Emotional Freedom
I’ve been reading the newspaper since I was ten years old. Front page to the back page and everything in between. To say it has become a part of who I am doesn’t even come close to telling the whole story. Back then, the marks of a paper boy were ink-smudged hands and arms, blackened T-shirts, and muddy-looking bath water on Saturday nights. Talk about immersing oneself into their profession.
But times have changed. Along with the walk-in, glass-doored shower, that replaces my bathtub, the media is no longer the same institution I carried up and down so many triple-deckers nearly sixty years ago. Add to this the never-ending stream of “diarrhea of the mouth” - I mean social media - and I have no other choice but to grant myself a respite from news that no longer feeds my curiosity.
I want to start fresh. I want to be in an empty room that slowly lets the light back in. I want to see things unfold in a way that allows me to make choices that matter to me. I want to replace the 30-second sound bites with the kind of media that lets me continue to grow. I need to rescue my emotions from a world that doesn’t respect my freedom to be in control of who I want to be.
“Don’t let people who don’t care about you, manipulate your mind, feelings and emotions or control how you think about yourself. Never give that much power to someone else.”
Karon Waddell
My connection to staying informed and contributing knowledgeably to conversations was my personal “institution.” But it no longer serves a purpose in my life. Inner peace is a choice that brings balance to my life. It is not something I am willing to give away to anyone who leads by doomsday sound bites, chasing us around all day.
“Strong, negative emotions (fear, anger, anxiety, hopelessness) tend to narrow our minds - it’s as though our peripheral vision has been cut off because we’re so focused on the peril that’s front and center.”
Marc Brackett
I’ll admit, it is not easy to close the door on the kind of daily routine that had been as much a part of my life as that first cup of coffee each morning. But age has taught me that we never really stop living; we just continue down paths we are not used to traveling. I didn’t say tunnel, I said path. I am not looking for the light at the end of the tunnel - I want to be the light. I want to see what is all around me now. I want to choose what is around me so that I am the one in control of how bright my light shines.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Viktor Frankl
Today, I choose my emotional freedom. It is the human commodity that will keep my heart filled with riches!
Talk soon…
G