If Mental Freedom® is truly a human framework rather than merely a Western one, it must be able to travel without demanding that people leave their cultures behind.
Mental Freedom® does not require everyone to think, speak, or apply its principles in identical ways. Its universality may lie precisely in its flexibility. People can work with the same principles while honoring different cultures, circumstances, priorities, and values.
The Principle Is Not the Wording
In Mental Freedom: You Hold the Key, I wrote that genuinely being able to say, "I want to," can feel more empowering than believing, "I have to," with "I choose to" serving as an intermediate position.
However, I later learned from an MFX facilitator working with a group of Chinese and Taiwanese women that, for them, "I choose to" felt much more empowering than "I want to."
It was not difficult for me to adapt the teaching. The underlying principle is to examine how you speak to others, but also to yourself, and choose language that feels empowering. The words we choose may differ, while still serving the same purpose.
Words are tools of expression. Mental Freedom®'s goal is greater awareness and personal agency. If one phrase does not create that experience, another may serve the principle more effectively.
Becoming rigid about exact wording can become another form of control, which is the antithesis of Mental Freedom®.
Different Choices Can Reflect the Same Freedom
Two participants may hear the same principle and make very different decisions.
One might set a boundary, while another decides to preserve the relationship. One person may speak openly, while another may intentionally remain silent. One might accept a responsibility, while another relinquishes one that was never theirs.
Mental Freedom® is not measured by whether people make the choice you would make. It's reflected in whether they become more aware and intentional about the choices they are making.
Cultural Humility
When interacting across cultures, it's important to remain curious before making assumptions or judgments. Be willing to expose what you don't know by asking rather than presuming.
Allow people to explain what a principle means within their lives and cultures. If the language or application appears to have the opposite effect of increasing Mental Freedom®, deeper understanding may be needed.
Participants can also teach us how the framework is experienced within their cultures. Listening to them helps Mental Freedom® continue developing as a genuinely cross-cultural body of work. I recently explored this idea from a broader organizational perspective in "Can Personal Growth Cross Cultural Boundaries?"
I remember teaching the five basic needs in Malaysia. My host and I were discussing the need for Freedom. She had lived in Malaysia throughout her life and came from an Indian cultural background.
She told me her parents would arrange her marriage and that this gave her a tremendous amount of freedom.
I was surprised because, from my perspective, it sounded like the exact opposite of freedom.
Instead of judging, I asked her to help me understand. She explained that she wouldn't have to date, experience the stress of choosing whom to marry, or bear sole responsibility if the marriage failed.
When I tried to imagine the situation from within her culture and perspective, I could understand why she experienced the arrangement as freeing.
I still viewed the practice as controlling rather than freeing, but I could understand why she experienced it differently. Understanding another person's perspective does not require adopting it as your own. I explore that distinction further in Awareness Is Not the Same as Agreement.
Mental Freedom® Perspective
Mental Freedom® is invitational, never prescriptive. That stance is one reason it can cross cultures. It doesn't require people to accept a predetermined "right" answer before they can benefit.
In two of this month's episodes of Life = Choices; Choices = Life, Drs. Marcella Finnerty and Shu-han Huang describe the importance of choice, accessibility, cultural sensitivity, and allowing participants to determine how the principles apply within their own lives.
The framework remains consistent. Its expression may differ.
This same invitational stance—offering information without prescribing outcomes—is explored further in Mental Freedom® Is an Invitation, Not a Prescription.
If you'd like to experience these principles in a supportive group setting, learn more about the Mental Freedom® Experience.
Reflection
Which of your beliefs about freedom, responsibility, or empowerment might be shaped more by your culture than you previously realized?