Every July 4th in America, we celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence, which took place on July 4, 1776. However, although we
celebrate our independence as a country, with the threats and the influx of
violence and other harm this country has faced, I know that many of you don’t
truly feel free. What you might not realize is that you can have independence,
but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are free.
Independence
is a state of being on your own. It is gained through some form of physical action
you or someone else has taken on your behalf. Whereas, freedom is a mindset
gained through your action of self-love. It is perceived that freedom ensures safety. When you are
free to love you, you have created an inner and outer layer of safety,
protecting yourself from the external threats put forth by others who can’t and
won’t love you like you love yourself. You can celebrate your independence, but the question is,
are you free?
Freedom
is not just a physical state; it is also a spiritual and emotional state. It is
a mindset that doesn’t start with the Declaration of Independence. Freedom
starts with how you see and feel about you.
No matter how
independent you are, until you love yourself unconditionally, you will not be
free. As a matter of fact, love is freedom and the more you love you, the freer
you will become.
Too often, many of you see
love as a word to use loosely, in order to gain or maintain control over
others. In all actuality, because love is an emotion, it is action. It takes
the action of love for you to freely release the things, the people, the
situations, and the circumstances that have encumbered you and rendered you
helpless and hopeless. When you love you, you allow yourself to rise above
whatever or whoever seems to block your growth and success.
When you truly love you, you
are free of anger, bitterness, guilt, shame, malice, lack of forgiveness,
animosity, depression, anxiety, and many other self-defeating emotions. Self-love
allows independence to become your reality. It is recognized in your walk, in
your talk, in the way you dress, in the people you associate with, as well as
the boundaries you set with others, for an in your life.
In order for you to
celebrate your personal independence and freedom on Independence Day, it is
imperative that you begin to assess where you are with loving you. In order for
you to engage in your assessment of love for yourself, you must first define
love; not from the perspective of others, but from your inner perspective,
entailing the deep and passionate feeling that you have for you, as well as the
deep and passionate feeling that you seek from others. As a result, you will
come to discover what and how the powerful emotion of love can allow you to accept
you and to be you, while at the same time, accepting others and allowing them
to be themselves.
If you are still holding
onto the hurt, the pain, and the disappointments of your past, it is difficult
for you to have a freedom mindset. Here’s where the act of forgiveness for yourself
emerges, and then forgiveness for others comes into play. Too often, you want to work at forgiving
others, while beating up on you. The bottom line is, everything starts with you
and ends with you, including forgiveness.
If you awake each and every
morning, or most mornings, while being a slave to negative thoughts, negative
emotions, negative actions, and negative conversations, your heart is in need
of a an emotional makeover. This emotional makeover helps you to cleanse and
remove the toxic emotions derived from your past and sometimes present
experiences. Start by letting go of your past and begin looking through the
windshield of your life, as you behold your bright future ahead of you. Only glance into the rearview mirror of your
life every now and then, to ensure that you have moved past the negative things,
negative people, negative situations, and negative circumstances, in order for
you to move forward. During your emotional makeover, you’ll also learn to let love
and positivity in, as you escort hate and negativity out. You’ll claim the
assets in life ad rid yourself of the liabilities…no matter who and what they
are!
As you have heard me state
on many occasions, your heart is too small to carry people in it. Although your
heart is not large enough for the negative stuff to abide, it is large enough
for love to take up all the space it needs. Now, I am not talking pie in the
sky, or some utopia, but I am talking about a state of independence, a freedom,
and a peace that is totally immeasurable when you have a heart filled with love,
for you and for others.
The processes of defining
love, assessing where you are with your love for yourself, forgiving yourself,
in preparation for forgiving others, is crucial to you moving to a place where you
can rid yourself of mess and stress. And I know you sometimes don’t believe you
can be without stress. However, it’s the mess that contributes to your stress.
Mess prohibits and blocks love, freedom, and independence. This includes messy
people, messy situations, and messy circumstances. When you let go of the mess,
it is easier for you to let love in!
The more you truly and
freely love you, you will recognize mess from a mile away. Mess is a threat to
your level of current and future levels of equilibrium. Love uncovers mess and
conquers stress! Love disrobes and pulls the cover from over the messy people,
the messy situations, and the messy circumstances of your life. Love becomes
the life shield for you to use to protect you from either gaining or maintaining
a slave mentality, on your journey of having to a freedom mindset.
It is past time for you to
use the action of love to free you and to help you to free others from the
chains of negativity, allowing you and others to have a freedom-centered mindset.
When you truly and freely love you, you give yourself permission to truly and
freely love others.
Your independence,
freedom, and safety start with the love within you, along with the love that
you share with others. Love is more powerful than any hatred or any violence
that can ever attack our country, our families, or other loved ones. When you
love you and love others unconditionally, freedom becomes your mantra, and
interdependence becomes the norm, rather than the exception. As a result, you will
live by love and stand on the premise of love, no matter what; recognizing that
LOVE IS! Now that’s something to
celebrate, not only on Independence Day, but three hundred and sixty-five days
a year!
No comments:
Post a Comment