Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Viktor E. Frankl
An interactive lecture
When we truly know and accept ourselves, we become free.
To the extent that we do not really know ourselves, we are not free. We can be co-opted in the service of something that does not align with our deepest longings.
I have always found TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) a rather sad expression. What a way to live, always waiting for the weekend! And what do you do at the weekend? If you have money, or sometimes if you don’t, you go out and get drunk, or you go on a shopping spree. Compulsive consumption just to dampen that deep feeling of dissatisfaction. Or you plan a holiday. And escape for a week.
There is a ‘will to be’ and the ‘will to belong’. Both of these are important to us.
We want to be ourselves, to be authentic. And we want to be loved and to belong. This frequently presents us with a dilemma. As a child we often learn that in order to be loved we must give up what we feel. Daddy doesn’t like angry little girls. Big boys don’t cry.
We all grew up making compromises in order to fit in. Or perhaps we became compulsive rebels. If you do not reflect on how you have adapted in order to be accepted or to survive and where these patterns come from, you are doomed to repeat them. There is then, as it were, a programme running in the background which hasn’t been updated for decades. So that inside of us there is a hurt, angry or fearful child.
Real freedom comes when we become curious about ourselves and are willing to look in the mirror, to embrace all of what we see, the good the bad and the ugly. The light, and the dark. Then we don’t have to be so worried that someone is going to find out who we ‘really’ are. Because we know who we are. And we can slowly dissolve the shame and hurt that often surrounds our past. And we are able to respond rather than react.
We become sovereign beings and capable of taking responsibility. We cannot easily be co-opted into that which does not align with the essence of who we are. And we can let go of projecting our shadow onto others.
This evening I will talk about how we become free by taking full responsibility for ourselves. And how this enables us to bring our gifts to the world. Join me.
Details
Date: Friday 19th April 2024
Time: 19.30 till 21.30
Place: Amarelo, Brouwersgracht 270A, 1013HG Amsterdam
Cost: €35
Language: English. Zelda speaks fluent Dutch and is happy to translate where necessary.
Reserve your place: mail Zelda
You will receive a payment request and your place is reserved when payment has been received.