Why does attraction feel like loss of freedom even when I want the relationship?

Mirabai lived this exactly. She chose radical devotion to the divine and lost her family, her reputation, her conventional life. And she was free in a way most people never are. The paradox is real, not a contradiction. Attraction *does* narrow your choices. Suddenly you have another person's needs, rhythms, wounds, fears occupying your inner space. That's real loss. You can't be everywhere at once anymore. You can't pursue every possibility. The person you might have been without them—that version is gone. But freedom isn't about having infinite options. That's just distraction. Real freedom is about *choosing* clearly, with full knowledge of the cost. Mirabai chose constraint as an act of freedom—the constraint of devotion, of showing up, of examining her own heart relentlessly in relationship to what she loved. The freedom in attraction comes not from keeping your options open, but from choosing *deliberately*. From knowing you could leave and choosing to stay. From being willing to be changed. That's harder than solitude, but it's not less free. It's a different kind of freedom—the kind earned through surrender and presence. The examined heart doesn't run from this paradox. It walks through it.