When I was a little kid, there were no air conditioners at my home nor at school. Modern appliances have their place in life. I’m so grateful.

July in Review

I enjoyed writing my Declaration of Independence spontaneously on the morning of 4th. Most of my posts are long well-planned ones, so it was a fun change of the pace. I was thrilled to receive a few comments with their own Declarations. (Thank you!) Perhaps I’ll do this again next year as a meme.

My post about vegetarianism got quite a few intriguing comments. (Thank you again!) Eating is an every-day everyone’s business, so the post was easier to relate to for many people, I guess. Maybe I want to write more of these posts. I actually love talking about foods

I’m not very sure how my starseeds series are received . . . it’s a brand-new concept for many. . .

Fun

I made a day trip to Eugene last weekend. Eugene is about 100 miles south of Portland. It’s a small college town at the south end of Willamette Valley.

The background: Well, the housing arrangement is one of the major things I’ve been working on in my personal life. I want to live in a townhouse because that would be more quiet than apartments. But, in this area in and around Portland, there seem to be very few two bedroom townhouses in a good area, away from the railroads and freeways. (It was so easy to find one back in Ohio . . .)

So I thought I might look into other cities around. I work from home, so I can be anywhere as long as I have phone and internet connection.

First I went to the natural foods grocery store, Sundance and Market of Choice. They were great. Sundance is just a small store but they carried some interesting items that I never saw at Whole Foods. (I LOVED the raw blueberry cheesecake!)

I always check the grocery stores and markets when I visit a new town. It’s the fastest way to get the feel of the place and the people. I see that, even though Eugene is a small town, it’s big on natural organic foods and personal care. I like that ^_^ Also people were very friendly. The guys at Sundance took time telling me about the town.

Challenges

The housing situation in Eugene, however, didn’t look any better than Portland area. Plus I think I might miss the city attractions. . . I don’t go to downtown Portland so often, but I do enjoy it occasionally. So my housing arrangement issue remains to be in the air. . .

I received some encouragements about this through Twitter and Facebook. I’m grateful for my friends’ support.

Where in the blogosphere Akemi has bee

I found Location Independent — Live & Work Anywhere You Choose. Oh, that is me, right? Lea and Jonathan Woodward have been blogging since February 2007 and now have many contributing writers, so their archive is huge.

As I read their articles, I see that their style of location independent life is a bit different from mine. They are more nomadic while I’m a migrant. I don’t travel much, but I relocate to new areas to live. I was born in Japan, lived in Sydney, Australia (1 year), Columbus, Ohio (10 years), Nashville, Tennessee (3 years), and Portland, Oregon (almost 2 years now). The last three are all in the US, but there is a Dixon-Mason Line between Ohio and Tennessee, and across the Rockies is quite another world, too.

I guess many of you dream of location independent lifestyle — whether it’s the ongoing world traveler style or my kind of big scale migration style. So check it out — here is a post in which Lea talks why this is a good time to plan and implement the lifestyle of your dream because of the economy, along with the list of her own aspirations.

A year ago at Yes to Me

Blog years are like dog years. As I look at my archive, I’m amazed to find that it was only a year ago when Hunter Nuttall and I did our first collaboration. Since then, he interviewed me (and not just once but twice!) and I’ve learned so much from his blog, which is so eclectic and always funny.

And it was only a year ago when I interviewed James Chartland of Men with Pens? I remember I was nervous asking for the opportunity to interview the Pen Men because, well, they were the big fat successful bloggers and I was just a beginner. He was, and always has been, very courteous. I guess that is one of the traits of successful people, and I’m so grateful. (Since then, they have grown to a quartet of three men and a lady. . . again, change and growth come at accelerated pace on the internet, I think.)

My gratitude goes to my fellow bloggers who have contributed to this blog, and to my readers.

Word of month

From earthmother’s comment for this post:

“For it is in giving that we receive.” — St. Francis

And also about giving, from Kelly’s comment on this post:

“(You) must be free in order to truly give. if you’re giving from any part of yourself that is NOT free, it is not truly giving. you’re giving from the non-free (limited, egoic) part of yourself, and you’ll generate more suffering at worst (even if it appeaers to be a self-less act) and you will certainly be generating karma of some kind at best.”

