Free Will, Are We Really Free to Choose?

Today, We Are Free to Choose

If you’ve ever spent time in a “third world country”, then you’ll be more aware of the many privileges and freedoms we take for granted that many millions don’t have. The greatest of these is the freedom of free will.

The restricted access during the pandemic of so many of the things we normally enjoy without a second thought, has given us all a chance to reflect on these everyday privileges. This restriction fostered a deeper appreciation for the usual abundance we all enjoy in freedom of access to people, places and things. 

This cause to pause and appreciate more deeply is a good thing. It is a reminder that there is always something for which to be grateful, and gratitude is the salve of the soul.

“Gratitude is the salve of the soul.”
~LeAura Alderson, iCreateDaily.com®

Choosing Your Freedoms Carefully And Consciously

Today… in this era of human existence, you can be free to choose whatever you want to eat, whenever you want to eat it.

However, if you choose foods for taste alone over nourishment, you will impinge on your freedom to be healthy. That frappuccino or donut, pizza and ice cream [insert your indulgent temptations] is amazing… but it inhibits health if you choose it regularly.

You are free to not exercise. However, If you choose not to keep the vehicle of your body well tuned and vibrantly healthy, you will lose the freedom that a fit, agile and energetic body provides.

If you choose to not be fit, then you are choosing to limit your capacity to live your life more fully. Essentially, you are choosing against health. Regular unhealthy habits result in loss of freedom of movement, strength, health and vitality. 

You will lose your freedom to feel good about how you look and feel. But, health is about so much more than that. Perhaps you will defend that freedom of choice by claiming allegiance against any focus on appearance. However, appearances often simply reflect choices.

Delay the Bad, Not the Good

When it comes to regrets, no one ever regrets doing the hard thing sooner. No one ever says, “I regret losing weight and getting healthier.” In fact, one community member recently quit smoking and while difficult, she said she wished she’d done it years ago.

As I’ve written about in this article titled, ‘Don’t Wait’, we have acquaintances who chose death over change. And just yesterday a friend told me that the diabetic husband of her friend just had his food amputated. These people all had diseases proven to be remediable through diet and lifestyle changes.

But here’s compounding is a simple principle that works.

When the pain is enough, you will move. Or… you can move sooner.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com ®

Compounding Choices

Choices are the little things that add up over time. Compound the good things and minimize the bad. Don’t be ruled by your appetites. Use the to enjoy but don’t let them control you.

All the many daily choices add up. Be sure to put the magic of compounding to work for you, not against you.

The funny thing about freedom is that the freedom to choose one, can negate another, so choose your freedoms carefully and consciously.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com®

How to Be More Free

The good news in all of this is the power we have to change state and fate. Our future is not written in stone and our past trials can be used to fuel our future success. 

A most freeing thought toward transforming our past into a better present and future:
“This hasn’t happened to me, it has happened for me.”

Revel in the freedoms you have today. And… for your ultimate happiness and growth, choose the greater freedoms.

Appearance and persona in the world is usually a reflection of choices.

When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.
~Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor, author, 1905-1997

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
~Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor, author, 1905-1997

Feature cover Image by Martín Alfonso Sierra Ospino from Pixabay

“Revel in the freedoms you do have today. And… for your ultimate happiness and growth, choose the greater freedoms.”
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com®

Free Will and Music

What a gift it is that most of us can access most any song we enjoy at any moment of any day.

Yesterday morning while editing and updating an article for our gardening website, my husband, Coleman, was in the other room having a couple of phone conversations, coaching his investment education students.

He was behind a closed door in another room (his office), and I was in our sunroom surrounded by plants (my office) that’s about 30 feet away. Yet I could still hear his conversation enough to distract my focus.

So I whipped out my earbuds and clicked on my writing playlist. The first song to come up was a favorite from the famous Gladiator soundtrack song: Now We Are Free

Ahh… how that song calls my soul… sings her song… speaks her vision. 

But more than that to remark upon, is the blessing and gift of music. The vibration and harmonics do more than please the ear. If music can cause us to tap our feet, sway in rhythm and rise to dance or sing, we can imagine how that it is also affecting — can affect — every cell in our bodies.

And…

We’re only a song away from changing state… from rising, from singing, from dancing and from celebrating LIFE❣️🙏🏼🌎

May you celebrate today. Celebrate free will… celebrate life… celebrate YOU❣️💯🤗

Creative Prompt

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PROMPT IDEAS: Music and Me

1. WRITE about how music touches you. 
2. PAINT/DRAW/ILLUSTRATE: Put on your headphones or earbuds and tune into one of your favorite uplifting songs

Create whatever comes to mind in your preferred medium.

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Find more creative art prompts or creative writing prompts here.