The Internal Compass

Freedom is gained when you realize the answers you seek are within yourself. 

Your direction should not be determined by another human, or a human institution, or even a human interpretation of God.

You literally have it within yourself. 

Divine intelligence, God, whatever you want to call it. I call it our inner compass. The inner compass is what defines our freedom - otherwise we wouldn’t be free. This is what freedom means, to own one’s own destiny. 

To have to rely on something outside of yourself for the directions to your destiny - well that would not be freedom. That is reliance. Servitude. Shackles.Therefore the only way to know the truth is to find it from your own inner compass. 

We spend our whole lives seeking answers from others - letting them proclaim what is right and wrong. We seek these answers, and yet we are constantly disappointed by what we find. 

We seek answers in others because we don’t understand ourselves. We ask ourselves a question, and get two responses.

This is the polarity of life. It’s perfectly natural, but we have forgotten the meaning of it. These polarities argue with each other because neither is the truth. They are only pointing you to the truth. 

We believe we are one thing wholly, and yet we find such internal turmoil because we find the exact opposite thing living within us as well.

You argue like this amongst yourself because neither polarity is the truth. Polarity is simply pushing you in the right direction. It isn’t the answer, it is guiding you to it. The truth will be known when you don’t feel so much turmoil inside of you. The answer will be light and easy. 

Once you understand this, you understand what freedom is. There is no right and wrong, no black and white.

There are only actions and reactions. 

You can see this process replicated in our environment. The more extreme an action, the more extreme the equal and opposite reaction.

A better way to define actions, then, would be actions that create harmony, and actions that create resistance. 

The easiest company to market is a cookie company. Why? Because there isn’t strong resistance to cookies. It doesn’t stir up political bias, or hint at religious discussions. There is no agenda, it’s just a joy-bringing, sweet little cookie. Put it in a pink box, charge $5 a pop, and you will find success.

Cookies create harmony. They bring people together. They create joy. This is an important bookmark you need to make in your mind: Harmony = joy. 

Now think about the democracy of the US. Republicans and democrats, red vs blue. The more charged one party becomes, the more worked up the other party gets in response to it. I always say most of us are actually moderates, and the original party system was created so that we could have constructive arguments and come to a sort of middle ground that would actually work in society at scale. Opinions aside, stark polarity is clearly not working for us.

Extreme polarity is not sustainable. There will always be an equal reaction, and ensuing chaos. The more polarity exists within us, the less joy we experience.

Cookies aren’t the devil. Cookies aren’t genius. Cookies are a nice treat. See the middle ground? It’s not as charged. Joy is the north star, always.

So yes, we are given this freedom to choose, but not without this caveat of polarity which is intended to help guide us.

Creating Harmony In The Wild

Harmony is finding that middle ground, aka the path forward.

Funny enough, this path is what leads to progress. Therefore, harmony is also the key to any type of progress, whether it’s creating a huge social movement or meeting a personal goal. 

For example, if you want to lose weight, extreme dieting will tend to create large reactions of insatiable hunger and cravings within you. The sustainable option that actually leads to lasting progress is not as extreme, and allows flexibility and the occasional treat. The answer is not pigging out, or starving yourself, the answer is in the middle. That’s where harmony exists.

So it seems, we have an internal compass to help us find the path forward. You know it is the right decision when it creates a sort of harmony within you. And you can sense when it is the wrong decision when you are metaphorically “torn.”

But of course, we have an environment as well to consider. 

The key is once again, a softer approach. One that isn’t polarizing, but brings people together. How do you know if something creates harmony or chaos? 

You test it. 

Small tests are important, just like small goals lead up to larger goals, small tests inform the bigger ones. Nothing is ever static, we are in a continuous dance. So we must adjust to the rhythm of our dance partner, swaying and tweaking our movements to ensure harmony and not… embarrassment (or worse, injury). 

This is important because we must find a way to live harmoniously within our environment to feel joy. Eventually the stubborn pessimist grows tired and hopeless from continuously beating his head on a wall 24/7. 

It is noble to want to create change, to want to lead, to yearn for progress in yourself and in others. But it is both an art and a science to do so. There is a natural pattern to progress that leads through joy. 

Respect this pattern of the world, and start to listen to your internal compass. Find internal joy in what you do, and then try to match that in-step with the world around you. Anything that feels forced is not the way. 

Remind yourself that harmony creates joy and progress in all things.