Freedom, Liberation, and Such

Living gratefully today, I am noticing the many ways electricity makes my life easier. Thank you to all who make electricity possible.

Yesterday’s “Word for the Day” at www.gratefulness.org was:

Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh

I encourage you to sign up for this daily email quote too at A Network for Grateful Living (website above).

On the heels of my nation’s Independence Day, I consider my individual freedom and what has liberated me from my own constraints. Having not known the chains and restrictions of a dictatorship or the limited freedom of opportunity that women in some countries face, I have known the toughest limitations of all, especially emotionally. The ones I have placed on myself, that life circumstances put me in position to cultivate (or should I say foment)?

Daily practice indeed makes a difference. Cultivate, nurture, water, feed. Physical activity, meditation and reflection time, living gratefully, pauses/rest, writing, and more. Healthy disciplines are paths to freedom. 

Thich Nhat Hanh’s words call to mind the profound words of Viktor Frankl that have resonated with me since I first read them years ago. Here are excerpts from two earlier blog posts. They provide a fitting conclusion today. 

From my "Habitual Gratitude" Aug. 29, 2013 post:

I admit that I have tried long and hard to control things that I can't, but recovery from alcoholism has taught me and experience shows me that there are two things I CAN control-my attitude and actions.That's where I put my energy and efforts.

It reminds me also of this quote by Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist:

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances." (from his book Man's Search for Meaning)

Frankl's words never cease to amaze me. I do indeed have the freedom to choose my attitude today.

What will it be? What will yours be?

And from my "Habitual Gratitude" from January 4, 2018 post, referencing the same quote:

It is a quote worth revisiting often. Most of us have never experienced the extreme deprivation and horrors of a concentration camp. Yet, we all experience life challenges. If you are like me, my biggest challenge is often myself and my thinking. 

It can be easy to blame circumstances or point fingers at the unfairness of life when we are trying to justify or rationalize our own oversized ego and selfish motives. That is not productive or even healthy. It is also the opposite of freedom, because we have given away the only power we have. That is the power to choose our own attitude and actions. 

When we look outside of ourselves and see the bigger picture and our humble part in it, only then do we tend to have a healthier perspective. Living gratefully, intentionally practicing gratitude, are most helpful in this endeavor. 

Circumstances may be extreme, or difficult, or even favorable. The key is indeed my attitude toward it all. And my attitude is much healthier and of service to others when I start from mindful gratitude. 

In each moment, we each have a choice. What will yours be?