**to read**

“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Once upon a time my mind was filled with negative talk and self-doubt. Those thoughts were so loud I could not hear my authentic, true self shine through. On a deeper level, I knew she existed, but I didn’t how to get to a place in which I could connect to her.

I believed I would have to work at it, change myself, somehow be good enough so I can be free to be myself. I believed the key to happiness was figuring out how to “fix” everything that was wrong with me (and oh, was there a lot to fix).

If I fixed myself, then I could enjoy life and be that free woman I always envisioned myself to be. Little did I know the key to this freedom wasn’t fixing myself at all, but was realizing that the little voice coming up with all those things to fix was a big, fat liar!

The most profound and important realization I’ve ever had came from reading a little book called A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and was that I am not my thoughts, but the awareness behind them.

Wow. My true Self is the awareness behind my thoughts and she is always here! I have the power right now to choose from which place I act—what a magical concept!

I then started looking at all of the areas in my life in which I could inject a little space between my thoughts and my awareness. I examined where my thoughts made me feel stuck, trapped, or hopeless.

My outer world, like myself, wasn’t something that needed to be fixed, changed, or controlled so I could experience peace in the future. This outer reality was a direct reflection of my thoughts, and as they stayed rooted in negativity, so did my world.

True freedom doesn’t come in the future, from a situation, or “from” anything at all, but is within you right now.

The following are four ways you can shift your thoughts so you can feel freer, lighter, and happier in your life instantly.

1. Don’t take anything personally.

Nothing anybody says or does to you has anything to do with you. Each person’s opinion is solely the product of their own life and reality.

It’s hard to imagine this. It’s way easier to get offended, mad, or pissed off or to internalize and believe what they said. Rather than getting consumed by it, obsessed over it and letting it affect you, just let it go. Hear what they say, accept that it is a reflection of their world and poof. See the thought disappear.

This is also true when someone is giving you advice. Have you ever shared your biggest dream? The responses can be all over the place. One person may say, “Good luck with that, maybe you should come back to earth” while another may be all about it, “YES! Go for it!”

Does that mean the first person doesn’t believe in you? Absolutely not. It means (s)he doesn’t believe in himself. In other words, it is hard for that person to imagine your dream in his own realm of possibility.

When someone says something to you, whether it be an insult, piece of advice, or anything at all, connect back to your awareness. Only you can know what is true or not. By taking another person’s opinion of yourself to heart and choosing to believe it, you are doing yourself a huge injustice.

2. Don’t be a victim.

It’s easy to think that the world is against you. Have you ever had one of those days where everything goes wrong? It happens. There are things in our control and out of our control. You can’t control the world around you, but you can control how you react to things. Don’t fall into the downward spiral of the victim trap.

Embrace each and every thing that happens as an opportunity. When something “bad” happens ask, “What is the universe trying to tell me?”

Often it’s saying stop, slow down, and come back to the present before your life zips passed you. And if it’s not saying that, it’s saying something. So listen.

Accept situations as signs or opportunities, and remember that there is a purpose and a greater good to each. Look for the lesson rather than getting stuck in victim mode.

My new favorite mantra when the times are tough is “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!” Feeling gratitude for all things, at all times is incredibly freeing.

3. Be gentle, kind, and compassionate with yourself.

As the awareness behind your thoughts, acknowledge what you say about yourself. Are your thoughts kind? Or are you your own worst critic? When you look in the mirror, do you see pure beauty or do you pick yourself apart?

Imagine having a little person on your shoulder telling you horrible things about yourself all day long. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? How do you think that would affect your life? Well, that is what we’re doing to ourselves if we stay in a place of constant negative self talk.

Work on shifting your thoughts to ones that are more loving and kind. Every time you think something negative about yourself, replace it with a positive. Focus on the good things and give attention to your awesomeness. Eventually you will start believing them. Doing so allows you to have the freedom to just be you.

4. Practice forgiveness.

The powerful F word. Oprah said it best: “Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed.” Forgiveness isn’t about saying that whatever happened was okay, right, or just, but about letting it go.

Forgiving is releasing the power that a certain event has on you. By not forgiving you are keeping your mind in the past, thinking and wishing that things could have been different. This traps you and makes you feel powerless.

