horses find freedom

Freedom

While traveling to Gibson’s, BC, I came across some escaped horses on the road. Instinctively they just ran. Would we run if we had the chance of freedom? We’re given the opportunity of freedom everyday in the Western world and yet so many inevitably choose to stay bound by imaginary chains. Why is this?

What are the fears that are holding us back from going with our instinct? After some research it seems there are ten main fears that hold us back: The Fear of Rejection, The Fear of Failure, The Fear of Uncertainty, The Fear of Loneliness, The Fear of Change, The Fear of Loss of Freedom, The Fear of Being Judged, The Fear of Something Bad Happening, The Fear of Getting Hurt and The Fear of Inadequacy. This list certainly makes sense for I also can relate to items on it but still the question nagged at me “why would I choose fear over freedom?”.

Horses or any animal for that matter doesn’t question the opportunity for freedom when it is presented, they run! Only in some cases they wouldn’t take the opportunity. Elephants in captivity are are held back by a chain from a young age and later in life they are held back by a tiny rope that they could break easily, yet they stay bound because they have been conditioned to think it’s pointless to try.

Now it started becoming clear to me, we’ve been conditioned to fail. When we were young we were full of ideas and pushed boundaries when we could, but unfortunately that creative side was often met with a “No, you can’t do it that way, this is how you should do it”. There the death of our dreams began. So really the beginning of freedom begins again when we start to dream and I mean really dream and not let any fear stop you from dreaming.

Once you have that dream in you again you need to ask yourself would I rather chase that dream or live my life with fears and regrets? So the real answer of course is that, we are the only ones who stand in the way of us achieving freedom. So I choose to use the lesson the horses gave me and start running again because my freedom and dreams are way better than my fears and peoples opinions and I for one will cheer you on as you chase your dreams.