{"id":90,"date":"2010-10-22T06:55:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T06:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/2010\/10\/the-possibility-of-freedom.html"},"modified":"2010-10-22T06:55:06","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T06:55:06","slug":"the-possibility-of-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2010\/10\/the-possibility-of-freedom.html","title":{"rendered":"The Possibility of Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Though few understand the truth of the following, freedom is (always) a question of possibilities.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Prisons, of any kind, strip away our possibilities. For example, (an inmate) has lost the simple freedom to just wander where he wishes, outside in the fresh air, under no authority other than what he wills in that moment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div>But there are other kinds of freedom, higher orders of liberty; for instance, being able to consciously walk away from some negative state that wants you to be its captive, that wants to live through you at the cost of your spiritual freedom &#8212; this is a great possibility. But, to enter into its world requires you leave behind you the world of more limited possibilities.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It may not be readily seen, but how many possibilities are there when you are in a rush to get something done, or to get somewhere special where a pleasure awaits? The truth is, the more defined our pursuit, the more confined are its possibilities. And the more confined the possibility of any given moment, the more trapped we feel for having entered into it.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Your True Nature is unlimited possibility itself, and that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so important to slow down your life. It may not seem so to the &#8220;self&#8221; that can&#8217;t stop running, that always has something more important to do than to just be quietly aware of the moment and its open-ended possibilities, but everything you really need to be free and whole is already right where you are.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Of course, this doesn&#8217;t mean that you simply stop &#8220;doing&#8221; what you must to be a good, responsible householder. Only that you attend to a different &#8220;house&#8221; as your first order of business at all times.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though few understand the truth of the following, freedom is (always) a question of possibilities. Prisons, of any kind, strip away our possibilities. For example, (an inmate) has lost the simple freedom to just wander where he wishes, outside in the fresh air, under no authority other than what he wills in that moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,6],"tags":[174,15,46,233,232],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anxiety-worry","category-negative-states","category-new-beginnings-fresh-start","tag-feeling-trapped","tag-freedom","tag-negative-states-2","tag-possibilities","tag-slowing-down"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Possibility of 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\/2010\/10\/the-possibility-of-freedom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Possibility of Freedom - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Though few understand the truth of the following, freedom is (always) a question of possibilities. Prisons, of any kind, strip away our possibilities. For example, (an inmate) has lost the simple freedom to just wander where he wishes, outside in the fresh air, under no authority other than what he wills in that moment.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2010\/10\/the-possibility-of-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=\"2010-10-22T06:55:06+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":"The Possibility of 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\/2010\/10\/the-possibility-of-freedom.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Possibility of Freedom - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"Though few understand the truth of the following, freedom is (always) a question of possibilities. 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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\/90","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=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}