from a cliff-top, the lack of wings, gravity and the 200ft drop will likely kill us, but we are free to try.

Now, I’m not trying to take away from the severity of the ever growing tyrannical state backed systems we are seeing pop up all over the World. It cannot be denied that more and more of our actions maybe stopped before they are completed, such as international travel. But we are free to try, we are free to stand up to it and speak out about it.

We must be confident in our own beliefs, we must act upon them and speak them freelywithout shame or fear. To hide them away, is to discredit our ourselves and what is right.

We are all as free as we allow ourselves to be, and until this simple fact is understood, you can never be truly free.

  “Freedom is a state of mind, I said wondering where I’d heard it before, not a state of being. We are all slaves to gravity and morality and the vicissitudes of nature. Our genes govern us much more than we’d like to think. Our bodies can not know absolute freedom but our minds can, can at least try.” ― Walter Mosley