Forgiveness puts you back into the present—the only time that truly exists—where you have the power to live free and happy.

Next time you feel stuck, turn your awareness within. What do your thoughts look like? Allow your mind’s grip to release so the joy can flow in.

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/4-simple-steps-to-freedom/


“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” ~Cynthia Ozick

Here are 60 things to be grateful for in our lives:

1. Your parents - For giving birth to you. Because if there is no them, there will not be you.
2. Your family – For being your closest kin in the world
3. Your friends – For being your companions in life
4. Sense of sight – For letting you see the colors of life
5. Sense of hearing - For letting you hear trickle of rain, the voices of your loved ones, and the harmonious chords of music
6. Sense of touch - For letting you feel the texture of your clothes, the breeze of the wind, the hands of your loved ones
7. Sense of smell – For letting you smell scented candles, perfumes, and beautiful flowers in your garden
8. Sense of taste – For letting you savor the sweetness of fruits, the saltiness of seawater, the sourness of pickles, the bitterness of bitter gourd, and the spiciness of chilli
9. Your speech – For giving you the outlet to express yourself
10. Your heart – For pumping blood to all the parts of your body every second since you were born; for giving you the ability to feel
11. Your lungs – For letting you breathe so you can live
12. Your immune system – For fighting viruses that enter your body. For keeping you in the pink of your health so you can do the things you love.
13. Your hands – So you can type on your computer, flip the pages of books, and hold the hands of your loved ones
14. Your legs - For letting you walk, run, swim, play the sports you love, and curl up in the comfort of your seat
15. Your mind - For the ability to think, to store memories, and to create new solutions
16. Your good health – For enabling you to do what you want to do and for what you’re about to do in the future
17. Your school - For providing a environment conducive to learning and growing
18. Your teachers – For their dedication and for passing down knowledge to you
19. Tears – For helping you express your deepest emotions
20. Disappointment - So you know the things that matter to you most
21. Fears – So you know your opportunities for growth
22. Pain – For you to become a stronger person
23. Sadness – For you to appreciate the spectrum of human emotions
24. Happiness – For you to soak in the beauty of life
25. The Sun - For bringing in light and beauty to this world
26. Sunset – For a beautiful sight to end the day
27. Moon and Stars - For brightening up our night sky
28. Sunrise - For a beautiful sight to start the morning
29. Rain – For cooling you when it gets too warm and for making it comfy to sleep in on weekends
30. Snow – For making winter even more beautiful



31. Rainbows – For a beautiful sight to look forward to after rain
32. Oxygen - For making life possible
33. The earth – For creating the environment for life to begin
34. Mother nature - For covering our world in beauty
35. Animals – For adding to the diversity of life
36. Internet - For connecting you and me despite the physical space between us
37. Transport - For making it easier to commute from one place to another
38. Mobile phones – For making it easy to stay in touch with others
39. Computers – For making our lives more effective and efficient
40. Technology – For making impossible things possible
41. Movies – For providing a source of entertainment
42. Books – For adding wisdom into your life
43. Blogs – For connecting you with other like-minded people
44. Shoes – For protecting your feet when you are out
45. Time – For a system to organize yourself and keep track of activities
46. Your job – For giving you a source of living and for being a medium where you can add value to the world
47. Music - For lifting your spirits when you’re down and for filling your life with more love
48. Your bed - For you to sleep comfortably in every night
49. Your home - For a place you can call home
50. Your soul mate – For being the one who understands everything you’re going through
51. Your best friends – For being there for you whenever you need them
52. Your enemies – For helping you uncover your blind spots so you can become a better person
53. Kind strangers – For brightening up your days when you least expect it
54. Your mistakes - For helping you to improve and become better
55. Heartbreaks - For helping you mature and become a better person
56. Laughter - For serenading your life with joy
57. Love - For letting you feel what it means to truly be alive
58. Life’s challenges - For helping you grow and become who you are
59. Life - For giving you the chance to experience all that you’re experiencing, and will be experiencing in time to come

And last but not least… #60:

You.

For being who you are and touching the world with your presence. For being alive and reading this post. For giving me the chance to touch your life and fulfill my purpose to help others. You are the reason I live. Thank you.

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/60-things-to-be-grateful-for-in-life/