Living Free: The High Philosophy - What Can Your Next Decision Do for You?

By Kio Briggs

A brilliant, true-story of bravery and taking steps into the unknown in search of genuine lifelong happiness.

A story for dreamers - an adventure through many ups and downs; like a hero on a mission, persevering and conquering each unique battle through this whirlwind adventure; leading to the discovery of a philosophy of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9780244641931

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Living Free: The High Philosophy - What Can Your Next Decision Do for You?

Living Free:

The High Philosophy

WHAT CAN YOUR NEXT DECISION DO FOR YOU?

KIO BRIGGS

Copyright

First Edition Published, 2017

Copyright © 2017 Kio Briggs

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First Edition Published, 2017

ISBN #: 978-0-244-64193-1

Content ID: 21694668

Book Title: Living Free: The High Philosophy

Author's Website - www.takeasmokebreak.com

Dedications

To my Mother: For providing me everything I ever needed to grow in life.

To Port Harcourt City: For the character you instilled in me.

To Vicky Pasion: For Love.

Introduction

I choose my happiness; I’ll accept nothing less.

A journey embarked on from a want to live free, and on this journey, discovering and further understanding one’s self.

It is from this understanding of the self that a greater understanding of the world around us developed. It is my journey of escaping the clutches of unhappiness in search of something more than what was, in hopes of living a happier life and a better what is - in hopes of living free.

An adventure through multiple ups and downs as one would expect of any journey embarked on seeking the unknown - it is from the proceeding experiences that I began asking myself questions about the world we live in. Answering those questions for myself is what led to this philosophy of life.

What part does travelling play in this adventure of self-understanding, and ultimately a greater understanding of life? What part does cannabis (marijuana) personally play in my ability to unlock my mind and really answer the questions I was asking myself? How does love fit into it? In this adventure, how do I deal with the inevitable highs and lows that come with it? How did I lift myself out of a valley and onto a peak to enjoy the view?

And most of all - what gives me the right to have an opinion on the world I live in; other than the fact that I live in it.

A whirlwind journey to understanding myself, and as a direct correlation, understanding the world we live in. We are part of the world, just as an apple is part of the apple tree, and what better to understand the workings of an apple tree than the fruit that grow from it?

A journey to understanding that, choosing personal happiness, above all else, is the key to everything - including finding our purpose in life. It is the key to understanding life and death, and the key to success, but most importantly, it is the key to living a great life.

This is the story of a journey to developing a philosophy of life, and what exactly that philosophy is.

Chapter 1 - Am I Happy?

The best thing that could ever have happened to me was realising I wasn’t happy. I wouldn’t say I was depressed, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t too far off from it.

Only a few months out of University and I already disliked my job. I refused to say I hated it because, before I got it, it was everything I thought I wanted. Initially, it felt great getting out of bed, putting on a perfectly fitted suit, picking up a coffee and a croissant to go, newspaper in hand and sitting on the London underground - I felt like I had it all together and I was winning at something.

Cut to six months, and I wanted nothing more than to be anywhere else but at that job. It was a feeling of anti-climax, disappointment, like I had been lied to. Why did everyone tell me that the process would lead to a fantastic end? Just work hard at school, get a job and it’ll all fall into place.

Sitting at my desk, I’d see pictures on social media of people doing amazing things with their lives, things I also wanted to do. It seemed like these people were always travelling the world, seeing things I also wanted to see and going places I also wanted to go; I was told they have wealthy parents who pay for them to travel - I never truly believed that. I thought, surely they can’t all have extremely wealthy parents, happy to pay for them to travel the world all the time, without a job? Sure… maybe a couple, but all of them?

It was during this period in my life I really began smoking cannabis. I had tried it a few times before but now I was smoking more often. I enjoyed the feeling of escape it gave me without having to go anywhere, and I could easily fall asleep - which at this point in my life sleep was hard to come by. Between getting up early to ride the train for over an hour to a job I wasn’t enjoying, leaving work at 7pm, riding the train back an hour to the gym, then getting back home to cook dinner - I was up at 5.30am and home at 9.30pm, it was exhausting; and for some reason after all of that I couldn’t fall asleep. My mind would wander; I never considered jumping in front of a train, but I definitely thought about what would happen if I did, I’d certainly get some sleep then.

However, I noticed whenever I smoked cannabis my thoughts got lighter. I thought about the possibilities of what my life could be like if I just travelled, I thought about the sort of person it would be great to be, then one day I thought about doing it, and that’s when it all changed. Why don’t you try? See what happens, because this can’t be it to life. I felt as if I never saw daylight, and when weekends came around, I just wanted to sleep, but felt as though I had to do something as not to waste my weekend. I knew I hadn’t even scratched the surface of things I wanted to do in my life - I wanted to read more books, meet different people, play more sports, see much more of the world; so I decided to take a leap.

In my high state, I made the decision to go travelling as much as I could for one year, just one year. I could get it all out of my system, read the books I want to, meet the people I want to, exercise more, play more sports and most important to me at the time - see more of the world. So I saved up some money, my darling mother who had always worked hard to financially support our family also lovingly supported my decision to go travelling, and I was out.

It was a decision that changed my life forever

My Journey

My journey began with a search; I had no real idea what I was in search of, but I had the I’ll know it when I find it view going on. The only important thing to me at this point was my freedom, so I gave myself one year to go looking for whatever it was I thought was missing from my life. Between January to December of that year, I spent time in Port Harcourt, Plettenberg Bay, London, Chicago and Los Angeles; but this isn’t about the places themselves, it’s about the journey I was on. My plan was to give myself a full year of doing nothing while I did the things I really wanted to do, or had always wanted to do - the fun stuff.

By this point, I was now a recreational cannabis smoker - a couple of times a week, or whenever I could afford to purchase. All I really knew about it was the feeling I had whenever I smoked, being high wasn’t as bad as I had initially believed; I’d never experienced a feeling like it, the little things just seemed to roll off me, I worried less, took the time to relax more and was generally a more peaceful version of myself. I say peaceful because, growing up I dealt with issues controlling my anger; I was a lot better by this point, as even before I started smoking I was able to control my anger better. But being high, I noticed I never even got to the point of having to control my anger anymore, the things which used to get on my nerves now rolled off me like water, and for providing me with that relief alone - I was happy to keep smoking cannabis. It took away what up until that point was my biggest demon.

As I set off on my adventure, my goal was simply to get into the culture and lifestyle of wherever I travelled to; my first trip was going home, so that made it a lot easier to do. I spent the better part of my childhood and adolescence in Nigeria, but this wasn’t just going back home for me, it was going back to a part of me I had run away from for a while, going back to where I remember being the happiest version of me, and going back to where I spent all my time dreaming - it was going