At the beginning of the year I advocated that we do indeed have freewill. My opinion has not changed much, however I do acknowledge that there are some factors that prevent us from having complete control over ourselves.  To me free will is something that you have to take time at, and work very hard for because freedom is never free.

The first step to free will is being aware of yourself, or self awareness. That includes being aware of your emotions and their effects, your strengths, and your limitations, as well as a developing some self worth. This is also the first step in achieving emotional intelligence. Eliminate the “all’s and “always” from your vocabulary, it is a key step for becoming a happier person and it also helps prevent a deadly way of perceiving people through labels. Emotions are like a cage and they can alter your reality in such a way that could ultimately damage your physical health (stress) if the proper steps are not taken to keep them under control. One effective method of damage control is cognitive restructuring; I would even suggest keeping a dream journal because the emotions experienced during a dream are seemingly just as real as when one is awake. One of the most valid oppositions to free will is when society rules against you for not being “normal”. Eugenics for example subjected over 60,000 people to involuntary sterilization (1907-1968) in the attempt to make a master race. This happens when a group in society believes that they are self righteous over a minority group. Thousands of years before the holocaust in Germany, the Jewish people also viewed themselves as self righteous, by naming themselves the “chosen people of god”. If you go around saying to people that you are better than them, they are going to view it as an attack on their ego, leaving them bitter. The second part to achieving emotional intelligence and the next step to free will is being aware of other people’s emotions having empathy.

In order to achieve free will it cannot be viewed simply as an individual project, but one that must be worked on by society as a whole.  It will require patience, empathy, self-awareness and forgiveness. It doesn’t have to be a religion that saves the world; it just has to be a group effort, and it starts with you.