Personal freedom is something that I believe we can all say we want. Yet it is something that is often misunderstood both in its relation to our personal lives and on how to go about getting it. On this May Day celebration, May 1, 2012; many protest demanding equal rights and more accountability from those that would oppress the greater individual majority.

While most of these protests, that are now occurring around the world, focus on the inequality of wealth distribution, there is the underlying tone of oppression. This inequality could not be possible of course if the people were free to choose their own system of just governance. Essentially there is a belief that those at the top are not listening or trying to help those that they are supposed to govern. That the governments are not doing what they should to stop corporate corruption, that elite superiority and the acquisition of greater wealth by these elite has become far more important than true representation. These protests represent a fight for freedom from this oppression. These protests represent a desire for freedom by those that believe that they are being oppressed by a group of individuals that is becoming more and more powerful every day.

The fight for freedom is a very scary one. The really scary part about it is not the actual fight itself, it is usually the realization of what freedom truly represents. Freedom is the ability to have an increased amount of possibility. Freedom is scary because it means that there are no rules, that you need to create those rules and those boundaries for yourself, that no one will tell you what to do because you will now choose for yourself. Freedom is a lonely road because while free, you are headed in a direction that is new and uncharted.

You are free right now, if you choose to be. All you need to do is decide to walk the road of freedom and exit stage right. Freedom by its very definition is the ability to just walk away in your own direction, making your way along a road less traveled, or perhaps never traveled before. What can be more scary than this?

We are all free to choose to walk this path to freedom. There is no need to fight or to impose our will on another. Freedom is first and foremost a belief that you must create within yourself; an ideology that you must first contemplate and understand, and then a belief that you must choose. Freedom is not something that can ever be taken away from you, if you believe that you are free.

No one can be oppressed the chooses to walk away from this oppression. To walk away from this oppression first begins by understanding that freedom is something that you CAN have right now. Freedom first begins deep within the inner self by understanding that it’s an inalienable right of each and every soul. That this freedom can never be taken away no matter what you might believe at the moment or what others might want to make you believe.

Freedom is choice. It begins by understanding that oppression is only possible if you believe that others can oppress you. By choosing to believe that you cannot be oppressed, that you are free at this moment, you can begin to see the possibilities that are open to you right now. By seeing these new possibilities, you can move in that direction. You can take action that will lead you away from what will eventually seem like a nightmare, a nightmare that showed you clearly what you did not want and gave you impetus to change the very nature of your life and experience. If you have the courage to choose this freedom then there will be no power that can ever hold you down.

We all want to be more successful. To most of us success means being able to accomplish those things that we wish to accomplish. The nuances of the definition of success can have small shades of variation from person to person. It is a good idea to define success for yourself in order to discover in greater detail what it is that you wish to be successful at. I think that we can all agree though on the fact that we would all like to be more successful in our personal endeavors.

All success is really a matter of preparation. In order to find success in the things that you do, you need to prepare for whatever action that you will take. All action requires preparation or else this action is just blind effort that usually has very little chance of success. Preparation is a mental endeavor where you focus on what it is that you want to do and then decide on the best way to go about doing it. By focusing your mind on what you need to accomplish, you begin to understand what it is that you will need to do to get there. In this way you begin to strategize and you begin to prepare mentally before you take any action.

Some get totally stressed out just thinking about the fact that they need to do all this preparation. You must realize though that the stress from not planning is usually far greater than the stress that you get from trying to plan anything. Preparation and planning should not be a stress at all. In order to prepare, strategize, and plan, all that you need to do is to just relax. As I said all preparation is a mental action. In order to perform this mental task, you need to relax and lightly focus on what it is that you want to do.

Your mind will naturally begin to give you thoughts and ideas on how you can get this task accomplished. You see by just focusing on what it is that you want, your mind naturally provides ideas and strategies on how to get this accomplished. The hardest thing that you might have to do is write these ideas and this strategy down. In other words by just focusing on your task, your mind will naturally chunk actions down into doable parts and give you alternative strategies on how to get these doable chunks accomplish.

The most important thing that you can have is focus. Success ultimately depends on focus because it is this personal focus that will allow your mind to prepare, and through this preparation you will find success. Focus on your intended task therefore, but also give yourself the time to contemplate this task in a comfortable manner. By relaxing and contemplating this particular goal as you focus on it, you will allow your mind to do what it does naturally. Focus and contemplation create better preparation, this preparation gives you better action, and better action guarantees success.

Through preparation you will discover that some goals or tasks are more important than others. You need to rank which of these is most important and you must tackle them in the correct order. You must constantly evaluate which task is truly important so that you can separate your efforts and not waste your time doing things that are of no great value.

There are some things that might seem incredibly urgent but are not necessarily important. Because of this you need to stay objective and to try and see the overall picture in a more detached manner. By doing so you will discover that some things that seem incredibly urgent are just things that you have become emotional about for one reason or another. These reasons usually have to do with external pressures; the solution is that you have to spend more time discovering what you truly value. Stay strong and stay focused on what you wish to accomplish, not what the rest of the world thinks you should be doing, in order to benefit it.

Success is something that we all desire. True success can only be accomplished through preparation. Preparation is something that requires focus; direct attention on that which you want to get done. Preparation is really an easy thing because your mind naturally provides all of the answers that you require. The trick is to just focus on the goal that you wish to accomplish and be open to your thought process; with enough attention, you will be able to sit back and watch as your mind naturally comes with strategies and angles that will prepare you for any possibility. Learn to be prepared so that your actions are precise and deliberate; in this way you will find success in all your endeavors.

Time is a precious thing. We seldom contemplate the fact enough; that we are all mortal beings. If we were to contemplate this on a regular basis, we would realize that the time that we have is indeed precious. Whether we believe in an afterlife or not, the time that we have on this Earth is indeed limited and it is therefore very important that we use this time wisely.

If you think about it, you’ll easily come to the conclusion that how you spend your time is how you spend your life. Now this might seem quite obvious but if you really think about it, there are a lot of actions that you perform that are most likely taking up your time but are not giving you much in return. Even people that tend to appreciate how precious their time is can sometimes be fooled into wasting time because they forget to consider that every single moment is precious and must be spent doing something that you want to do.

Some say that there is no free will but they forget to consider the fact that at every single moment you have a choice as to how you will spend your time. This choice is personal power and you must take advantage of this choice by deciding from this moment on what you will spend your time doing. Realize that every single moment gives you a choice. Make yourself conscious of this choice so that you can spend these moments wisely. Every single moment is a precious thing.

Some would say that they don’t have free will because they believe that their time is used up doing things that they believe they must do. That it is the external world that controls their behavior because it forces them to do things and gives them little choice. I can understand how some might feel this way, having to take bad jobs and having to be responsible for things that they do not care very much about. The solution to this problem is that you have to get to know your values; by understanding what you value and what things are important to you personally, you begin to figure out if you are spending your time doing things that are of value to you. Remember that at every moment you have a choice and you can change the course of your life right now if you choose to do those things that are important to you. If you find that your life is spent doing things that you don’t value, then start making a conscious choice right now to start working towards a life that you want. Set goals that fulfill your values.

By discovering your values you discover what you really want to do. By finding out what is important to you, you can begin to question how you are spending your time. If your efforts are helping you to achieve your goals, then you are spending your time wisely. If you are not using your time on things that are important to you then you either need to change your goals or the way that you spend your time.

Personal consideration of time does not need to be a draconian thing. The best way to begin to use your time wisely is to first and foremost discover your values. Once you have discovered these values you need to question your beliefs about these values;

do you feel that these values are worthy? Why or why not? If you feel that your values are unworthy then you need to discover the belief(s) that would have you imagine that your thoughts and ideals are evil, stupid, or less important than the values of others.

Is there a way that you can fulfill your values?
If one of your greatest values is personal freedom, then how can you start to become (and feel) more free right now?

By answering these questions you will discover the beliefs that are really not helping you or beliefs that are tell you that some things are not possible. By changing these beliefs you begin to naturally alter the way that you spend your time so that you are focusing more on getting the things that you truly want done and less on doing things that you think you should do or things that you believe you are being forced to do. If you are wondering about how to change these beliefs, there are a few articles on this page that you can use to help you, I recommend that you start with “How to stop negative energy permenantly”

Time is a precious thing. It cannot be wasted because whatever you do you are always expanding and becoming more yourself. There is a natural need in all of us though to expand in our own willful ways. In order to begin to use this time in a more conscious fashion, learn to appreciate how precious this time is and also use this precious time to discover what is of true value to you personally. Use your time wisely and you will find greater joy and success in life.

Personal diet is  incredibly important. Your body is truly your sacred Temple and you must do everything that you can to always give it the best. Your diet is directly linked to your health, this is something that most of us understand and believe. What many forget to consider though is that personal diet is also directly linked to how happy we feel about ourselves and our life. Correct nutrition makes you feel strong and gives you a good deal of extra energy, this extra energy is completely responsible for how good you feel. Feeling good is directly related to how much energy you have, and a proper diet is the best way to increase your energy level.

When you are trying to change the kind of diet that you have, never try for perfect. Perfect is never possible and if you try to attain some kind of perfection you will only frustrate yourself. This frustration will build until you give up, blaming your failure on the fact that any kind of dietary changes on your part are not possible. What you must realize though is that you are a different and individual human being. As such it is impossible for you to attain a perfect replication of what someone else has done. By trying to be perfect what you’re really trying to do is to perfectly replicate what someone else did in the past, without realizing the fact that they are a different person, in a different place, and experiencing different circumstances. There is no such thing as perfection therefore, there is only an understanding that you are using what someone else did as reference but that you are trying to find your own personal success.

Also remember that any kind of dietary change that you make must be gradual. You cannot rush your body into instant change, this kind of change is impossible for the body as it needs to adjust over a gradual period of time. By giving yourself time, you are able to see how your body adjusts to the changes that you are making in your diet. This is critical because your body will let you know how it’s reacting; it will tell you what is working and what is not working so well. Taking your time also allows you to question any emotions or thoughts that you might have about the kind of dietary change that you are making. Questioning these feelings and thoughts will allow you to discover any internal obstacles that you might have, letting you know whether there are any personal beliefs that are in conflict with your current course of action.

In order to make the correct dietary change you must always try to plan your meals and your schedule. Writing it down is such a wonderful way to get you to actually perform action. Writing it down also allows you to think ahead and to visually see if you need to change anything. By writing it down you also maintain a journal of sorts that you can use this journal to see how your body is acting and reacting to the dietary change that you are implementing. Do not let yourself believe that you must follow another person’s schedule to the letter. Use coaches and books as references only, but always make your own schedules to suit your body and your personal needs. As long as you are focused on doing the right thing for yourself and have a clear goal in mind, then be flexible enough to create your own schedule to suit you personally.

Whatever kind of nutritional change you make, it is always a good idea to keep your metabolism high. This is so because metabolism is incredibly important in how we digest our food. Good digestion is important in any diet. In order to maintain a high metabolism always try to eat many times in smaller quantities instead of trying to stuff yourself during fewer times throughout the day. Never starve yourself or you will slow your metabolism as it tries to cope with the fact that it is not getting food on a regular basis. The body copes by slowing down the metabolism and taking it for granted that it is in a survival situation where it must make the most of the resources that it has. By eating regularly and not stuffing yourself, you allow the body to digest properly and to speed up its absorption rate.

Diet is a key factor in personal health and happiness. Diet does not have to mean food restriction. Diet should actually be the conscious act of choosing what you wish to ingest. This choice should be a personal one that is free from external influence. You should create a diet for yourself that is high in nutritious and delicious food and drink. Any dietary change should be gradual and highly personal. Realize that the hardest part of any dietary change is changing what you believe about the food the you are eating.

We all want to achieve success in our lives. We all strive for great achievement and personal triumph. There are times though when we tend to confuse personal success with hard work. Now I am not saying that there is anything wrong with hard work, but there are some of us to get stuck believing that great success and hard work are the same thing.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, where you seem to be working all day long trying to achieve personal triumph, it is a good idea to question yourself and your motives. The best way to do this is to think of  what success actually means to you and what it would look like if you achieved it. By finding out what personal achievement and triumph means to you, you discover whether you have sidetracked yourself, creating a life of seemingly endless toil trying to achieve something that seems just beyond your grasp. You must realize that it is impossible to truly reach something that you have not fully defined.

The first thing that you must do then is to define what success means to you personally. Look at the word itself and try and define it, while you can get a standard definition from a dictionary, what you should intend to do is to get a deeper realization of what this word means to you. This will allow you to get a better definition of what it is that you want, and more importantly how you think this has to be achieved. Many of us might define success in a rather standard way, believing that it is either wealth, riches, or comfort. Defining the word itself will allow you to consider what it is that you believe you need to do in order to achieve this success. The ‘how’ of it can be just as important as the ‘why’ in this situation because many believe that the only way that they will attain success is through great strife.

If you are working like a dog trying to find personal triumph in your life, it could be perhaps because your definition of success calls for you to struggle in this fashion. There is no reason why this definition cannot be changed, you can redefine this aspect of success for yourself. Through this redefinition of ‘how’ to attain success, you can begin to discover new ways to achieve old tasks. This simple redefinition can be incredibly powerful because it will change your beliefs about what success is all about. This redefinition is sort of like a refraction in the lens which allows you to see things in a different angle and perhaps in a more clear fashion. Explore your definition of success, redefine it if you need to, and unnecessary problems that may have plagued you in the past will be easier to overcome.

Another reason why some of us get sidetracked, thinking that success is something that involves eternal hard work, is that we forget to define our true passions. The difference between hard work and doing what you love, is the difference between doing something you have to do and doing something that you need to do. By defining what you are truly passionate about, you define what you essentially love to do. Like all true love, its expression is something that carries you beyond yourself. Your passions therefore are things that you need to do; a love that you need to express because if you don’t express this passionate impulse, you won’t be able to live with yourself. By finding these passions and defining them you will discover the work that isn’t work at all.

Sometimes it is very difficult to find this great passion. We are told that we should have some incredible passion, that everyone has one and that it is a natural thing. Unfortunately there are many of us that find it very difficult to discover what we are truly passionate about. If you are having this problem, ask yourself; “what gives me energy when I do it instead of taking energy away from me?” This question should allow you to discover the direction of your passions. It might not give you the exact specific ideas to what you should do with your life and your career, but it can defined those things that give you joy and energy and by doing so it can give you a hint as to what truly inspires you.

Do not be afraid of what you discover when you question yourself in this way. Through repression and the belief that the ideals of others are more important than our own, we tend to believe that some of our passions are wrong or silly. Every single passion that you have will have positive and negative aspects. It is up to you to try and pursue positive aspects so that you create more positive outcomes for yourself and for others. The most courageous thing that you can do in this world is to have the strength and internal fortitude to pursue your passions even though the rest of the world tells you that you are wrong.

If you’re having difficulty finding your passions, you can contemplate your dreams. When we are in a free flow and we let our mind wander, there are many things that we tend to dream about; things that we want to do, places where we want to be. Try to catch yourself while you are in one of these moods and study what it is that you dream about doing. Once you discover these dreams, ask yourself how you might be able to accomplish them. Discovering your dreams and trying to figure out ways to accomplish them can give you the direction of your passions. It is the case that sometimes our passions are the sheer joy of striving towards a personal ideal. The difference between a passionate striving and an incessant toil is the fact that this passionate drive feels wonderful.

Also look back at your life and think about what others have told you about yourself in the past. Those people in your life that love you will often tell you about your potential and what they believe you have been or are now very good at. These people can point you towards your passions because your passions are sometimes those things that you have naturally become very good at. The reason for this is that the sheer joy of doing something tends to focus us in that direction and since we are doing it more often than not, we get very good at that one certain thing. Others therefore can tell you about what your potentials are. By doing a little study on yourself, thanks to positive advise, you can discover what it is that you are naturally good at. Discovering what you are naturally good at is a good indicator of what your passions really are.

Success is not toil. Hard work is either great joy or deep anguish. The difference between the two is that one is your passion while the other is something that is forced upon you. If you are sidetracked on your way to success, working like a dog and believing that you need to do this in order to achieve the kind of success that you want, it is quite possible that you find yourself in this situation where you have not defined the meaning of success for you personally. When work feels like labor, realize that you are doing something that you are not passionate about. Defined the success, discover for yourself what it truly means to you. Define your passions and in this way discover the work that is not really work because it is a passionate striving towards your personal ideal. A life that is undefined can become hell.

In order to become smarter we must either learn to explore our inner reality or we must learn from books and the exterior world around us. In whatever way you wish to, you need to always try and develop your intellectual capabilities. It is truly the case that the quality of your life is directly related to your intelligence and to the quality of your thinking. You don’t need to have schooling or some kind of higher learning education certificate. But you do need to constantly strive to increase your intelligence by reading and studying those things that are important to you.

It is the case with me that I did not really begin to increase my intellectual capabilities until I left school. I was never very good at studying those things that others told me I had to study and I could never follow their study methods as they just seemed forced and rather mechanical. It could be that this is the case for you, that you are still in school either studying something that you love or continuing your education in order to get to a place that you desire. It could also be the case, as it is with me, that you are just studying things that interest you and as a result are developing your intellect in whatever way you choose. Whatever the case might be, these are some points to consider when you are studying something, they will help you to better internalize the ideas that you have just read or discovered.

• If you’re reading something, it is always a good idea to take notes. This can seem rather tedious at the time but it’s a wonderful way to review the things that you have read and to also allow your mind to contemplate these ideas on a deeper level. Taking notes forces you to make a more concise statement so that you don’t have to write as much; in other words you are trying to not copy the book Word for Word. In this way you are forced to intellectualize what you have just read so that you can take clear and concise notes that you can go back to whenever you want to refresh your memory.
• You should try and reread these notes every evening and focus on those ideas that you have studied earlier in the day. Contemplate these ideas and try to internalize them, you can do this by rereading your notes until you can create a silent dialogue of these words for yourself and in this way begin to contemplate them at an even deeper level.
• If it is at all possible, try to explain the ideas that you have read to someone else. The more that you are able to articulate the ideas that you are learning, the better an understanding of them that you will have. If you are by yourself, it is even possible to just speak out loud to yourself or to a pretend audience that you are trying to explain the concepts to.
• As you contemplate these new ideas, try to find the best place to practice these new ideas. Try to figure out where these ideas are most applicable and how you would go about using them in different situations such as work, with your family, or with your peers.
• As you contemplate these new ideas and how they are applicable, run through certain possible scenarios in your mind. In other words try to conceptualize possible outcomes to you using these new ideas and possible solutions to any problems that you might face. In this way your ideas become even more entrenched into your mental processes and you can begin to see every angle of the new idea and how it might relate to you personally. If these ideas are of a grander nature where you cannot apply them directly into your life in one way or another, try to see how these ideas might fit into a greater scheme, and how they might change world perspectives if they were either applied in one form or another or if they were taken into consideration by the world at large.
• Try to keep the ideas that you are considering and contemplating in front of your mind. A good way to do this is to use sticky notes and to write down certain statements that allow you to better conceptualize and remember when you are trying to learn. You can stick these notes anywhere such as; your car, your refrigerator, or your desk at work. Little sticky notes like this will allow you to focus your thinking on the key ideas that you have learned and this will naturally get your mind churning in the proper direction.

These are simple little points you can use in order to develop good study strategies for yourself. The key concept here is to not just read a book and put it away, or go through some material and then forget about it only to engage in something else. The idea is to begin to really internalize those things that you are studying. By doing this you will actually create new neural patterns that will become stronger the more you conceptualize your new ideas. You memories and ideas will become stronger in your mind and will not be so easily forgotten. This data will go from being random information to actual and actionable material that you can apply to your life or that you can use as a base to increase your intellectual understanding. Learn to truly internalize the ideas that you find most important so that these ideas begin to make a real difference in your life.

We can all be a little prideful at times. When we have devoted a lot of time to certain thing it can be quite easy to believe that we know everything about that particular thing and it can be very difficult to hear another person’s point of view. This is natural, it just shows that you take pride in the amount of effort that you’ve put into something and have developed a certain sense of confidence in this area. You should always be careful though that you don’t become overconfident because this overconfidence will create a barrier that won’t allow you to learn new things. If you believe that you know everything about everything or something, then there’s nothing else that you can learn and this is of course not true. Try to always maintain a certain sense of humility so that you are able to contemplate new ideas from different angles and are therefore always able to expand intellectually and in all areas.

Try to stay logical and always identify when you don’t have enough evidence to prove your point completely. It is most important that you learn to approach any endeavor in a logical fashion so that you can objectively study what you know and what you don’t know about whatever you are engaged in. Through logical progression and objective detachment you can separate your ego from your knowledge.

If you are not completely sure of your particular point, if you do not have all the evidence to prove your particular belief, always make sure that you phrase your belief in a way that does not make you sound like you are the final and undeniable authority on this particular point. You can easily do this by starting a statement in this way; “I may be wrong, but what I think is…”. You can also say something like; “based on my knowledge in this area, I would say that…”.

Maintaining a level of humility is always good strategy. It allows you to adopt a position where you can state your point without being attacked because you are sounding like you are somehow indisputable in your knowledge. In order to maintain this personal humility, and therefore maintain superior position, make sure that you are able to identify when you are arguing a belief without evidence to justify it. This can be rather tricky as we can all develop certain ‘blind spots’ to our own beliefs. The two biggest reasons for these are our ego and the fact that we have never questioned a belief but always ‘assumed’ that it was completely right.

It is always therefore a good idea to question every single belief that you have. Beliefs can take on the trait of being ‘invisible beliefs’. This happens when a belief is completely skimmed over because we completely assume that this belief is totally and utterly true; it is beyond question. Learn to question even your religious, cultural, and political beliefs. If you do not then you will make general assumptions about things and believe your points to be irrefutable. Always remember that *“assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.”

Whenever you can it is also a good idea to find alternative sources of information. This is most important because even if the information agrees with what your points of view are, they can be presented in different perspectives and viewpoints that might allow you to see things in a different light. This might allow you to consider new possibilities and to perhaps even see things that your sources of information have not seen. Also try to find sources of information that totally contradict your point of view and contemplate those sources with an open and objective mind.

You should never be afraid to explore your beliefs and to explore new beliefs that you have never considered before. By exploring our existing beliefs we can begin to understand our fundamental reasoning which can greatly increase our intellectual ability. Being open to new beliefs can allow us to be open to new insights and possibilities that we have never considered in the past.

A great exercise is to take a topic or an individual and make a list of everything that you know to be absolutely true about a certain thing or individual. Then make a list of all the things that you think might be true but you are not sure about. And lastly make a list of all the things that you don’t know about that certain subject or individual. When you are done, either show this information to the individual or try to dig as much information as you can on the subject. You can get some very valuable insights as to your thinking process and discover certain blind spots that you had not been aware of. This exercise can help you discover the nature of these blind spots and can show you where you have been making assumptions.

Personal pride in what you know is a healthy thing. This personal pride lets you know that you have developed confidence in the subject. This personal confidence is usually achieved through hard work and personal study on your part. This personal confidence is actually a type of armor that you use on a regular basis to protect your individuality from any stray belief that others might try to impose upon you. It is though the case that you should always maintain a strategic stance whenever you are trying to express your beliefs and make your points. By maintaining a stance of humility, you put yourself in a superior strategic position by letting others know that you do not consider yourself to be beyond refute. Maintain a stance of humility and you will be able to express your points as you wish. You will also begin to open yourself up to new ideas and beliefs which will greatly expand your intellectual capabilities.

*Eugene Lewis Fordsworthe

If you want to be true to yourself, you must continually be on the lookout for times when you are giving people a double standard. A double standard is really a form of hypocrisy where you hold people accountable in a certain way but you do not hold that same accountability for yourself. In order to develop your ‘self’ and your personal integrity, you have to be able to hold yourself to the same standard that you hold everyone else to.

A double standard is most obvious when we tend to have a certain standard for ourselves but then we have a different standard for all those people that we do not agree with or do not like. This is a most dangerous type of prejudice because it does not allow us to see the correct picture of the situation; which can be even deadly at times. It is up to you to choose who you like or dislike for whatever reason you like; just remember to be fair in your assessments or you might be blindsided by something you did not see.

Sometimes we fail to live in accordance with our own professed beliefs and ideals. This too is a double standard because we often times tend to impose these ideals on others while deep down we believe that we do not have to live by them ourselves. It becomes really easy to see yourself as a savior or a godlike figure in your own mind while everyone else around you is seen as a flawed being that must be saved or shunned. If you believe that everyone sucks while deep down you feel superior to them, then you are engaged in this type of hypocrisy. If you believe that you suck along with everyone else, then it is perhaps time that you question that belief; it is certainly not helping you in any way.

It is even the case that we create a type of double standard where we think that those above us are somehow beyond reproach while we are all quite flawed and deserve what we get. This last type of double standard can allow you to survive injustices that are imposed upon you but if this hypocrisy is not questioned then tyranny is never stopped. This is the worst kind of hypocrisy because at least in the others you were better or equal to others. This type of hypocrisy turns you into a serf.

Always try to see where you are using a double standard. Sometimes this can be hard to actually see because it can be something that we blind ourselves to, where we believe that for example we can do a certain thing while our spouse should not be able to. Try to identify these cases and the beliefs that you hold here so that you can begin to question the standards that you hold for yourself and others. By questioning your standards and bringing them into the light you can begin to realize what you are doing wrong, which can sometimes almost seem accidental in that you do not realize you had been doing it, and to change them at the root core of your beliefs. Questioning your beliefs will shed light into your reasoning and will allow you to change these beliefs accordingly. This will change your standards and hopefully end any hypocrisy on your part.

As you begin to identify these beliefs that do indeed shape your reality, make a list of the beliefs that seem to be most important to you on any one particular subject. See if you can identify situations where your behavior is inconsistent to what you believe you should be doing in that one area. This would be an area where you are saying one thing but you are doing something else altogether. It is good to realize that your actions are controlled by your beliefs. By contemplating your past actions in a certain situation, you can begin to see where what you say and what you do tends to differ. It is in these areas that you must study your beliefs because it is quite possible that there are beliefs in this area that you are completely overlooking. This is an area where you are not really being true to yourself, you are lying to yourself by doing one thing and saying another. Unless this is a completely conscious act on your part, you need to question your beliefs.

Whenever you believe that others have the right to do something but you do not have that right then you must discover why this is so. You will never be able to discover a black and white answer to this, you can only discover what you believe to be the case. By realizing that there is nothing that is black and white, you will begin to realize that others cannot impose their beliefs upon you. It is perhaps one of the greatest discoveries that there is; the discovery that there is no real truth in life but that there is only personal belief. This discovery can be incredibly frightening because it shows you the incredible freedom that you have in all areas of our life. Discover your personal beliefs on a matter and question any belief that places you below someone else.

Hypocrisy is something that must always be identified. You must always notice any contradictions that you have in your life, where you are doing or expecting something from yourself while at the same time you are expecting something else completely from others. By understanding these double standards, you will begin to understand your beliefs. Especially those beliefs that can take on a type of invisibility; the invisibility is caused because we believe them to be facts and therefore beyond question. In order to increase your personal integrity and expand your personal awareness you need to discover this hypocrisy and you need to discover the beliefs that are causing it.