Jennifer Hoffman – Hi everyone and happy Independence Day to my US readers. It’s a day when people across the country wave our flag, get together with family and friends, watch parades and attend festivals, fire up the barbecue, and end the day with huge fireworks displays. We celebrate an event that happened 242 years ago, when the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.
Now we tend to forget what a serious undertaking that was then. All of those men, and everyone who worked with them, were guilty of treason against the British crown. And if the war had not been won by the Americans, all would have been hanged, their families imprisoned or killed, and their assets seized by the crown.
These early patriots wanted freedom from British rule, including unfair taxation, lack of representative government, and no individual personal freedoms. They wanted this for themselves and for all of the colonists and were willing to put everything on the line to achieve it.
Fast forward to today and we have freedoms in the US that we take for granted, ignoring the tough fight that was fought many decades ago to secure them. We have freedom of speech, expression, religion, and to ‘keep and bear arms’, part of our cherished Bill of Rights. We have the freedom to travel where we want, to start a business or get a job, to achieve any heights of fame and fortune we want to achieve, as long as we’re willing to put forth the effort to make it happen.
Not a lot holds us back from becoming what we want to be except our beliefs and often, as I find with clients, the lack of a grounded definition of what freedom means to us individually.
For example, when someone says to me “I want to be successful” the first thing I ask them is to define that concept very clearly. What does ‘success’ mean to them? It has to mean something to them in order to be valid and obtainable. The outcome has to be clear before they can chart the course to it.
What does freedom mean to you?
What would your life look like if you had freedom or if you believed that you were free?
What would you be free from?
What would you be free to do?
Being free and having freedom takes an enormous amount of courage because when we are truly ‘free’ we are not subject to the criticisms, judgments, or demands of others.
We acknowledge that they are entitled to having an opinion but we are not going to be influenced by it. It takes courage to establish the strong energy boundaries that free us from our own desire to be valued, liked, loved, and accepted by others.
It takes courage to build the self esteem that allows us to acknowledge our individual personal freedoms without responding to someone’s demands that we adjust our light and energy to accommodate their needs.
It takes courage to face our own brilliance, genius, strength, and light and not feel overshadowed by it.
Finally, it takes courage to establish the ‘ground rules’ for our life and relationships and defend them against those who find them inconvenient or unnecessary.
On the day we celebrate freedom in the US, we can all look at what freedom means to us and how we define it. Then put that into action so you have the energy boundaries to manage your energy in- and out-flows, as well as who is part of your reality. When it comes to relationships ‘you are the prize’, so set your energy boundaries, define your version of freedom, and remember to receive the blessings you intend for yourself.
Many bright blessings to each of you,
Copyright (c) 2018 by Jennifer Hoffman. All rights reserved.
SF Source Enlightening Life Jul 2018