What are you a slave to? To the wounds you received when you were a child? To your childhood traumas? To what someone else decided you should be? To a relationship that does not fulfill you? To a job you do not enjoy? To the routine of your life?

Free yourself! Throw down the baggage you carry on your back, where you keep your resentment, regrets, and guilt. Stop blaming other people and your past for things that do not go right in your life. Every day you have the chance to start over. Every morning when you open your eyes, you are reborn. You receive another chance to change the things you do not like and improve your life. It is all up to you. Your happiness does not depend on your parents, your partner, your friends, or your past; it just depends on you.

What is it that holds you back? Fear of rejection? Of success? Of failure? Of what people will say? Of criticism? Of making a mistake? Of being alone?

Break the chains that you have tied yourself down with! The only thing you should be afraid of is not being yourself, of letting your life go by without doing what you want, of failing to take advantage of the opportunity to show yourself to other people, to say what you think, to share what you have. You are part of life and, like everyone else, you can hold your head high. The errors of the past have been forgotten and the errors of the future will be forgiven. No one is keeping a record of your failings, except you. The judge that sternly rebukes you, the executioner that punishes you, the bad friend that criticizes you – is you! Give yourself a break. Forgive yourself: only you can.

When are you going to tell the people you love how much you care about them? When you only have a few moments left to live? When they only have a few moments left to live?

The love that you do not express today is lost forever. Remember that life is so short and so fragile that we have no time to waste on being bitter or on stupid arguments. Today is the day to forgive past offenses and to iron out old quarrels. Give yourself to the people you love, but do not expect them to change. Love them for who they are, and respect the most valuable gift you and they have been given: freedom.

Enjoy your relationships without making a fuss. If you try to make everyone do as you want or be as you want them to be, if you try to control the people around you, you will fill your life with conflict. Let other people make their own decisions, just as you must make your own with the aim of achieving what is best for all. In this way, you will fill your life with harmony.

Finally, what are you waiting for to begin enjoying life? For all your problems to be resolved? For your traumas to disappear? For someone finally to recognize your worth? For love to come into your life? For the one who left to come back? For everything to turn out just as you wanted? For the economic recession to be over? For a miracle to happen? For everything to be beautiful and perfect, as if by magic?

Wake up, brother! Wake up, sister! This is life! Life is not what happens when all your plans pan out, or when you finally have that thing you want so badly. Life is what is happening right at this precise moment. Your life right now is you reading this paragraph, wherever you happen to be and in the circumstances that surround you at this moment. Right now, your heart is carrying blood to all the cells in your body, and your lungs are making sure that oxygen gets to where it needs to be. At this moment, something we do not understand is keeping you alive and allowing you to see, think, express yourself, move, laugh, and even cry if you want to!

Do not take life for granted. Do not get used to waking up every day and being bored, bad-tempered, or worried. Open your eyes and give thanks for the miracle that is your ability to see. Give thanks for your ability to hear the birds singing, or your children laughing. Put your hands on your chest and feel your heart beating strong, telling you: “you’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive.”

I know life is not perfect and that it is full of difficult situations. Maybe that is how it is supposed to be. Maybe that is why you have been given all the tools you need to face up to it: tears to mourn loss, words to share love, arms to give hugs, hands to help others, a heart to receive love and to share love, a mind so that you may choose your response to whatever might happen.

I also know that you are not perfect. Nobody is. And yet, millions of different variables came together in order for you to exist. You were formed according to an amazing design and you share your virtues and defects with the rest of humanity.

Share your passions, your fears, your wounds, your weaknesses, your secrets, and your love with all your brothers and sisters. Welcome to the human race! And remember, those supposed defects are part of your freedom, part of your humanity.

If you are asking yourself who am I to tell you all this, I am nobody; I’m just a different version of who you are. Another human being among billions of human beings, but one who has decided to be free and to take back control of his life…

I hope you do too.

Read the first two chapters of Anand Dilvar's multi-million selling spiritual parable The Slave - just click on the picture below.