Are You Free?

Hello, Hello, Hello Lovelies! 4th of July week-end is upon us may the bbqs and fireworks begin(for my international contingency the 4th of July is Independence Day in the United States)! This got me thinking about personal freedom and asking the question how many of us are really free? By freedom I mean what thought patterns, viewpoints and judgements have we fastened ourselves so tightly to at the cost of our freedom? Our freedom to realise our full potential. All of us are born into this world and then labelled. We are taught to identify with the labels put upon us so that most of us engage in life without ever considering how limited these labels make us. A few examples are : I'm too tall, I'm too short, this happens because I'm black, because I'm female, I'm the smart one, I'm the pretty one, having a big house means I've arrived, they live in this neighborhood so they must be.....I could go on and on and on. What happens is we start letting these labels define us, inform our actions and can lead to us into making judgement calls on others and ourselves. I'm not saying that you can't have your viewpoints in life. I'm a tall, black woman there is no too, if and or but to add to any of those adjectives that physically describe me. They are just physical descriptions. They do not fully describe me nor do they hinder, harm, hurt me unless I choose them to. Will there be people who choose to label, confine me and try to categorize me? Of course! But the choice and the power is mine whether I allow their viewpoints to stifle my life. And if I constantly have people around me defining me and limiting me aren't they just reflecting how I really feel about myself? You will always have views, opinions and judgements we're human beings, when you do have them take the time to check in. Are these thoughts really coming from you or from habit and what you've been told your limits are, what you believe your limits to be, are you just going through life on auto pilot, spirit checked out? A lot to to think about but this thought woke me up at 5:00 in the morning so I had to share. Am I free? hmmmmm........I've declared my freedom and pledged allegiance to myself but I'm working on it everyday. Have a great week-end! Be safe!