50 years after April 25th
This year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of a historic milestone in which freedom was proclaimed. Freedom of expression, assembly and association. Freedom of artistic creation, freedom to vote and engage in political life. Freedom for women to be more independent in their personal and social lives.
The Constitution defined the principle of equal rights for men and women, arguing that we could all be free.
What we are really celebrating when we remember April 25, 1974, is the audacity of those who carried out the revolution, of the people who took to the streets and decided to overcome the fear imposed by a dictatorship in order to defend their rights. The so-called rights, freedoms and guarantees of any human being.
But today I wonder if we are truly free. I question even more whether the direction that social evolution - combined with technological evolution - has taken is towards freedom or imprisonment.
The greatest oppression exists within us. Perhaps internal freedom was greater in times of dictatorship than it is today.
What does freedom really mean? What makes us truly free?
1. Knowledge
The more knowledge we have, the freer we will be. It is knowledge, often triggered by curiosity, that opens up our horizons, gives us more options, makes us question, makes us reflect, and gives us more confidence to make decisions.
There are two strands to knowledge: "external" knowledge, which is learned through books, films, etc., and "internal" knowledge, which is learned through life, through the events and situations we come across in our lives and which make us evolve.
Both are fundamental to building our Freedom. Both require curiosity and study, research, reflection, time, dedication and energy.
2. Courage
In the society we live in, freedom is not enough for us on its own.
I believe that we can evolve in another direction, but today we still mostly live in a society that castrates our freedom by domesticating human beings according to what is "right" and "wrong", according to what is socially accepted or condemned.
So fighting for our freedom, to be who we really are or want to be, requires audacity, courage and bravery. One of the images that has never left my mind is the bravery of William Walace shouting for FREEDOM.
It's all about the courage to overcome fear. We live in fear - fear of failure, fear of loneliness, fear of not being recognized, fear of not being applauded, fear of death, sometimes fear of ourselves.
The greatest recent example of how much we live in the energy of fear was the global shutdown over Covid. In just a few days, it was possible to paralyze the population of planet Earth by telling them that they could die. They vaccinated almost 90% of the population without so much as a scientific study demonstrating the effectiveness of the vaccine and its side effects. We are so uprooted that we put ourselves at risk of being controlled and dominated by fear.
Another example is to subliminally perceive the fear that still persists in women. Fifty years ago we were told that we would have the same rights as men. 50 years is too little to erase or transform the hundreds of years in which women were burned, tortured, raped, discriminated against and ostracized from society. It's too little to erase the pain from the collective unconscious. Today we see women with very strong energy, hard-working, in high positions, with good salaries, independent, apparently free... full of fear. Most of them don't even realize it, but the fear is there. In divorces, fear, guilt and the belief that you don't deserve it become evident.
Etymologically, "courage" comes from the Latin word for "heart". It is therefore a question of acting with the heart, acting with the pulse of Love, with the flow that comes from within. Only this can drive out Fear.
3. Stimulating Love
Love is the only force that can keep us away from Fear. That will give us courage. It will make us move forward, even if we feel afraid.
For many years now, Love has taken a back seat, Love has been repressed.
Today's society doesn't create the conditions for love. Competitiveness is encouraged at all costs, which distances us from each other; individualism, separation and distance between human beings are encouraged.
Touch, kisses, hugs and intimacy oscillate between levity and avatars.
We essentially try to meet the metrics of being a good mother/father, a good worker/employer, a good son/daughter, a good friend, a good husband/wife, forgetting to speak from the heart.
We find it difficult to love ourselves fully and completely, stripped of masks. We are our own main judge. We are demanding of ourselves and others. We have little empathy.
We urgently need to stimulate love and reconnect.
4. Responsibility
Freedom requires being an adult. As much as babies/children have greater internal freedom, they don't have "external" freedom - they depend on their adult caregivers for everything.
Being fully free means taking responsibility for our choices, even if the choice is to do nothing.
Staying in the place of the child or the victim robs us of the opportunity to be free because we are always dependent on the power of the other.
Taking responsibility for everything we create or what we attract, whether bright or dark, is the only way to feel empowered to (re)build our freedom.
5. Creativity
Creativity is the power to create. The greatest creation is that of our own BEING.
Looking for alternatives, experimenting with solutions we've never tried before, being innovative and entrepreneurial is a characteristic that will facilitate the creation of a free being in a society that still imprisons.
In 50 years' time, may we celebrate the taste of internal freedom.
Sandra Soares Abrantes
Lawyer & Therapist
(+351) 911167954
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