Jim's Secret Thoughts

Do you have personal freedom? Do you consider yourself to be free? Are you free to choose in matters of health? Do you choose what you do with your time? Do you decide how to spend your money? Have you chosen the things you believe in?

My guess is that you want to say “yes” to these questions, but you are actually answering “no”. Why is this? Because institutions are deciding these answers for us. Yes it’s true! In all four of these areas of your life you have not and do not choose. You disagree? Let us explore.

When it comes to your health are you choosing what you put into your body or are you allowing the media, the supermarkets and even your family determine what you eat, or allowing your doctor decide what medications you should be taking? How many of those choices have you truly made yourself. In most cases I am sure you would agree you have taken the common route, the path of least resistance, and allowed society to tell you what to eat and what to do when you get a headache. And most likely if you were eating healthier you would not be having any headaches in the first place.

Making your own conscious choices about what you put into your body can have a positive affect on your health. Observe your body. How does it react and feel after certain foods? Avoid those foods that leave you feeling slack and without energy and choose the food that makes you feel good an hour after you eat it.

What about your time? Are you the master of your own time? Or are you the slave of circumstances and habit? How often do we conform to what others want just to keep the peace? It’s bad enough having an employer where we give our time for the money we earn, but what about the rest of our time? How much time do you take for yourself? It is important to pursue your own desires and dreams and satisfy your own pleasures. This is not to say you ought to ignore everyone else around you, particularly those depending on you. But it is important to get a balance and have time that is only for you.

I bet you think you have control of your money. Well apart from taxes (we’ll leave that one as we all enjoy the benefits of roads, transport and trade etc.) how much of your hard earned money do you spend voluntarily on things you actually want or need? Observe again how often you will buy something because the advertisement appealed to you, or the display in the store attracted you, or even because your friend said this is a must. After you buy it you wonder why or it lies around unused. How much food do you throw away becuase you fell for the big sales and specials and ended up buying much too much food?

So are you really in control of your money? Is your money serving you as it ought to? Are you treating your money with respect, because if you do it will return to you. Setting money aside for later is a big plus and a must. Small amounts mount up and you will be grateful for that years from now. I’m not saying to spend sparingly, that could stifle the flow, but spend wisely, and most of all, make your own choices.

One more thing – have you chosen what you believe in? Now when it comes to religious belief the answer is most likely not. You have accepted the beliefs handed down to you. The same is true about how you are currently looking at life, you got educated and got a job and pay into your pension fund because that’s what you were taught and what you subsequently believe in. But these things are nothing more than belief systems passed down to us. But are they the right things and are they serving us today? We need to take a close look at why we believe things and why we do things in certain ways today. Could it be that you are not meeting with success and not fulfilling your dreams because of restricting and limiting beliefs from the past?

We need to take control of our beliefs and choose what is beneficial and profitable for life and discard all that isn’t.

So are you free? Or do you need to make a few adjustments. Remember, everyone around faces the same challenge, so be gentle.