Being free of our Factor-x is truly being free. Otherwise we aren’t free; we’re merely making some arbitrary choice or taking some arbitrary option, usually based on what’s dictated to us by our comfort zone and/or our Factor-x.
Let’s look at this in more depth.
To exercise your freedom of choice, you first need to be free. We talk of freedom, we use language saying things that all boil down to the statement: “I’ll do whatever I want.”
But when we’re doing whatever we want, are we doing this because we are free? Most likely, we’re not. Being free is about doing the things we like doing. When we’re doing things we enjoy or look forward to, we would never do anything to the detriment of ourselves or any other person, or anything else on the planet.
For instance, let’s look at breaking up a relationship. You could say, “If that person doesn’t want to break up with me, surely that’s to the detriment of the other person.”
Perhaps not. If we stay in a relationship due to our Factor-x dictating that we’ll be lonely without the other person, or that we might not meet another person like the person we’re breaking up with, then if we stay, it isn’t because we’re free. Also, if we’re contemplating ending the relationship, we might feel animosity or irritation toward that person. Because we’re staying there without really wanting to be there, we might be miserable, or making the other person’s life a misery. That situation is to the detriment of both people. That serves no one. Best we get out and be at peace. And eventually, even if the breakup is difficult, our ex-partner might realize they are better off without the relationship.
This is merely an example to illustrate the point that it’s best to look under the surface when contemplating if a decision we make would truly be detrimental to another. Besides, when we’re miserable, we propagate that in our daily lives, so everyone who encounters us when miserable experiences that from our behavior. So in the example, not only would ending the relationship serve us, it would serve our partner and those we encounter in our daily lives.
Being free isn’t something that just comes to us, or just happens to us. It’s about consciously deciding that being free is what we want in our lives. If it is any other way, then it isn’t about being free. If anyone can give freedom to us, or if we just happened to be free, then whoever gave it to us, or however it just happened to us, it can just as well be taken away from us.
Being free is available to everyone, fortunately. But it’s something that’s available only if we consciously decide we want to be free. Not having made a conscious choice invalidates any claim we might have on being free or exercising our freedom of choice. Only when we take on that choice, irrespective of whether our Factor-x prevents us or creates massive conflict within us, do we set ourselves free and can we exercise our freedom of choice. Only then are we free to choose.
When this does occur, then we’re opening our physical lives up to our spiritual being and soul. As a result, we live our integrity by design, and automatically serve ourselves and everything and everyone. We’re then automatically responsible and accountable before, during and after any action.
But until then, we aren’t free, we’re not exercising our freedom of choice, and we aren’t free to choose. In fact, we’re not even being ourselves, but a product of the environment and of our imaginary Factor-x.
