To have a better understanding how I think and believe about discipline and freedom I visited my childhood. If you had the benefit of being raised in a two parent home, being disciplined by your parents was a major factor in how you learned and understood the world around you. Discipline was critical to your education and permeated all aspects of your life. Adults, teachers, religious leaders, schools councilors also contributed to your understanding of how closely related freedom and discipline are. 

Discipline was the mechanism used to keep you in check from expressing too much freedom. Discipline was a way of teaching you to control yourself, and how others control you. Discipline was the umbrella term used to shield you from misuse and abuse of your freedoms. It was used a method of control. Discipline was the perfect word to use.

dis•ci•pline

[ˈdisəplən]

NOUN

1. the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior's, using punishment to correct disobedience:

"a lack of proper parental and school discipline"

SIMILAR:

control, regulation, direction, order, authority, rule

2. a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education:

"sociology is a fairly new discipline"

This may be why so many people struggle to accept the positive aspects of discipline in their lives. Many of my clients and students express difficulty in being disciplined in making meaningful changes in their lives. People express feelings of confusion, frustration and anxiety, and often reject being disciplined. 

I perceive freedom and discipline as two sides of the same coin.

This observation reminds me of the first attempt I made at writing the script for the movie, Enter the Ninja. It was the most mentally challenging thing I have attempted at that point in my life. I believed in my ability to express my imagination and creativity, but I was not disciplined enough to appreciate freedom to write, was at the expense of discipline. Sitting, starring at the typewriter without an outline, limitations, boundaries, believing I had total freedom to write anything, was the most frustrating, paralyzing mental experience. 

What I lacked at that time in my life was discipline.

I have come to realize in life there can never be true freedom unless you create boundaries, boarders, barriers, limitations and parameters within which you have all the freedom to create the life you prefer to experience. One must have forces, energies to push against in order to build the mental toughness require to expand one’s freedom to create.

Without discipline there is no freedom, only chaos, frustration, anxiety, disappointment and unhappiness. Discipline is the fire, drive, determination that fuels the engine of freedom to express your imagination and creativity. It requires time, patience, insight and wisdom gained through clear thinking. To reach the realization and understanding also requires mental monitoring to be presently conscious of your thoughts.

My ability to dream awake, by being consciously aware and participate in my dreams, has given birth to clarity of thought, and solutions to queries I have regarding life’s challenges and obstacles. I find many answers to life’s questions during my dream time.

We chose to be born into the world of relativity, and by its nature we may choose between its polarities, dichotomies, contradictions and opposites which experience we prefer. Life is all about choices and relationships. Think deeply on this.

Love and Light,

Mike