Thank you for your readership and comments, as always ^_^ Stay cool.

After I experienced Ascension soul shift myself in January 2009, I’ve written a lot about Ascension. I also share my expertise as Akashic Record Reading specialist.

For me, it has been one clear path, but I understand it may have been confusing to some readers. Is this blog about spiritual entrepreneurship? Or spirituality in general? Or maybe about Akashic Records and Ascension?

So here is my clarification.

Yes to Me is all about liberating ourselves from the soul level up in all aspects of our lives.

My search for true freedom

Freedom has been the critical theme in my life. In 1995, I left my home country Japan and came to the US by myself. Why? I can give you the reason at various levels. “To attend college and get a degree.” is the practical, physical level answer. “To challenge myself and rebuild my life from scratch.” is my mental level answer.

But there was something more fundamental. I had a good comfortable life back in Japan. Why the heck did I have to leave all that and start over in my thirties? “To explore freedom.” is my spiritual level answer. (And, no, I don’t mean drinking and drugging by the word “freedom”. Nor do I mean simply being able to do something.)

Many of us live in the confines of fear, limiting thoughts, and self-sabotaging “programs”. My life has been about uncovering the lies of each confine that I previously thought had kept me in. And yes, placing myself in a completely new country has helped me do this.

Quitting my corporate job in October 2007 and starting my business was another way to explore freedom. I don’t think we need to be an entrepreneur to be free, but it’s a damn good way to be empowered and liberated.

Akashic Records are great resource for freedom

I share my knowledge of Akashic Records in this blog because they are great resources that can help us be free from the various energetic issues. I’m very happy and proud to offer this service.

Ascension, in my understanding, is a great opportunity to leap in this spiritual freedom. It may even mean a new level of physical freedom if we are to develop lightbodies.

Earlier this year, I had to make yet another decision in my quest for true freedom and authenticity. I decided to part way from my former teacher. I don’t want to go into details about this, but the bottom line is that I choose to explore Akashic Records (and my spirituality) beyond what is already known. I’m grateful for what I have learned, but I can’t let anyone be less than what I can be.

Your freedom matters

Now about YOU. You are a critical part of this world. Your freedom to be yourself, and to express your authentic self, matters. So I’d like you to be free.

Allow yourself to be free. Dare to be free.

When you are free, you are naturally giving the best quality of yourself freely to the world, and this is the best service you can do to the humanity. Charities and volunteer works are great, but there is nothing like YOU bringing in your beautiful true self to the world every day all day.

Ultimately this leads to the creation of the New World. The New World where we are all free to express our authentic selves and at the same time united in Love. It’s a wonderful world. I’ve written over 13,000 words in the series of posts about creating the New World, so I’m not going to repeat it here, but when you have the time, please read them. It’s the most critical posts on this blog. Here is a link to the first of the series, about creating the New World based on Love.

Your personal freedom matters in this creation. It’s not just about you because we are all interconnected.

Saying “Yes to Me”
With this in mind, I just updated my blurb in the sidebar. Again the message I want to convey throughout this Yes to Me blog is this:

Your freedom to be yourself matters.

After all, this is why you came to life. You didn’t come to this world to bend yourself backwards, to fit in to the existing status quo, nor to suppress your inner light. You are a beautiful soul and you came to express yourself.

Do you like it? I will update the About page, too, soon.

I’ll keep writing about Akashic Records, starseeds, various energetic issues that run negative “programs”, and so on. I’ll also keep writing about freedom from paycheck mentality, conditionality in loving relationships, fear of death, and so on.

Further, I’m thinking of putting together an eBook, “Lightworker’s Guide to Self-Employment” which will be a free download. I think many of us will be self-employed in the New World, so better to start sooner than late. Do you like the title?

Oh, in case you are wondering: This blog is NOT about selling my Akashic Record Reading service. I talk about Akashic Records because they are great resources, but you don’t need to buy anything. I want this Yes to Me blog to be a big community where we inspire each other in our journey to true freedom.

What do you think about the new clarification of this blog’s message? Are there any areas of life I haven’t covered that needs to be written about? Please let me know by comments. Thank you.

Also, I found this personal Declaration of Independence at a blog I started following recently. Joy Mazzola writes beautifully, and it could well be my own Declaration.

