{"id":3420,"date":"2014-06-17T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=3420"},"modified":"2014-06-12T18:52:48","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T22:52:48","slug":"using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html","title":{"rendered":"Using the World That You&#8217;re in to Find Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Question:<\/strong> Aside from extremes and obvious harm, does it matter where we place ourselves physically? I know we can and need to work whenever and wherever we are, but one cannot deny obvious occurrences and impressions in different neighborhoods, cities, states, etc. I wonder if one should purposely make efforts to live and work in \u201cbetter\u201d areas for a pleasant life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong> There is no question about there being a relationship between our exterior environment and our interior life; think of the wind as it makes the leaves on a tree &#8220;sing&#8221; out, or the way listening to Beethoven&#8217;s Ninth can make the heart swell. All things are in relationship with their environment and, to a certain extent, the environment shapes both the creatures and the relationships existing within it.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, part of one&#8217;s development is a gradual freedom first from unconscious interior influences, followed by freedom from exterior influences such as one&#8217;s environment. In other words, yes, one&#8217;s environment can produce a certain set of unproductive interior states just by being in that environment; but &#8212; and this is a big &#8220;but\u201d &#8212; that same environment can be used to win freedom from the resonance it produces and the accompanying unconscious resistance (to it) that follows.<\/p>\n<p>I say these things to you because sometimes we are unable to change our exterior circumstances just because we wish to &#8212; or even see the need to; not everything can be changed as quickly as one wishes for those changes. So if you must live in areas that produce these negative impressions, disquieting mental and emotional states in you, then you can live and prosper inwardly according to your understanding of how these same conditions can create conflict within you. If, on the other hand, you can move into &#8220;friendlier&#8221; circumstances\/conditions, then it would probably be a good idea. One needs all his or her energy for this work of integrating oneself, and when we can live in an environment that doesn&#8217;t steal from us our attention just by the nature of its degraded state, then obviously this is better.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Aside from extremes and obvious harm, does it matter where we place ourselves physically? I know we can and need to work whenever and wherever we are, but one cannot deny obvious occurrences and impressions in different neighborhoods, cities, states, etc. I wonder if one should purposely make efforts to live and work in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[499,514],"tags":[1947,1948,1944,324,1946,1943,35,1945],"class_list":["post-3420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-living","category-wholeness-happiness","tag-circumstances","tag-current-conditions","tag-environment","tag-impressions","tag-influence-of-the-world","tag-physical-world","tag-relationship","tag-where-we-choose-to-live"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Using the World That You&#039;re in to Find Freedom   - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using the World That You&#039;re in to Find Freedom   - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: Aside from extremes and obvious harm, does it matter where we place ourselves physically? I know we can and need to work whenever and wherever we are, but one cannot deny obvious occurrences and impressions in different neighborhoods, cities, states, etc. I wonder if one should purposely make efforts to live and work in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-17T16:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-12T22:52:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Using the World That You're in to Find Freedom   - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Using the World That You're in to Find Freedom   - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"Question: Aside from extremes and obvious harm, does it matter where we place ourselves physically? I know we can and need to work whenever and wherever we are, but one cannot deny obvious occurrences and impressions in different neighborhoods, cities, states, etc. I wonder if one should purposely make efforts to live and work in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2014-06-17T16:00:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-06-12T22:52:48+00:00","author":"Guy Finley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@guy_finley","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html","name":"Using the World That You're in to Find Freedom - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-17T16:00:39+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-12T22:52:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/06\/using-the-world-that-youre-in-to-find-freedom.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Using the World That You&#8217;re in to Find Freedom"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/","name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","description":"Holistic, Mental Health and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16","name":"Guy Finley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","caption":"Guy Finley"},"description":"Bestselling \"Letting Go\" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3424,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions\/3424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}