Are we all in prison?

The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart. –Thich Nhat Hanh

Freedom, what does it mean? I visited a local prison last weekend; I can tell you that the prison was “slightly” different which I we have used to see in Finland.

The prison is made for 300 inmates…currently there are about 900 inmates. You can do the math.

While we there we talked about some issues and one of them was; are we living in a prison or are they living in a prison? Literally they are but at the same time they can be freer than we are outside those gates.

So what is freedom?

Does it mean that we are not locked away or we are not under some foreign government or under some evil dictator?

I think freedom is how you think and act. I think freedom is to be able to control yourself. The question is: Are we really living free or are we prisoners of our own lives? Do we actually control our thoughts and our decisions? Is our body telling us what to do?

Many of us lives in a prison, prison of habits, prison of routines, prison of life. When we can’t get away from our routines or habits it means that we are living in a prison. It can be even worst than being in actual prison because there you can still control your thoughts and your actions but if some “force” is keeping you under command, making you do stuff you shouldn’t be doing, it means that you are living in a prison, prison of your own life.

Escape completely, like they say on the Princess Cruises ships, escape from yourself!! Don’t eat junk food everyday just because your body tells you to do that or don’t walk on the same routes everyday. Do something different, escape from your routines, escape from your prison. Escape from your life.

Some people spend their whole life living in their neighborhood and vacations they spend in their backyard complaining how things are so miserable.

They live in a prison.

We can choose, we can choose to be free. The person who is keeping you in that prison is YOU and only YOU can free yourself from there.  

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. –Abraham Lincoln

If we think about our lives and if we think about how many our decisions have been influenced by something, something external or even internal feeling or thing? For example: we know we should work out and eat healthy. Do always do that or does our body tell us what to do? Most of the times our body is the one who tells us what to do! Am I right? I know I am.

What about the decisions we make…Like working, how many of us work willingly??? Or do we work because we have to? We need the money. There are certain standards in every society which we are meant to follow. Most of us follow those rules and regulations because we have to, not because we want to. Is that freedom?

Free will and happiness goes together. Being control of your life make you happier. Making own decisions accordingly what is good for you; make you happier.

We shouldn’t do things like we have always been doing just because we have always been doing them or we shouldn’t eat all the junk food just because our body is telling us to do so. Of course we have to listen advises from other people but also we have to listen our own body just to know what is good and what is bad for us.

Living in freedom is happiness.

Living in prison is unhappiness.

I choose to live free. I choose to be in control.

If my body says that I should eat some sweet I can say no; and if it says that I shouldn’t work out just because it feel tired, I still will do it. I am controlling my life. I am in charge.

If I can do it, sure can you.

I want to be happy so I choose to be in control.

What does it mean, be in control? It means that you will do decisions based on knowledge not desire. I take advises but I still make my own decisions. Decisions which are right for me! I don’t let the pressure from outside to affect my decisions. I am in control. I am in charge.

If you want to be happy, set a goal, commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. – Andrew Carnegie