Where to Find Freedom?
What if freedom is never 'out there'.
In this post I invite us to dive into the topic of ‘freedom’, what it really means to be free, and where we can find it. What if freedom is never out there?
Before we do, let me first thank you for being patient. You may have noticed I haven’t published anything here since August 10th.
In this post I will explain why, and the reason is linked to the topic of freedom.
If you like my writing, feel free to click the 💙 or share so more people can discover me on Substack.
So let’s dive in ...
On September 1st my girlfriend and I packed our stuff into my trusty 500 Euro 1994 Opel Corsa and set off on our road trip from České Budějovice (our home for the last 9 months in Czech Republic) to Faro in our new home - Portugal.
The day we left was the last day of my summer job teaching critical thinking at a UK university, and I put a pause on all my Freedom Hypnosis sessions.
We had a fantastic 1 week adventure travelling through 5 countries - Czech Republic, Germany, France and Spain into Portugal:
From Faro, we explored the beaches around southern Portugal for another week, flew from Faro to Nottingham in England for a further week (to visit my family), then drove to our new accommodation in central Portugal where we explored the surrounding area for 3 weeks, visited friends in northern Portugal (where we lived before Czechia) for another week, and entertained visitors for a final week.
Today is 8 weeks on the dot since we left.
Now, the thing is that before we left, I had been spending all day every day online - running the Telegram channel, doing sessions, and teaching for the uni.
My lifestyle since launching Covid Positive News in January 2022 consisted of getting up, turning on the laptop, time passing far too quickly, and going to bed.
Maybe some of you can resonate with this summary of my typical day?
Of course I took breaks and had occasional days off, but I can honestly say that it was not enough - and it was not healthy. I noticed my shoulders starting to ache, my belly getting fat, and my eyesight deteriorating.
Maybe, like me, those of you who spend your days on a computer - whether for work or pleasure - have also noticed similar things?
Luckily for me, I had a fairly recent alternative memory to compare this to.
For those who don’t know, and I won’t go into detail here about my life prior to Covid, but needless to say I had a very different lifestyle pre-Covid.
I travelled a lot; I walked a lot; I was in nature a lot; and when I taught and gave sessions it was in person.
So now we get to it. When I closed that laptop and set off in that car, I felt free!
That feeling of freedom was so strong that I had absolutely zero desire to open my laptop or open any apps on my phone. I wanted to enjoy this feeling again!
Except for maps, I didn’t use my phone for the whole 8 weeks. Except for booking plane tickets to England, I didn’t use my laptop.
And instead of my mind focusing on what I needed to do online, I woke up each morning focused only on the physical environment around me.
My focus was on the tent that needed packing, where we were going to get lunch, the river, lake or ocean we wanted to swim in, or the walk we wanted to do.
I went from using tech and being online every day - all day - to an almost entire digital detox. And I felt I could breathe again.
So this got me reflecting on what exactly is freedom?
Perhaps now you think I’m going to suggest freedom is about being offline or being in nature or having enough money to not have to work.
I’m not. I believe it goes much deeper than that!
We all want a world in which we're allowed to be, think, do and act how we want, right? (as long as we’re not intentionally causing harm to others of course).
That is what all these amazing communities, organisations and individuals working towards creating a better world are all about, and that’s great!
Also, the whole world now knows what it feels like to be told you can’t travel, or go to a restaurant or café, or visit relatives or friends, or even leave your home, for fear of being punished. Everyone got a taste of what it feels like to be in prison.
But although it may initially seem wrong to say so, considering what I’ve just described and the world we all know we live in, I’d like to explore the idea that we don't actually need anything 'out there' to change first because freedom is not really about external circumstances at all.
Let’s take Covid as an example. Many suffered during Covid of course, and of course many are still suffering now. But it is also true that others didn’t.
You may know someone who enjoyed not having to go to work. Someone who enjoyed being able to spend more time with family. Someone who enjoyed exploring new hobbies. Maybe you were one of those people?
Coming back to my own experience, I have had the privilege of personally getting to know people from many different backgrounds in many different countries, and I can say with absolute certainty that there are people out there who, for all intents and purposes, from an external perspective are not free (eg. cannot travel, live on the streets, etc) yet they feel free.
