Your Personal Freedoms

I meet many people in my work who are often so focused on what others: feel, think, see, hear, and want, that they have little time or have taken little time to consider these freedoms for themselves.

There are five basic freedoms that every person is entitled, here they are:

Feel: How do you feel-- happy, sad, glad, or mad? It is amazing to me how few people are in touch with their feelings or deny their feelings. Feelings are not up for debate; feelings are what they are and to repress or deny what we feel often leave folks depressed. There seems to be great agony in expressing one’s feeling or naming one’s feelings for too often folks have been conditioned to think that their feelings don’t matter.

Think: What do you think? This is one freedom that very few people have ever considered for they are too focused on what others think. I used to ask certain employees, what do you think? So often they were blown away by the question. Think about what you think.

See: What to you see? What is real? How do you see it? Dop you deny what you see or pretend that what you see isn't real? If you see a giant purple elephant dancing in your living room, no reason to pretend that it isn't there. You give up your freedom by doing so.

Hear: Do you hear what is being said?

Want: What do you want? The common answer is “I don’t know.” I encourage people to begin to ask themselves what they want; not what they think they should want but rather, what do they want. It is a way of honoring oneself.

These are all questions I need to reflect on each day or when I am dealing with others: what do I: feel, think, see, hear, and want? It is a way to get in touch with myself and what God is doing in my life and soul. It is my personal handprint and God's handprint on my life.

These are not just questions but freedoms that I have as a person regardless of what you feel, think, see, hear, or want me to feel, think, see, hear, and want. As a matter of fact if I am focused only on what you feel, think, see, hear, or want I cannot take care of myself and vice versa.

If I cannot take care of myself and exercise my personal freedoms there’s a good chance I will attempt to get in your way of exercising yours. The neither of us is free.