Category: freedom

freedom · gratitude

Ultimate Freedom

Joanne2 Comments

Today’s post will be a quick one, basically to keep my commitment to NaBloPoMo and postaday2011.

Not that I have nothing to say…there is always something to say!

It is 8pm on Friday night as I write this. And I’m alone.

Not lonely; but alone.

I feel like a real grown up!

I’ve had the house to myself all day and will be alone all night as well. My family all have places to go and people to see.

This is the first night I have spent alone in the last…um…over twenty five years!

So this is big!

I’ll fill you in on the details tomorrow.

I’m savouring every single moment of this serenity.

For now, I’m going to make the dinner of my choice, watch the television shows of my choice, go to bed in my own good time and wake up tomorrow when I feel like it.

Oh, the freedom of it all! 🙂

freedom · gratitude

Looking Inside the Mind of an Optimist

Joanne2 Comments

“Never mention the worst. Drop it out of your consciousness. This practice will bring all of your powers to focus on the attainment of the best. It will bring the best to you”. ~ Norman Vincent Peale.

2011 is the first year in which I have actually gone out and purchased a Gratitude Diary and started to make use of it immediately.

You see, it’s all a part of my master plan. I have chosen my word for the year, for the theme which I have chosen to live by throughout all of this year.

My chosen word is “Freedom” and a main aspect of my theme that I am aiming to achieve is freedom from unwanted thoughts.

I love the word “Freedom”. It encompasses such a wide range of aspects, all relevant to the ultimate achievement of my goal to attain freedom.

Like all new habits, banishing unwanted thoughts from your mind takes time. I know that is true for me. The easiest thing to do, and the biggest mistake to make, is to allow your thoughts to wander off, unchecked, when you are wishing to form your new habit!

Reining in your thoughts could be likened to beginning a healthy eating plan, or a new exercise regime. Old habits have a happy knack of dying hard.

But anything worthwhile is worth sticking to and before long a whole new series of habits have taken the place of the old ones.

Another point I will be paying particular attention to is, as Norman Vincent Peale says in the above quote, “never mention the worst”.

If mention of the unwanted must be made, I have discovered through many years of practise that your statement can be turned around, from the negative to the positive.

It’s the old scenario of not saying that your glass is half empty, but rather your glass is half full!

Example : You could complain about not having any room in your cupboards, due to having too much unwanted “stuff” stashed away inside of them….OR….

You could tell the story of how much pleasure you will feel when you have discarded all of your unwanted possessions, leaving you with available space inside the cupboards.

It’s a subtle difference and it can change your whole mindset, by focussing on the positive scenario.

That’s where a Gratitude Diary can make a huge difference to your life, forcing your thoughts into a state of appreciation, hence forming a whole new habit, for you to easily live by.

I’m a firm believer that regardless of how dreadful any situation may appear to be, especially when it has just occurred and feelings are raw, there is always a reason for the event taking place.

Sometimes it may take a little bit of deeper delving into a situation, to discover the message the Universe is sending. Don’t give up ~ search hard enough and you will find your answers.

Stay optimistic, show appreciation and the best will find you. 🙂

Footnote : Today I can celebrate, as this is my one hundredth post here at Home Life Online; Everyday Inspirations.

Today, I am grateful for having come up with 100 ideas for topics to write about!   Jo.

freedom · gratitude

My Year of Freedom and Gratitude

Joanne4 Comments

“To be grateful for “what is” has been my personal path to freedom. When I stop to allow and fully accept the reality of this current moment ~ NOW ~ a calmness and centeredness is revealed and available to me.” ~ Morthern Spears

Over the past few days I have read a lot about choosing a personal theme for this year; finding a word, or perhaps a phrase, which you can focus on throughout the year.

I suppose another way of putting it is to say your word should represent something you would like to achieve this year, something you hold dear to your heart.

Your word should represent the change and improvement you would like to achieve for yourself during 2011.

After much contemplation, I have decided that my own personal theme for this year will be “freedom”.