Now I want to take a more extreme example, but nevertheless an important one. Because for thousands of years there are people who have claimed they have found their way to liberation - to freedom.
Many describe how they found freedom in their darkest hour - while homeless, in prison, during time of war - at the absolute darkest of times.
We often use the term ‘enlightened’ to describe such people, and unless all these people are lying, we have to acknowledge how they feel is also possible for us too.
So this is why I conclude freedom is a feeling. We feel free.
Here is my current attempt at a definition of freedom:
Freedom is the feeling of being able to be, think, do and act how YOU feel YOU want to inside yourself with or without fear of judgement, repercussion, hindrance or restraint.
The title of my Substack gives away the fact that I believe we free ourselves within.
We are free when we follow our own inner truth, our own inner guidance system, our highest excitement, which has many names - your soul, spirit, consciousness, Higher Self, inner knowing - or simply put, intuition.
People who feel free follow that, and are not afraid of what people out there think about them (including governments) and are not afraid of consequence.
Or they feel the fear and do it anyway.
When we start to ‘wake up’ or peel away the onion layers of what we have been taught to believe about ourselves and the world, we get closer and closer to who we truly are at the centre of our onion.
It's our fears and limiting beliefs of 'little me' that keep us feeling enslaved. They result from past traumatic experiences. Our individual fears of what might happen and our belief that what is out there matters for our freedom is only a result of our own socialisation, conditioning and programming - our ego.
When we were born, we didn’t have ego, but we existed. Stay with that for a moment. So who are we before the ego?
The more we peel away those onion layers and connect to that, the more it guides us and keeps us safe, the more mentally and physically healthy we become, the more we discover our own personal purpose, and the freer we feel.
The photos in this post hopefully express that sense of freedom - we’ve all felt it.
Peace, spaciousness, bliss, liberation, joy.
The feeling of freedom has to be experienced because it cannot adequately be described with words.
People who have taken plant medicines, or meditated, prayed, or gone within through Freedom Hypnosis even describe their ego evaporating.
It is said by such people, as with those who claim to be in a permanent state of enlightenment, that there is no suffering there - what we discover there is only freedom.
Part of that feeling is we are all connected and we are all one. This is known intellectually of course thanks to quantum physics, but no one comes back from experiencing that Golden Rule wanting to hurt or harm others because what we do unto others we do unto ourselves.
Therefore, the more people feel inner freedom, or feel free, this automatically creates a world of outer freedom. We only want to create a better world.
There is a lot we can do by re-discovering that freedom within at the core of our being. We can re-connect with abilities lying dormant and supressed within our very own personal onion of conditioning, we can end unhealthy habits, clear internally stored stress, remove physical pain, reframe traumatic events, increase self-love, heal physical wounds. ..
And when we believe in and trust our own inner ability to decide what is right and what is wrong for us, it keeps us safe from those who desire more power and control over us. Those so removed from their own true essence that they only feel fear.
So my advice is definitely continue to create a better world in your own way, but moreover make it your focus to re-discover who you are beneath your conditioning.
For it is often said that it is only after people get what they want out there - again and again and again - that they eventually come to the realisation that this desire is never-ending. No change or improvement out there will ever make us happy.
Ultimately we have to look within.
My freedom work ⬇️
I provide global support as we the people heal our wounds from past and current events and take back power and control over our own lives.
You don’t need to be in a mess to benefit from a de-stress and inner guidance from within your own subconscious.
About me:
https://robito.substack.com/about
Freedom Hypnosis:
https://freedomhypnosis.org
Email me for more info:
hello@robitochatwin.com
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https://t.me/consciouspeoplesnetwork
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Joe Martino, founder of The Pulse and Collective Evolution:
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Robito ♡
Great post Robito. I think you are spot on. Still can't quite imagine 8 weeks without going online-that is impressive. We should all try it.
Well written Robito. I agree. I strive to discover my true freedom from within. And then I can better cope with and navigate the outer world. Thank you for this post. Janice