Freedom is the most taken for granted, yet one of the most essential concepts to live by. It is like the flowers that lie in the corner of a room and are often ignored, yet they spread their fragrance and add beauty to life. The presence of freedom might go unnoticed, but the absence of freedom is stark and never fails to get overlooked.
A free man lives as ordinarily as free birds who routinely fly in the sky, without appreciating the liberty to be free, while the pain and struggle of being restrained or controlled is only understood by a caged bird or an enslaved man. However, this is the basic freedom I have been talking about, the freedom to just be free and not oppressed. The idea of ultimate freedom goes way beyond this, and it is much more empowering and essential for achieving one’s full potential.
The idea of ultimate freedom, according to me, lies in accepting oneself completely, being comfortable in one’s skin, and not pretending to be someone else. In the 21st century, values like compassion and self-love are emphasised so often, yet nobody really practises them. All of us just aim to be perfect, having a flawless face, a perfect figure, a valuable degree, a successful career, and to top it off, we want to raise perfect kids. But do we even know what "perfect" means?
Perfection is subjective, and for most of the people I know, it just means something unrealistically higher than where they are right now. Perfection is like a mirage; it doesn’t exist, and so it is unattainable. Instead of chasing perfection, we should work on making progress and getting better with every passing day and accept, understand, love, appreciate, and value ourselves just the way we are.
And trust me, accepting oneself doesn’t mean we stop getting better; it just means we make efforts to become better, not due to some idea of insecurity or inadequacy, but because we aim to become the best versions of ourselves, despite the odds.
I know being true to one’s values and ideals can get difficult sometimes, and not judging oneself and accepting oneself completely can get overwhelmingly challenging. That’s because the human race seems to be too indulged in judging everything it does and setting high standards, not just for others but also for itself. We all tend to either overestimate or underestimate ourselves and others all the time in our lives, and we never really learn to accept ourselves just the way we are.
We should inculcate skills like acceptance, empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence, for they are needed in this world, where every other person feels vulnerable and feels the pain of not being good enough. And the use of these qualities must start with you. Begin by choosing yourself, because that, my friend, is the ultimate freedom! Ultimate freedom offers you to express your humanity and its virtues to the world out there so make the most of this opportunity and never berate yourself, instead celebrate thyself.
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