About 'Freedom for'...

Freedom from is always from the past, and freedom for is always for the future. Freedom from can take away your handcuffs...But then what? What are you going to do with your hands?
Osho, Freedom (The Courage to Be Yourself)

Understandably our minds can become absorbed with the things that we want freedom from, such as depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, low self-esteem, particular behaviours, and so on.

But we often spend far less time imagining how we'd create our lives if we had freedom for making them different.

Freedom from our old beliefs, certain behaviours, other people's opinions, our own personal history, is not enough to make our life truly meaningful. To be 'free' with no purpose, no direction and no passion to follow can feel just as undesirable.

To go through life with the sense that we have lived it, I believe we must all find our 'freedom for': our purpose, our life's meaning.

The full meaning of 'freedom' has fascinated philosophers for centuries. And it is a core concept in existential psychotherapy.

My own inspiration for 'freedom for' comes from the works of Irvin Yalom, an existential psychiatrist, and those of Osho, one of the most well-known spiritual teachers of the 20th century.

I hope you are also inspired enough by this concept to search for your own 'freedom for'.