So here we go. It’s a kind of meme, and you are free to join. It doesn’t matter if you are American or not. (I’m not. I’m a “resident alien” — this is the legal term for those immigrants with greencards. If we define America as the country of immigrants, however, I represent the true American spirit.) Even if you are British, consider this as a day to reclaim your Power. It’s a day of self-awareness. ^_^

My personal Declaration of Independence

I declare my independence from all teachers as I realize the highest authority within myself. I still respect all the teachers I have learned from, and as an avid learner, I will keep learning from various teachers, but I understand I am my own best teacher and pioneer researcher.

I fully understand the responsibility that comes with this declaration. All my life, I have tried to be the best student. Now I see my effort is misdirected. I am on my own path to find my horizon. My Ascension. And the divinity is within me.

I declare my liberation on all physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. Physically, I will keep my body free from various toxins in foods, cosmetics, and so on to the best I can. I’ve already quit drinking coffee — the caffein withdrawal symptoms were horrible, which made me worry how much it may have affected my body. I will keep this journey of freeing myself from toxins, and with my spiritual self-authenticity, I expect freedom on the emotional and mental levels as well.

I joyfully accept my part in creating the New World based on Love, Light, Truth, Abundance and Power. I am just one person (a petite one, for that) but I know me doing my part in my personal and professional life (the two are merged and integrated within me) connects me to other lightworkers, and together we will manifest the wonderful New World. Independence is not about isolation.

I fully embrace my creative power. I will not shy away from attention, fame, monetary gains just because they are associated with greed. I trust that what comes my way has a meaning whether I immediately understand it or not.

On this beautiful summer morning, I declare my true Independence. With gratitude to the Light Source (or God), my angels and spirt guides, my incarnated friends both online and local, to my heritage, my future self. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Photo Credit)

Honesty is one of the most admired qualities.  Most people say they want their life partners, children, friends, and if possible everyone to be honest.  Yet we also know it’s so damn hard to be honest.  

Why does honesty elude us like this?  How can we retain our honesty and integrity? 

Freedom as prereq of honesty

I don’t believe we are destined to be dishonest.  It’s far easier to be honest and say things as they are, rather than twisting the facts and then remembering how we twisted them so that our stories are consistent, often leading us to tell even more lies.  Dishonesty doesn’t feel good and undermines our sense of dignity.  

Yet we lie because most of us don’t realize we have the prerequisite of honesty: freedom.  Complete freedom to say what it is.  Freedom not to worry about the consequences of our honest expression.  

Say you find your employer is compromising the law.  Can you stand up and say honesty that you don’t agree with the practice?  You know you will lose your job if you do so.  Can you still be honest?  Remember Arthur Anderson?  Many otherwise good people compromised their honesty because they were afraid of their job security (and ended up losing their jobs anyway).

Or say you find your friend eating so unhealthy, she is overweight and risking health issues, can you simply express your concern, without any manipulation nor sugarcoating the facts?  Why not?  Because you are afraid of offending her feeling and losing her friendship?  Are you and your friend in friendship voluntarily or do you need her as friend?  

Freedom and autonomy

To feel free, most people need autonomy.  Financial, emotional, and mental autonomy.  

It’s extremely hard to be honest to your employer when your (and your family’s) livelihood is dependent on it.  I don’t object the system of employment at this time, but to usher in the New World based on Truth, it’s a good idea to cultivate our inner entrepreneur.  (Whew, this blog Yes to Me started as entrepreneurship blog, and although it may appear I meandered around into spirituality, I actually have consistency at the base!) Financial autonomy promotes honesty.  

Emotional autonomy means you own your feelings.  No one makes you happy or unhappy.  With or without friends, you are you.  Without this emotional autonomy, relationships of any kind become more about codependency rather than free association.  

Mental autonomy is the ability to think for yourself.  It involves questioning widely accepted social norms and opinions of “authorities”.  

To be completely clear, I’d like to note that autonomy is only a desired ground for freedom, not a necessity.  Because everyone is free on the spiritual level (more on this toward the end of this article) and no one is completely autonomous.  We are interdependent in this world and that is wonderful.  You can be honest while relying on a single source of income, while being emotionally supported by others, and while you are learning and building your own thoughts.  

