Happy Fourth of July
How Free Are You Feeling in Your Own Life?
On this special day of freedom and independence, I want to wish everyone a very Happy Fourth of July. Amidst the barbeques, parties, celebrations and fireworks, I want to encourage you to think about your own personal freedom and what it means to you. Are you feeling free and liberated or are you feeling trapped and bogged down by circumstances that don’t feel good to you?
Amidst the barbeques, parties, celebrations and fireworks, I want to encourage you to think about your own personal freedom and what it means to you. Photo by Kip Plantt from www.freeimages.com.
As July 4, 2017 approached, I thought about so many people who do not feel free. There are people in countries all around the world whose freedoms are compromised or shut down. There are also people in every country who feel bound in relationships that aren’t working for them and that are stifling their growth and joy or in jobs that are depleting their spirit, vitality and creativity. For others, a lack of abundance, financial and otherwise, can feel like a kind of imprisonment.
On this Fourth of July, I encourage you to not only celebrate and have fun, but to look inward and see how truly free you really feel in your life. You might want to make a list of areas in your life that feel so free and unfettered and that allow you to expand, enjoy and blossom.
You can gauge how free you are by how you feel and what emotions come up. Are they ones of joy, expansion and fun? You can also create another list of ways in which you don’t feel free, in areas where you might feel boxed in and shut down. It might be in a job, a specific relationship or in your own freedom of expression.
It’s interesting that true freedom begins to happen first on a vibrational level, as does everything else that manifests into form here on this physical plane.
So if you are feeling closed in and as though your wings have been clipped and you do not feel as though you are able to soar and fly freely in your life, there are steps you can begin taking to reclaim your sense of freedom.
Are you soaring high and free or do you feel as though your wings have been clipped? Photo by Vivek Chugh from www.freeimages.com.
I loved to watch when Marcel Marceau, the French mime who died in September 2007 at the age of 84, pretended he was in a glass box, using his hands to show that no matter where he touched, there seemed to be no way out. I think people enjoyed his signature pantomime so much because it resonated so deeply with the human soul. All of us at some time in our lives have felt as though we had lost our freedom and were trapped with no way out.
Freedom can actually be just a thought away. The collective consciousness called Abraham that channels the wisdom of Source through Esther Hicks often affirms that our thoughts create our reality. Whatever we are focusing on, either positive or negative, expands because that is the way the Law of Attraction works. For Independence Day, I have selected some YouTube excerpts from Abraham, talking about freedom. I highly recommend listening to Abraham’s “Rampage on Freedom.” Here are the YouTube links that are part of my July 4th gift to you:
In his seminal book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychologist and neurologist and survivor of four concentration camps during the Holocaust, writes:
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” He also affirms, “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.
Are you longing for more freedom and seeking to let more light into your thoughts and life? Photo by Alexander Abolinsh from www.freeimages.com.
It seems that our thoughts are what can imprison us most and they are also the jailers that can set us free. This week I attended the San Diego Fair for the first time at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in California. I had never been to a fair this size and was looking forward to it. My husband and I arrived at about 3 p.m. on one of the final days of the fair. There were incredible numbers of people attending at that time too, so we had to wait in traffic to get in and park very far away from the entrance.
We had no idea how truly huge the venue and event were, and felt like lost children, walking through a maze. As we walked around the fair, even though we had a map of it, we felt a little like Hansel and Gretel, getting lost in the forest. We didn’t know how we were going to find our way back to the parking lot.
Wandering around the San Diego Fair, we saw many interesting exhibits and sculptures like the one pictured above from the time of the California Gold Rush, but we had no idea where we were or how we would return to the parking lot. Photo by Donna El Haber, 2017. All rights reserved.
Wherever I went and wherever I looked, there seemed to be some kind of restriction and constriction at the San Diego Fair. Photo by Donna El Haber, 2017. All rights reserved.
There were people everywhere and few places to rest or sit. And in a central area where the food vendors were, it was so crowded that it was difficult to walk. I had wanted to see some animals, but saw only ponies taking children for rides over and over again tail to nose in a very small circle, a sight that saddened me and further depleted my spirit. Then we wandered into a building where many steers were tied up in pens, some waiting to be sold. And their fate and loss of freedom and the depressed expressions on so many of their faces made my heart even sadder. Wherever I went and wherever I looked, there seemed to be some kind of restriction and constriction.
So on that beautiful day where the sun was shining and some breezes blowing, out with my husband at this huge event with so much to see and do, was I feeling free? No, rather I was feeling like a prisoner who was hungry, thirsty and tired.
My anxiety levels were escalating as my mood was descending when my husband, who knows me so well, intervened. He began making jokes and talking about this day as an adventure, gently rubbing my back or holding my hand as we walked. My thoughts and responses to what I saw were imprisoning me and preventing me from having the best time I might have had under the circumstances. We later realized that neither of us likes being in crowds and that fairs, especially ones of this size, are really not the right kind of venue for us.
When we shifted and decided, as my husband shared, to “just go with the flow,” we saw a flower show exhibition, a wonderful art and photography exhibition, and a building devoted to precious gems and minerals. There was so much that we didn’t get to experience and see, but at least we had shifted enough to open to some positive experiences there. When we got to our car, transported by one of the fair’s trolleys, we were relieved and looking forward to eating out.
Ironically a beautiful sculpture called “Freedom” by Julia Rasor was among the art work we saw at the fair’s art and photo gallery. Photo by Donna El Haber, 2017. All rights reserved.
