To read our August Newsletter with articles on "The First Step to Freedom", "What you Focus on Grows" and loads of other inspiration, click here.

The first step to freedom is to recognize that you’re already free. The only thing that stops you from being free is your fear. And we all have our fears. We fear to say what we need to say, we fear to feel what is already there inside us, we fear to feel the fear itself.  Its like a merry go round that we’ve already jumped on and we don’t even realise we’re on it ! The great Meister Eckhart said very beautifully, "God is not attained by a process of addition to anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction." You don't do anything to be free, you drop something. Then you're free.
 There’s a story told of  an Irish prisoner called Mick who dug a tunnel under the prison wall and managed to escape. He comes out right in the middle of a school playground where little children are playing. Of course, when Mick emerges from the tunnel he can't restrain himself anymore and begins to jump up and down, crying, "I'm free, I'm free, I'm free! A little girl there looks at him scornfully and says, "That's nothing. I'm four." 

We’ve forgotten our true nature - it’s such a small thing and yet it’s such a huge thing.Perhaps its time to embrace the truth that its only you, your own fears, your own beliefs, that keep you from being free. So take out a pen some day and jot down three things that keep you from being free. What might they be ?  Have a look at them and challenge the thought patterns behind them – you’ll find they’re based on fear.

And if you think that circumstances need to change first, or the other person needs to change first - then you’re not understanding. We’re already free. I recognized that many years ago when I found myself blaming others for my experience of life. Its like the guy who visits the doctor and tells him what he is suffering from. The doctor says, "Ok dok, I've understood your symptoms. Do you know what I will do? I will prescribe a medicine for your wife !" The guy replies, "Thank you very much, Doctor, that makes me feel much better."

Isn't that absurd? But that's the way I used to think and for most of us, its hiow we do think. We always thinks we'll feel better if somebody else changes. We're suffering because we’re asleep and unaware, but we're thinking, "How wonderful life would be if somebody else would change; how wonderful life would be if my husband changed, if my wife changed, if my boss changed, if my circumstances changed." We always want something or someone else to change so that we will feel good. But hang on a second - even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You're just as vulnerable as before; you're just as unaware as before; you're just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, "I feel good because the world is right." Wrong! The world is right because I am free to feel good

WHAT YOU FOCUS ON GROWS

By Jenny Grainger

Have you ever started to think about something you are not happy with only to find that it seems to get worse and worse the more you think about it?  For example, you might have some debt and the more you think about the debt the more stressed and anxious you become.  I used to worry myself sick about money because I was constantly focusing on the debt.  The more I focused on it, the more debt I accrued and the more I worried about it.  Now I have a wonderful habit of writing down every single penny of income that comes to me each day and expressing gratitude for it.  And, guess what?  This simple act of refocusing my mind has attracted  constantly increasing income streams to me.

I’m sure we have all been stuck in a traffic jam when we are in a rush to get somewhere.  We focus on the clock ticking.  We focus on the traffic not moving.  We focus on being late.  We get more and more stressed about a situation which we have absolutely no control over.  Next time you find yourself stuck in traffic, why not see if you can shift your focus away from the stress to something completely different.  For instance, you might take a few deep breaths and realise that you have some unexpected ‘me time’ in which you can relax and experience a bit of peace or you might use the extra time to listen to an uplifting CD or visualise one of your desires manifesting.  Why not use the time to focus on something which you really want to see growing, rather than what you don’t want to grow?

We all have the ability to refocus our thoughts.  You are no different from me in that respect.  The