7 signs that your mind is free, according to history's greatest thinkers

Saturday, October 19, 2013 by: Mike Bundrant
Tags: free will, consciousness, human mind

(NaturalNews) If a controlling power structure fears anything, it is free-thinking, self-empowered people.

We focus a lot around here on how power hunger heads of government and corporations feed their greed at our expense. Exposing corruption is a good thing, because the truth needs to be known.

Let us not forget, however, where our power comes from. With so much oppression in the world, it is easy to become discouraged and feel helpless. This is a sign that they are getting to you - that they are winning.

During times like these, it's important to refocus on what it means to be free and take back your personal power. Only you can do this and it is the key to changing the world.

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

What is a free mind free to do?

1. Free to think

If your mind is free, you don't resist your thoughts. There is no such thing as a good thought or a bad thought. A thought is just a thought, a tiny secretion of neurotransmitter in the brain. We are free to have them, act on them or discard them, without getting tangled up in them.

So often we judge our thoughts, fight them and feel bad because of them. We experience our thoughts passively and let them ruin the day. We slay ourselves with thoughts we wish we didn't have any at all. All of this is resistance and self-sabotage.

What if you developed the practice of letting thoughts come and go, without judgment, and cherry picking the ones you like? This is what a free mind can do and you have this ability. It just needs to be developed.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle

2. Free to perceive

A free mind doesn't deny the truth of what it sees. A free mind doesn't excuse immorality away or shy away from it's own perceptions in order to fit in or "not make waves."

Rationalizing, minimizing, making excuses to avoid the truth are signs of a mind pre-programmed to follow the herd.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see. -Ayn Rand

3. Free to disagree

Most people are slaves to the approval of others, but a free mind isn't so caught up in others' thoughts. A free mind processes and expresses skepticism. A free mind does not fear judgment for its opinions, even when those opinions are mistaken.

The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know. -Napoleon Bonaparte

4. Free to feel

Thoughts and feelings go hand in hand, as part of the same information processing system. This has long been a tenet of NLP. A free mind allows accompanying feelings to flow and understands that feelings are just feelings. There is no such thing as a bad feeling. When you repress bad feelings, you also repress the good.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. -Helen Keller

5. Free to express

You are allowed to express your thoughts. It's what makes the world go 'round. A free mind doesn't hold back, but chooses to express without bottling things up.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people. -Jim Rohn

6. Free to explore

A free mind is not rigid, but curious to learn and explore. Are there things you've been wanting to learn and do, but hold yourself back? Are you keeping yourself from becoming who you really want to be because of others might think? Are you making excuses to avoid your passion in life? This is not freedom, but self-imposed limitation.

A free mind is flexible and wants to grow. We grow by making new and different choices, making mistakes, learning from them and adapting. This is how we develop character and skill. Are you afraid of making mistakes? Do you fear being less than perfect? If so, you are likely to lose your flexibility and get stuck in rigid patterns and stagnation.

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it. -Lao Tzu

7. Free to be imprisoned

A free mind is also free to give power to others who don't respect freedom. For most people, this is an unconscious choice. They just go along and live out their lives, never freeing themselves up to become something unique and extraordinary.

At the end of the day, they are filled with despair and excuses about what might have been. They might not have been aware of the choice, but it was a choice nonetheless.

You cannot free someone who doesn't want freedom. It is all you can do to free yourself. And you will never regret doing so.

Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think. -Thomas Edison

"Because I do not wish to know," he says. "I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark." -Erin Morgenstern

But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last. -Ray Bradbury

Nothing is more gratifying and healthy than to absolutely know your mind is free. Nothing is more limiting than being a slave to your own out-of-control mind.

There is no greater personal freedom than freedom from self-sabotage, which is the simple ability to get out of your own way. You should learn how self-sabotage works so that you can free yourself from it and live the life you were meant to live.

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You tell me it's the institution....well, you know. You better free your mind instead. -John Lennon

About the author:
Watch the free video The AHA! Process: An End to Self-Sabotage and discover the lost keys to personal transformation and emotional well-being that have been suppressed by mainstream mental health for decades.

The information in this video has been called the missing link in mental health and personal development. In a world full of shallow, quick-fix techniques, second rate psychology and pharmaceutical takeovers, real solutions have become nearly impossible to find. Click here to watch the presentation that will turn your world upside down.

Mike Bundrant is co-founder of the iNLP Center and host of Mental Health Exposed, a Natural News Radio program.

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