Freedom. Though we may not be constantly thinking about it, it is our most sacred concept: that which we value above all others and feel the most frustrated when we sense it slip through our fingers. Why do we value it so much? What exactly is freedom, and what role does it play in our lives?

At its most bare definition, it is a concept that describes our ability to control our own circumstances: what we get to live, and what we allow in our own personal world. We value it so much because we want to believe in a life where everything that happens to us is by choice (not by chance, or outside force).

Curiously, despite honoring and passionately defending that concept, we do a pretty deplorable job of living and breathing it. We frequently look to outside forces for happiness, and we are all too willing to blame them when things don’t go our way. We frequently think of life in terms of “when I will get my big break” and “how things could go wrong and why I should be prepared for such and such catastrophe”. All of those lines of thought, in one way or another, are admissions from deep in our subconscious that although we value, stride, and hope for freedom, we don’t actually believe in it. We are happy to hand off the circumstances in our lives to some outside force, and rejoice or condemn the results as they unfold.

Are we free, or aren’t we?

In the end, there are two types of freedom. The first is external: I am free to decide how I will react to those things that are out of my control. The second is internal: I am free to control my circumstances, and only create, and only accept, that which I want and desire in my life (nothing more, and nothing less).

The first is artificial freedom, a mask that disguises a very subtle form of slavery: we become slaves to our subconscious, letting it dictate our lives as our fears (“if things go wrong I will deal with them”, “If catastrophe strikes I will survive”, “If I don’t get what I want I will find a way to be happy”) become reality.

The second is true freedom: we understand that this universe was designed to respond to our deeply held beliefs and ongoing thoughts. We learn to focus on what we will do when things go right (for we are worthy and deserve to have things go right), and not how we’ll react if things go “wrong”. If, for whatever reason, things don’t SEEM to be going right, we don’t throw our hands up in despair. We try to figure out what exactly the universe is trying to tell us (what opportunity may be hidden behind our “adversities”), and do our best to help it manifest.

We know things always go right in our lives, and our thoughts are always manifesting themselves (whether in an obvious or more subtle way).

True freedom is not freedom to react, it is freedom to create. Whatever you want, it can be yours. Just teach yourself that there is nothing to fear, nothing to be cautious about, and no need for a “plan B”. Be free.