What is your definition of freedom? Everyone's answer is always different based on their values and priorities. It's something interesting to think about as it relates to your specific circumstances and your life.
If you look it up, the actual definition in the Dictionary is this: "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint."
As it relates to the work we do at Detox House, I like to think about restraints as the things that are in the way of our truest, authentic selves. It's the programming we've installed into our nervous system that makes us react vs. respond. It's the programming that lets our egos run the show vs. our soul.
Here are some ways to think about freedom and what it means.
Freedom as Inner Liberation
True freedom is not relying on external circumstances (like money, status, possessions) to dictate how you show up in the world. Sure, resources are great and here for our enjoyment and to help us with our purpose, but the second we let them run the show, we lose our inner liberation -- which is the freedom from lower emotional states—like fear, anger, guilt, shame, pride. It's a connection to courage, acceptance, love, peace instead. While external things can give us these feelings for a hot second (I've experienced lots of peace when getting my bonus) but it's not long-lasting. You still come up against yourself in the end.
Freedom as Letting Go
In the book Letting Go, Dr. David R. Hawkins teaches that freedom comes through the act of surrender. By allowing emotions and thoughts to rise and pass without resistance, the nervous system clears, and the mind returns to its natural state of peace. Freedom here means you’re no longer hijacked by your triggers—you experience life, but you are not bound by it. You experience things from a more neutral place (and there is a lot of joy in that). This is what we work through in our State Shift program.
Freedom vs. Control
This one got me.... Dr. Hawkins also often points out in his books, like Power vs. Force, that the ego’s pursuit of control is actually bondage. I can relate to this. Every time I want to control an outcome, control a situation, I feel beholden by something outside of me. Real freedom is paradoxical: it emerges when you surrender control, when you no longer need to manipulate life. As someone who was/is very into "manifestation" and creating my own reality, this has been a hard pill to swallow but I'm starting to really get it. And let me tell you, it does feel liberating. That doesn't mean creating your reality isn't possible or doesn't exist -- it just means you can't want it. Try that one on...
What does freedom mean to you? Can you use a cold shower or cold plunge this week to work through finding your own center despite the discomfort of the cold water -- free from reacting to it and witnessing yourself just accepting what is.