The Paradox Of Freedom

While it’s often believed freedom is conducive to more life satisfaction and happiness, delayed gratification and healthy restrictions can play a pivotal part in enhancing your appreciation for life and its simple pleasures.

- Jessica Lee

Is freedom the secret to happiness? It’s an assumption that the more freedom you have the happier you will be in life, but is this entirely true? Having the freedom to use your time however you like and the money to buy whatever you want is often regarded as the ultimate lifestyle. Maybe you have limits in your life you would like to be free from. But what if those very restrictions were your pathway to increased happiness and fulfillment?

Until fairly recently, I believed that the fewer restrictions I had on my time, money and ability, the happier and more successful I would be. I didn’t begin to question this assumption until the birth of my son.

When I became a mum, my world both expanded and shrank. My heart expanded with the addition of a little human that I loved unconditionally and who brought me so much joy. My world also shrank as many of the freedoms I had enjoyed and taken for granted disappeared. I lost the freedom to sleep when I needed to, to work as long as I wanted, to go to the gym alone, to enjoy an uninterrupted hot coffee and to go on spontaneous dinner dates with my husband.

At first I struggled to get my head around these changes and how my whole life now revolved around my beautiful little boy. Over time, however, I discovered something very interesting about how these changes were making me feel. I discovered that by losing my unlimited and unrestrained freedom, I had gained a deeper appreciation and joy for life and the simple things.

I assumed that abundance and freedom were what would make me happier. What I found, though, was that it was actually the restraints in my life that provided the “light and shade”, which enhanced my experiences and left me happier and more satisfied with my life. This concept I came to understand as the “paradox of freedom”.