Free Will or Free Won't?

Each morning, as we wake up and go about our lives, we like to believe that we have free will.

The ability to act purposefully driven by our mind.

But science suggests otherwise.

In the 1980s, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet conducted a now-famous experiment. He asked participants to move their wrists whenever they felt like it.

Meanwhile, he measured brain activity. What he found was surprising. Something called the readiness potential appeared in the brain about 300 milliseconds before the person reported the conscious intention to move.

Put simply, the brain had already started preparing for the action before the person was aware of deciding to do it.

So then, how were we exercising free will? If the brain had already decided before we could, then who was really in control?

One answer was proposed by Libet himself.

While the initiation of an action might begin unconsciously, he proposed that we still have the power to veto it. To stop the action just before it occurs.

He called this free won’t. The ability to say no.

A profound distinction, it suggests that while impulses arise automatically, we still have a gatekeeper. A moment of awareness where we can intervene.

This is supported by later research showing that parts of the brain responsible for decisions can override motor impulses.

Free won’t is not about creating action. It is about inhibiting it.

This also explains why practices like meditation, breathwork, or cognitive reappraisal feel so hard.

Your system that generates impulses is always on. You are trying to override your impulses.

What I keep referring to as slowing down the brain. If you persist, you capacity to do so gets stronger.

Transformation, then, lies not in generating perfect decisions, but in creating a gap.

A space between urge and action. A place where free won’t can arise.

In that space lies our freedom. Not to do. But to not do.

And that may be the most powerful choice we have.

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain