Today I wanted to ask myself and encourage each and every one of you to ask yourself, who’s holding you back?

• Who’s holding you back from you dreams?
• Who’s holding you back from happiness?
• Who’s holding you back from doing what you love?
• Who’s holding you back from being a light unto others?
• Who’s holding you back from being your best self?
• Who’s holding you back from a healthy lifestyle?
• Who’s holding you back from abundance?
• Who’s holding you back from being kind to others, yourself and our planet?
• Who’s holding you back from the life that you want to live?
• Who’s holding you back from freedom?

If we are living in the past, it is easy to find someone to blame. We could blame our upbringing, family, friends or others from the past who have said or done something to us that we have not forgiven or forgotten and that we are allowing to create who we are today. That is just all too easy to do and you know that you have done this at least once in your life or in one area of your life. Perhaps you are still doing it today. Perhaps you feel that there is someone to blame for the person who you are today if you are unsatisfied with yourself and the way your life is at the present moment. I’ll admit that I have done this, do this sometimes and could easily do it more often if I wanted to. It is easy and is better than actually admitting the truth about why we don’t really go ahead and make a change in our lives.

If we look to the future, we could imagine all of the reasons why our dreams can’t come true, why we could never make a lifestyle change, why we couldn’t try and leave a lighter footprint or eat a kinder diet, why we shouldn’t even try because something might happen or someone might think of us differently if we ever made the changes to our lives that we want to. There is often fear and uncertainty of the future preventing us from being what we really truly want to be and living a life that we really truly want to live. So many “buts”, “what ifs” and “mights” that get in our way. Imaginary scenarios that we picture happening to us if we dared to ever try being any different than the person that we are right now, even if we know that who we are right now could be a whole heck of a lot better! Perhaps we could be healthier or happier or more grateful, kind, loving, forgiving and hopeful. Let’s be honest, if we took an honest look at our lives, we all could afford at least a little self-improvement in some area of our life.

I think that it is so sad that we do this to ourselves. Yes, we do this to ourselves. The past is gone, so there is no one to blame. The future has not happened yet, so the imaginary scenarios, fear and worry are wasting away at the precious present that you are living in. There is no one holding you back. There is no one keeping you from greatness, happiness, peace, health, freedom. No one who is making you angry, bitter, sad, depressed, unhealthy, sick and miserable. No one who is keeping you from extending a little more kindness to yourself, others, animals or the planet.

No one else is creating your thoughts and dreams but you. Your life is made up of your thought and your thoughts are made up of what you choose to put in your mind. You choose whether mainstream media, television shows, music, movies, shopping malls, advertisements, billboards, magazines or down, depressing, negative, self-serving  people influence your thoughts. You chose whether or not your thoughts could be influenced more positively by meditation, a walk outside in nature, an hour of yoga, a deep spiritual book, uplifting music or movies, inspirational books, blogs and people. You chose the influences of your thoughts whether consciously or unconsciously every single day of your life. No one else does this for you.

No one is force-feeding you and making you eat the way that you do. You chose what you are putting into your body, which is influencing how you look, feel and think. You can chose to smoke, drink, do drugs, be inactive, order take-out, buy processed foods, consume sugar, purchase unhealthy, non-organic foods and deprive your body of nutrients and reap sickness, depression, addiction, anxiety, fatigue, guilt and sadness. Or you could chose to buy natural foods, exercise, make your own meals, get outside, stock your pantry with good fuel for your body, break your food/drug addictions, feed yourself nourishing foods, drink plenty of water, get fresh air and sunlight and reap mental clarity, positivity, energy, health, happiness and peace of mind. No one is making you over or under eat, no one is chaining you to the couch or your house and depriving you of health and energy. You do this to yourself, so if you want to make a change, just start already! Break your bad habits by adding in some new ones. Take it one day at a time and if you start now, you won’t have to regret waiting days, months, years or a lifetime.

No one who is planning your life for you and keeping you from being a better person or the person you really want to be. Other people may say and do things to you. Other people can tell you their opinions of your dreams, but you are ultimately the one who decides whether or not that will cause you to stop believing in yourself. You are the one who decides to quit, give up or not even bothering to strive towards your goals. You keep yourself sad and hopeless. You keep yourself from being truly you and shining your light in the world. You keep yourself from the greatness and happiness that you truly want and deserve. You may have obstacles in your way that you see as preventing yourself from what you want and where you want to be (we all do), but if everything were easy and those obstacles were gone, do you think that would make strive any harder? Would it really make you more hopeful? Or would you still be sitting around waiting for that life to come to you? That dream, that body, that career, that marriage, that lifestyle, that health, peace, happiness or freedom. You have got to be the one who takes steps towards making that happen for yourself, nobody else can do it for you.

Stop living in the past or the future. Stop telling yourself why your life can’t be the way you want it to. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and thinking “if only”. Stop replaying all of the sad stories over and over in your mind. Today, right now, you have the power to make a change in your life for the better. You can choose to be a better person, someone who is happier, healthier, more kind, loving, grateful, inspiring and bright in our world.

You are the only one holding yourself back! Now what do you think of that??