I must admit that freedom actually became my focus during the latter half of last year. In fact, when I contribute articles to the Calm Space, they are listed under “Freedom Space”. It therefore seems most fitting that I make it my year to have freedom uppermost in my mind, as I travel through this year.

There is so much more freedom to be achieved.

One of my main focuses in my quest for freedom is to live in the moment, therefore…

I choose to freely cut the strings that have tied me to past habits I have formed in my life.

With faith in the future, knowing that events will unfold around me in just the way they are meant to unfold, I need never worry myself about the future.

My focus will be trained upon the here and now, savouring the reality of the current moment as each new and wonderful event reveals itself to me.

And, most importantly, keeping my eyes wide open, I will show gratitude for all of the Everyday Inspirations I find in my life, recording their appearance to me in my Gratitude Diary.

I give myself permission to live a life embraced by freedom.

What about you? Have you given any thought to how you would like 2011 to unfold?

It’s not too late to forget the past, let the future take care of itself and centre your thoughts in the moment. Listen to your heart. What is it saying to you? Listen carefully, as your heart will speak to you, letting you know what it is you most desire from this year….from life.

basics · Changes · freedom · knowledge

Sense and Sensibility ~ Part 2

Joanne5 Comments

Life is the ultimate teacher.

You may or may not agree with my statement, that is your choice. We all choose our own truths, whatever is the right thing for each of us, as we carry on our existence, safely wrapped within the cocoon of our own realities.

My heart knows it to be true, my heart has chosen this particular truth for me, and my heart never leads me astray.

Sensibility reigns supreme within my life. Sensibility has my ultimate approval. And life has taught me the lessons with which I have reached my conclusion.

Over the last three years, during a crash course on reality, and life, and learning for myself the realities of my own life, I am often reminded of the time-proven adages, those little snippets of wisdom shared with us by the seniors of our society, words loosely thrown our way during times of need…

Gems such as ~

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Actions speak louder than words.

The simple things in life are often the best.

A penny saved is a penny earned….And…

A leopard never changes its spots.

What is right for one man’s life can be totally wrong in another’s. We must seek, find and stay true to our own truths, our own heart. We must heed the silent words seeped to us through our souls.

No man holds the right to change another, we are who we are. If we attempt to change another person to suit our own selfish needs, transforming them into something that they are not, or should another endeavour to attempt this task on us, there is only one ultimate possible outcome ~ a bucket load of lies. Make that a truck load. We are who we are…End of Story.

Pretty words, whispered lyrically into the dainty pink ear of an eager receiver won’t mean squat if the appropriate actions do not coincide with these words. You may as well wrap the empty words back up into the pretty little box from whence they came, tie the flimsy bow back around the box and toss them away as far as you can, preferably with their shallow creator. Who wants to live a lie? Listen to your heart…it hears the spoken words of truths and sees the actions performed in the name of honesty.

Do you remember the last time you were overwhelmed by such happiness that you felt your heart swell and your soul sing? Over the last three years, much to my amazement, I have re-discovered that wonderful feeling of light-headed, giddy happiness in some of the most unlikely places…

  • In the fragrance of a flower.
  • The sound of a buzzing bee.
  • In the blueness of the sky on a perfectly clear day.
  • And the shape and colours of a storm cloud.
  • A perfectly formed rainbow after a sudden storm.
  • My cats rumbling purring sounds.
  • Listening to the crystal clear harmonies of the voice of a famous singer.

This short list hardly does justice to the moments of happiness I have experienced during the past three years, but they all have one thing in common ~ not one of these magical moments has cost me a cent. They are free. They are the simple pleasures of life. And they mean the most to me.

I don’t need diamonds. I have no use for a fancy car. I can only wear one outfit of clothes at a time. And I only have one pair of feet on which to wear one pair of shoes each day. A minimalistic life saves money for sure. But oh, how much deeper the pleasure reaches, as it frees your soul and lightens your heart, when the need of the burden of multiple possessions no longer exists!

We are never too old to learn. I believe that yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks! (And yes, my heart told me that as well.)

The ultimate gift for me has been learning to listen to my heart and following my instincts (again), going back to writing (again) and becoming who I really am (yes…again).

