I spent 20 minutes today waffling some thoughts into my voicenote app and ended up with 7 minutes of relatively salient introspection. (Transcript in the app or browser if you want to skim.)
I think my central thesis is that in order to free others, we must first free ourselves. We’re not brought up in a world that’s comfortable with freedom; we’re taught to keep ourselves small on a somewhat unspoken basis that to free oneself is to threaten another.
We experience this regularly on a micro level. We are shamed for being openly ourselves—speaking our mind, dressing how we feel, simply liking ourselves just as we are—and, while it might seem personal, it’s important to acknowledge the insidious macro ramifications this has. For example:
My experience has been that self-minimizing so as not to cause discomfort to others is, in fact, in service to absolutely nobody—at least not at the level of the greater good.
I express this tangentially in the voicenote, but in short:
Freeing ourselves is the most revolutionary act we can commit.
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