Do you feel that you have a good grasp on the direction of your life? Or are there occasions when you feel tossed by the winds of change and buffeted by other people’s opinions and actions? Are you able to pursue your chosen aims without restriction? Or do you feel someone or something may be hampering you?
In today’s world, to be fully alive and living, not just existing, it is important to be in a harmonious flow with the people and events around us and still be able to continue moving in the direction of our sincere desires for our life. We cannot afford to confine ourselves to any rigid picture of who we are or how we think things should be done. An oriental sage once said that the secret to freedom and happiness is to “cease to cherish our opinions” which provides us a great insight. Often times, we stuff ourselves into habitual ways of doing things in a certain manner. If things do not go in the direction we expect, or if someone comes along with a different idea or perspective, we get upset and become a nuisance to ourselves and those around us. One way to be free is to break the molds of old ways of thinking and rigid ways of doing things.
In his book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Viktor Frankl tells of his own experience in a Nazi concentration camp. He reflects on the irony that he never felt so free as he did during that dreadful period. How that could be true? Even though all obvious freedoms had been taken away from him and he was living in constant threat of sickness, torture, and death, he discovered a depth of freedom inside of himself that he had never before experienced. We are free spirits, and our minds not bound to anything unless we think we are. It is a good idea to pause occasionally to think about what we may not be seeing in our world because we have our eyes closed. We can consider whether it is life that may be restraining us or if we are confining ourselves with limited thinking.
We may often give this inalienable freedom away by believing that our parents, teachers, friends, employers, or whoever cause us to feel a certain way. However, when we truly understand that no one can make us think or feel anything unless we give them permission; we begin to understand the vastness of our freedom. No person or circumstance has the power to change that truth. Victor Frankl has shown us, eloquently and movingly, that, even in the midst of a horrible experience, valuable lessons can be learned. He could have convinced himself that Nazis made him give up. Instead, he realized that even dictators could not control his thoughts and attitudes and that he had the choice of making his experience whatever he desired.
We cannot escape the truth that we are free to think as we choose and we are responsible for our own thoughts and attitudes. If they are not what we desire, we can change them and, thereby change our experience of life.