Still autonomy is very helpful.  Without autonomy (in the conventional sense), we are like slaves.  For a slave to speak up honestly, it takes a degree of “dumbness”, to be ready to die or go on the street anytime as a consequence of his honesty.  And I put “  “ around dumbness because I think this kind of dumbness is good.  It may be based on spiritual belief that we are always supported by God regardless how things may look like.  

Teaching honesty to your children

Most parents want their children to be honest, yet they are unaware of the inherent dilemma they themselves need to resolve to let their children be honest.  Because children ARE dependent on parents.  Children don’t have autonomy, especially financial and emotional autonomy.  They are even dependent physically. 

So how can you let your child know they are free to express their thoughts and feelings honestly?  That they are loved no matter what?  And do you really mean it?  

As long as the parent’s mindset is like, “I want you to be honest, my child, but if you tell me you are the one who broke my favorite vase, I will be upset and won’t talk to you for the rest of the day.” (manipulation and lack of emotional autonomy), they are setting up their child to be dishonest, not honest.   And mandatory honesty is not true honesty.  

I know this is difficult.  Parents are humans, too, still in their development stage, with all kinds of shortcomings.  I just thought being aware of this dilemma may be helpful.  

Further, I think the key in this dilemma is to realize that your child is not your possession at all.  Your child came from the spiritual world to play the role of your child, just as you came to this world to play a certain role.  You are only serving them in their growth in this world.  (Some people call this, “Children are from God.”)  

Honesty to oneself before honesty to others

Honesty starts within.  Before we express ourselves honestly, we need to be aware of what we are thinking and feeling.  Really.  So often, we don’t examine our honest thoughts and feelings and prematurely adopt socially accepted ideas.  

For instance, many people have problem facing their desires, whether the desire is about luxury cars, sex, or the desire to quit the current cushy job to do something they really like to do.  If you resonate with this statement, you are actually better off than most.  People who have serious problem being honest to themselves are in denial.  They may get upset at people who honestly admits such desires and actively accuse them.  

Monogamy and honesty

It would be dishonest by omission if I skip the issue of fidelity in this article about honesty.  So here is my personal opinion. 

I quit subscribing to the idea of monogamy recently because I see inherent issue of honesty in it.  In monogamous relationship, each partner expects the other to be faithful.  This set expectation — lack of freedom — is ground for dishonesty.  If I meet another attractive man while in monogamous relationship, my choices are:

1. I lie to myself and decide I felt nothing to keep my self image of a “good” faithful person. 
2. I be honest with myself but choose to take no action, to stay faithful to my partner.
3.  I be honest with myself but lie to my partner to keep his dream of fidelity, leading myself to cheat. 
4. I be honest with myself and to my partner, leading to potential breakup.  

I may have no problem choosing #2, but I’m not sure if expecting my partner to always choose #2 is a healthy reasonable expectation. 
And I value honesty more than security and steadiness of relationship.  I’d rather have an honest lover than dishonest / confused one who makes love only to me.    

If I feel insecure when I hear him talk about other women (or men, for that matter), that is my issue, not his, not ours.  I own my feelings.  Same with differences in values and opinions.  He may have different opinions than mine, and that is fine with me.  I know that doesn’t undermine the worth of my opinion.  

I don’t want to lock up someone — anyone.  I don’t think I can justify doing so in the name of love.  And I don’t like to be locked up, either.

Does this mean I’m against monogamous relationship?  No.  If two individuals are happy together, that is wonderful — let’s celebrate!  It’s when such condition is enforced, either by manipulation or by social brain washing, that I have a  with.  (A common way of social brain washing is the promotion of soulmate.) 

Can you let your partner be who he or she is?  Can you let them express themselves freely?  Can you honestly say what is on your mind?    

You are free

In conclusion, I’d like you to realize you are already free.  Whether you have achieved financial, emotional, and mental autonomy or not, and whether you feel free or not, you are free.  It is yet another layer of illusion to believe you are not.  

Free will is the primary right and responsibility in this universe.  You can even choose not to feel free, to believe you are enslaved, and you are still accepted as you are.  Free will is such an essential part of life that God even allows us to go against the Light, to become darkworkers.   

I hope this deep sense of acceptance and freedom helps you build your life based on honesty and truth.  (Photo by victor nuno)