Happy July 4th- the day we celebrate our freedom and a day that you recognize your true freedom doesn’t come in the future, from a situation, from achieving a goal or “from” anything at all, but is within you right now. And, you can find it today by stopping taking everything so personally. 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. Today, you can experience more freedom by consciously stopping yourself from assuming the victim role. Instead embrace each and every thing that happens to you, good and bad, as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to experience more freedom. Today you can experience your true freedom by being compassionate, kind and understanding of yourself. Today, focus on the good things and give yourself some credit for how far you have come and how much you have grown. Finally on this fourth of July, practice forgiveness for yourself and others. Forgiving is releasing the power that a certain event has over 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 and keeps you in the prison of your own thoughts. Forgiveness puts you back into the present—the only time that truly exists—where you have the power to live free and happy. Today consciously free your mind and the rest will follow.

Just for today, I give myself the gift of freedom from the past and move with joy into the now. I forgive everyone in my life. I release them with love. They are now free and I am now free to move one with love in my heart. I free myself from all destructive fears and doubts. I am free to be who I am. I am safe and everything is always working out for my highest good. And so it is.