“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.”

― Jim Morrison

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about freedom. I have always considered myself to be a free spirit. I fondly recall the license plate that I got for my first car. It read “BE FREE.” Freedom has always been important to me, though I can’t say that I’ve always felt completely free. At this point in my life, however, I think I feel the most free that I’ve ever felt.

As I mentioned in a blog post, I recently made the decision to give up a stable address, a house, and predictability for living full-time as a nomad in a motorhome. The past few weeks I have been traveling across the United States with my husband, two children and dog in a “house on wheels,” as my son likes to call it. This morning as I recalled the many things that I have to be grateful for, I thought about how very lucky I am to be free. I am profoundly grateful for all the freedoms I have in my life:

  • The freedom to not have to set an alarm clock.
  • The freedom from agendas or meetings.
  • The freedom to roam to any place I choose.
  • The freedom to make my own health decisions.
  • The freedom to allow my children to be wild.

And there are so many more…

As I was feeling so much gratitude for all of my freedoms, it occurred to me that I was focusing on externalities. While these freedoms are incredibly important, I am the most grateful for the ability to have internal freedom: the freedom to be who I really am. I realized that when I make the conscious decision to be my authentic self, I am truly free. When I consciously choose to be my true self, and not who my husband, children, colleagues, family of origin, or society wants me to be, I am absolutely free. And in that freedom, there is so much peace.

I have so many flaws. I make a lot of mistakes. I am insanely imperfect. And when I embrace my whole self, imperfections and all, I feel absolute freedom. I am free to live life without a mask. Free to fly my freak flag proud and high.

That is true freedom.

While our external freedoms are very important, they pale in comparison to the freedom that is found in being your absolutely authentic self. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” I would say that to be yourself and engage in radical self-love in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is a revolutionary act and the path to ultimate freedom.