“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Our minds may fill with negativities, self-doubt and problems. But if we think for a moment, we can clearly understand those are self-made and none has a valid reason why it should be worrying us this much. It’s key to realize how to fix those that made you unhappy. It’s a simple task provided that we understand the problems and the cause of them. At the same time, the realization of life is key to getting over any issue that worries you unnecessarily.
Once you fix that issue you start to feel free and happy about yourself. Once you start to realize the issues that you were worrying about you’ll laugh at yourself knowing that they weren’t the issues that made you unhappy, but your thoughts that tweaked your thinking to negativity.
No one is their thoughts but the reactions to their thoughts. How you react to your thoughts defines you. It decides to make you happy or otherwise, positive or negative, happy or unhappy. True freedom comes with the control of your thoughts, and emotions.
Once you have that realization you start to think about how to act. How to respond to your thoughts and change the thoughts, soon negativity comes you can reverse it. Fill your mind with positive things. Your awareness of your thoughts is critical. Once the awareness comes you can tweak it. Inject or defuse some of the thoughts. It will liberate you. Free you from a trapped, strangled life to a free spacious life.
You have nothing to do with the external world but only deal with your inner world. As most of us do there’s no use in complaining about the way the world is. It’s always just the same. It’s easy to change yourself than the external world. Maybe once you correct your inner world, you may try to correct the outer world. Inner peace is about everything. It’s the cause of everything and none because of other reasons or our background and society. Peace and happiness are not coming from anywhere. It’s within you. You need to just explore it.
There were four simple steps on the Tiny Buddha blog that we thought were worth sharing with you. Just see these and figure out if this will help you find freedom and happiness.
01. 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, except that it is a reflection of their world and proof. 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? 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 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.
02. 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 everything 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 favourite mantra when the times are tough is “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!” Feeling gratitude for all things, at all times is incredibly freeing.
03. 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.
04. Practice forgiveness.
The powerful of the 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.
Once you read this you may learn four new ways to handle your emotions and thoughts. That leaves you with a moral responsibility to share it among your network, family and friends, so that they may realize some of the important things about handling thoughts better. May triple gem bless you!
