This upcoming Independence Day, free yourself!
Every 12th of June, in the Philippines, we celebrate Independence Day. It is a way of commemorating the day we become free after the 333-long agonizing years of occupancy by the Spaniards. And on this very same day, the Filipino people witnessed the formal presentation of the Philippine Flag. This also marks the day the national anthem was first played for the public to hear. With that, the anthem’s beautiful melody ignited the people’s patriotic fervor, even without its lyrics.
In short, this special day marks the sovereignty the Filipino people fought hard for themselves and the country. We enjoy the free lives we spent from day to day thanks to the patriotic movements that took place in our history.
Free ourselves too, as we should!
Do you also feel that your life does not go exactly the way you expected it to be? Or like your emotions completely taking over you, making you feel estranged from yourself? Worry not, for I feel the same, and so do the others. Because of the high expectations we and others set for ourselves, we feel burdened. With the things society dictates on what to do, we just blindly comply. And with that, great pressure starts to build from within us, directly affecting our way of thinking. And little do we know, it then starts to affect our way of living. Just like a cycle, this happens over and over again. Until one day, we just find ourselves stuck in complete desolation.
But before we get stuck in that miserable loop, we must free ourselves from the very start. And identifying the things that cage and prevent us in improving is the very first step to consider.
Free from what, exactly?
We should begin to work on ourselves, first. As they say, happiness often comes from within. But the things that often hold us back from becoming happy also come from us. Thus, we need to learn how to deal with negative thoughts and try to live life in peace. In doing so, we conquer negative thinking by owning our worries, and by challenging them.
Also, we need to learn how to deal with our excess baggage, if ever there are some. Because these do not only perpetuate our suffering from within, but also reflect on our way of living. By dealing with these properly, we lessen the burden we feel and relieve us from suffering more.
Lastly, we need to free ourselves from what society dictates us to do. We often limit ourselves as we comply with what we are only taught to behave in certain situations. That alone is a manifestation of entrapment to societal pressures. We need not always follow what they say for we have our own discretion, our own thinking. The only thing we need to consider is not stepping on anyone else’s.
To be happy, we need to be free. And freeing ourselves from what delimits our capabilities as humans should give us the independence we deserve. We are our own masters in life, and no one else should ever take it away from us. Remember, To each his own!