Unfortunately because so many other people were leaving as well, it took us more than 1.5 hours to leave Del Mar. My husband took a wrong turn that turned out to be the right one, leading us away from the area. We had a view of the fair, with its sea of parked cars and its spinning rides fading in the distance on our right as a view of the beautiful ocean greeted us on the left side. As we were driving, I took photos of the fair to our right and the expansive ocean to our left.
As we finally made it out of some terrible traffic, the fair began to fade into the distance as…
…the beautiful and vast ocean greeted us on our right side. Photos by Donna El Haber, 2017. All rights reserved.
It reminded me of the contrast of constriction and expansion, where we choose to look and what we choose to think. Even in the car, when I became grumpy again while stalled in traffic, I had the choice to think otherwise and make better use of the precious time with my husband. I had much to be grateful for, including some lessons that came up for me to share with you today.
In Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” Prince Hamlet tells his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that Denmark is like a prison for him. When they tell him they don’t think Denmark is a prison, Hamlet says:
“Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.”
He affirms that it is our thoughts and feelings that paint the picture of our world.
Nisroc, the Angel of Freedom, is part of the band of angels that helps oversee my work with people and pets. He also helped me create the seven sacred steps in my “Break Through to Break Free Process™” that enables clients to move beyond their blind spots, illusions and past limiting beliefs to a more open and expanded vision of their lives that includes health, joy, love and abundance.
In 2015, I did Nisroc’s Freedom Sacrament for my husband. At the beginning, I share what Nisroc’s message says in Rev. Dr. Kimberly Marooney’s “Angel Blessings: Cards of Sacred Guidance and Inspiration.” Sharbel has given me permission to share the beginning segment of his Freedom Sacrament. It is his gift to you on Independence Day. You can access it by clicking on the audio player below:
You can also read Nisroc’s message on my website and see the picture detailing my “Break Through to Break Free Process™”. I invite you to also watch a video on the same page where I talk about the process and how it works.
So many spiritual teachers affirm the importance of our thoughts, feelings and intentions. Our thoughts can imprison us or set us free. Whichever way we choose to think, the Universe will send us more of what we are thinking about. If you are feeling angry and bitter, it’s likely that the Universe will send you more lessons and experiences to feel angry and bitter about. If you are grateful and seeing your glass as half-full, the Universe will oblige and send you more to be grateful for and continue to fill your glass with positive experiences and expectations.
Because all creation begins on a vibrational level and because thoughts and ideas turn to actual things in our world, it is so important for us to shift our thoughts to the positive whenever we can and decide to feel good, and to be happy and grateful no matter where we are or what is going on around us. It is, of course, not easy. But it is important for us to know the workings of the Law of Attraction so we can be favorably aligned with its principles.
Two ways to help shift your mood are to meditate and listen to music. Dancing and singing are two other ways. For you, it might be running or painting or being out in nature. Whatever works for you, when you feel your mood shifting to the negative, see if you can turn it around by reading, writing, singing, dancing and listening to music or by meditating or just by doing whatever will help you feel better.
I found a page of short guided meditations on Deepak Chopra’s website that you can access here. Among them are healing, gratitude and empowerment meditations.
Perhaps you might also enjoy listening to some songs about freedom on this holiday to inspire you to find ways to expand your sense of freedom. You can access a playlist of songs about freedom here. Here is another list of top ranked songs about freedom that has links to listen to some of the songs.
You can also spend some time journaling about how you feel about freedom and what it means to you. You can explore ways in which you are currently free and expansive and come up with some ideas about how you can break whatever bonds you think are holding you back to become even freer in the future.
In addition to setting some intentions to shift your thoughts, you can also call upon the Angel Nisroc for help and guidance to free you from any prisons you feel you are in. You can also call upon Metatron, the Angel of Thought, to help you shift your thoughts.
If you are guided, you might also want to check out my packages for people to see if my “Break Through to Break Free Process™” can help you in any way. I also invite you to set up a free half-hour chat with me to see if I can help in any way. Just click here to book your free get-acquainted session.
My mother Ginger, pictured here at a dog show with my dog Harry’s mother, Gracie, counseled me to take vacations from worry. Photo by Donna El Haber, 2007. All rights reserved.
When my mother was alive and I was her caregiver, she would often counsel me to “take a vacation from worry.” I shared this in my Mother’s Day blog about her. No matter what troubling issues were happening, usually around our birthdays in the month of August, she would say that we should go on a mental vacation as though all were well. Whatever unpleasant thoughts and worries we had should be put aside until our vacation was over. In her own way, she understood how powerful our thoughts are and how they work to create our realities. She was like Nisroc, helping free me from negative thinking. We all need to practice doing this for ourselves whenever we can because thoughts always turn to things.
In the beginning of a poem by Rumi called, “An Understanding of the Question,” he writes:
“Why doesn’t a soul fly when it hears the call?
Fish on the beach always move toward wave-sound.A falcon hears the drum and brings the quarry home.
Why isn’t every dervish dancing in the sun?You have escaped the cage. Your wings
are stretched out. Now fly.”
Filmmaker George Lucas has said, “We are all living in cages with the door wide open.”
Imagine that Nisroc has come to fling the doors of your cage wide open. You can stretch your wings out fully now. What are your plans now that you are free and where will you be flying?
Wishing you and your family a very happy and healthy Fourth of July…
As always, I wish you love, healing and miracles, and the freedom to fly and enjoy your life to its fullest.
With gratitude, love and light,
Rev. Donna
Click on the play button below to listen to this podcast.
Let's Chat to See If I Can Help!
Let's Chat to See If I Can Help!
Leave A Comment