Dropping the barriers and cutting the pretence can be, surprisingly, a real eye opener, for you may just find, hidden beneath all of those carefully laid layers of trying to be the person you think you should be, resides the person who you really are…

And the biggest surprise may come when you actually recognise an old childhood friend, the one who used to look back at you from the mirror each day. It may just be the child-who-you-once-were, from many years ago, when your heart reigned supreme and honesty was your middle name.

The packaging may have aged a tad, but take the time to peel back the layers of time, and take a peek inside. See for yourself if the leopard’s spots are, in fact, familiar to you.

“Just be yourself; everyone else is taken” ~ Oscar Wilde.

advice · challenges · Changes · freedom · gratitude · happiness · inspiration · vision

Sense and Sensibility ~ Part 1

Joanne4 Comments

After my husband and I first met, it didn’t take us too long to realise one striking difference between the way we each looked at life ~ which was…

His head ruled his heart,

while,

My heart ruled my head.

Over time, and convinced of the (false) belief that I would please those close to me, and most of all my husband, I made the effort to kiss my airy-fairy ways goodbye, lock away my gut-instincts, hunches and intuition and throw away the key.

“Reason” became my middle name. Everything simply had to be well thought through, the pro’s and con’s weighed up and carefully balanced, in fact, every action I took must have a reason for it, before being given the honour of materialising.

My newly found practicality, along with my down to earth attitude and conservative manner would bring beams of pride to all of those people who I held in high regard. Yes, it would…

Surely it would…It would, wouldn’t it?

Well, of course it did!

With my newly developed maturity and common sense, a certain standard was expected of me. And I aimed to please.

But every now and then, rarely actually, but just occasionally, I would make contact with kindred spirit, a dreamer of the highest standard, a gut-reactor who thought nothing of throwing caution to the wind. I would scramble around to find that discarded key, unlock my soul, and off I would go, reverting back to my flippant ways of times gone by.

It was during these so-called “moments of madness” that I would feel free and alive again, finding the strength again to move mountains and swim across the oceans. And all because my intuition told me so.

After much tut-tutting from those-who-knew-what-was-best-for-me, (and plenty of pouting on my part), I would make my return to the Land of Common Sense, unlocking the gates of wisdom with my reliable Key of Reason.

Did I manage to retain the stamp of approval, kindly bestowed on me by those who I held in high regard? Yes, I did. Everyone approved.

Everyone…except for me.

For many years I continued with this masquerade, pleasing the multitudes, whilst never pleasing myself. Saying yes, when I secretly held back the urge to say no.

Who knew I was living a lie, a life ruled by other people’s standards? No one. ‘Coz I always found a way to enjoy life, look on the positive side of every situation, skilfully navigating my way around the obstacles.

I didn’t just fool the people in my life; I was also fooling myself, by being something that I wasn’t.

Then something changed. That “something” changed absolutely everything. Hot on the tail of being “Ms Fix-It”, “The Whipping Post” and “Communal Door Mat”, I walked away, never to return. I turned my back on it all.

I came home, but not just home to my house, I came home to me.

My instincts had been screaming out to me, telling me that the place I went to every morning to work, where we (my husband and I) each operated our separate businesses from, was not the place where I should be spending my days.

While I had my own business and my husband an entirely different business, which we had worked at from the same premises for a number of years, the two businesses constantly overlapped. He made decisions and choices for my business and I always managed to get dragged, (screaming and kicking, I will add!) into his.

Packing up my bare essentials and moving my business home was a blessing to me. Throwing caution to the wind worked well for me. No amount of coercing changed my mind. With my heart back where it belonged, in its rightful place as The Guide to My Life, I have come of age.

Did I upset anyone by taking such a strong stance for my life? You betcha I did!

Was I ever swayed back into pleasing everyone but me? Never.

Did I care? Honestly ~ No.

Over the last three years my life has evolved into what I want it to be. New lessons have appeared in the most unexpected of places.

And all of these unexpected places have been cleverly disguised as The Simple Things in Life.

(Photo credit ~ alwayschallengeunhappiness.blogspot.com)