A Time For Special Relationships

Christmas is for many overwhelming and stressful, presents and food to be bought, family gatherings to be arranged. It is therefore a time when relationships are foremost on their minds. But for some, it is a time of deception, when the printed words of peace and love are in direct opposition to what they really feel inside.

“At this time of year, any relationships that are under strain may totally split asunder. As families gather together old animosities and rivalries can bubble to the surface. The mature approach is to just let them go but it is not easy. It takes two people to have a disagreement. If one of them (you) decides that life is too short and makes a personal commitment to let the real happiness and peace that is Christmas become a reality, then there is no argument. There is no point in winning a series of battles if you can simply end the war”.

Now is the time to review relationships at home, work, and in a social environment, to create a strategy for repairing any relationships that are suspect and terminating those that are beyond repair. It takes inner strength to make the decisions and the commitment. Even small achievements can create their motivation. “If you use your energy to perpetuate a feeling of grudge, envy or hurt, then you are using energy that could, and should be directed to more positive things – like building yourself the life that you truly desire”.

When repairing relationships there is no blame, no right and no wrong. There is simply an outcome or result that arises from an action. If you can learn the actions that create harmony and peace, then the joy of Christmas really will, as the cards say, stay with you throughout the rest of the year. If you want to change somebody else the only place you can begin is with changing yourself. And, the only time you can start is right now”.

Copyright the Coaching Academy

Happy Christmas - Happy Hanukkah - Happy Holidays  

Mastering The Mind

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. - Buddha

You may have tried to control your thoughts at one time or another. With the aid of self help, perhaps you have really tried to “Be Positive” and “Show Negativity the Door.” And this may have even worked for a while. But sooner or later, you probably found yourself back at the starting point.

There is another way to become the CEO of your own mind, skillfully directing it to live in harmony with the other players of self, body, and spirit. If you follow the following steps, you will become the master of  YOU in no time.

Listen and Acknowledge

Like all good leaders, you are going to have to listen to your disgruntled "employee" and acknowledge that you are taking its message seriously. Minds, like people, can relax and let go when they feel heard and understood. Practice gratitude and thank your mind for its contribution. For example: “Thank you, mind, for reminding me that if I do not succeed in making more sales, I might get fired.” “Thank you for telling me that I may always be alone and never find love and have a family.” “These are important areas of life, and I need to pay attention to them, and do my best to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. I also need to learn from past experiences, so I do not keep making the same mistakes”.

Make Peace With Your Mind

You may not like what your mind does or the way it conducts itself. In fact, all that negativity can be downright irritating sometimes. But the fact is, you are stuck with it and you cannot (and most likely would not want to) just lobotomize it away. In the book The Happiness Trap, Dr. Russ Harris uses the example of the Israelis and the Palestinians to illustrate your relationship with your mind’s negative thoughts. These two old enemies may not like each other’s way of life, but they are stuck with each other. If they wage war on each other, the other side retaliates, and more people get hurt and buildings destroyed. When that occurs, they have a lot less energy to focus on building the health and happiness of their societies.

Just as living in peace would allow these nations to build healthier and more prosperous societies, so would making peace with your mind. Accepting that negative thoughts and feelings will be there, and that you cannot control them, will allow you to focus on your actions in the present moment, so that you can move ahead with your most important goals without getting all fouled up. You do not necessarily have to like the thoughts or agree with them, you just have to let them be there in the background of your mind, while you go out and get things done.

Realise Your Thoughts Are Just Thoughts

Most of the time we do not “see” our minds. They just feel like part of us. Dr. Steve Hayes, the founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, uses the concept of being “fused with your thoughts” to illustrate this relationship. To be fused means to be stuck together, undifferentiated. You feel like your thoughts and feelings are YOU, and so you accept them unconditionally as the truth without really looking at them. Such as thinking: "I am a failure and boring therefore I must be a failure and boring". Then the next minute thinking "I am feeling wonderful”. This kind of simplistic logic seems to prevail because we cannot see our own minds, so we have difficulty stepping outside of ourselves and getting an objective observer’s perspective.

In actuality, our thoughts are passing, mental events, influenced by our moods, states of hunger or tiredness, physical health, hormones, the weather, what we watched on TV last night, what we ate for dinner, what we learned as children, and so on. They are like mental habits. And, like any habits, they can be healthy or unhealthy. They also, like other habits, take time to change. Just like a couch potato cannot get up and run a marathon right away, we cannot magically turn off our spinning negative thought/feeling cycles without repeated practice and considerable effort. And even then, our overactive mind will still send us the negative stuff sometimes. 

Observe Your Own Mind

The saying “know thine enemy” is also applicable to our relationship with our own mind. Just like a good leader spends his time walking through the offices, getting to know the employees, so do we need to devote time to getting to know how our mind works day to day. Call it mindfulness, meditation, or quiet time. Time spent observing your mind is as important as time spent exercising. When you try to focus your mind on the in and out rhythm of your breath, or on the trees and flowers when you walk in nature, what does your mind do? If it is like mine, it wanders all over the place, mostly bringing up old worries or unsolved problems from the day. And, if left unchecked, it can take you out of the peacefulness of the present moment, and into a spiral of worry, fear, and judgment.

Mindfulness involves not only noticing where your mind goes when it wanders, but also gently bringing it back to focus on breathing, eating, walking, loving, or working. When you do this repeatedly over months or years, you begin to retrain your runaway mind. Like a good CEO, you begin to know when your mind is checked out or spinning its wheels, and you can gently guide it to get back with the program. When it tries to take off on its own, you can gently remind it that it is an interdependent and essential part of the whole enterprise of YOU.

Retrain Your Mind To Rewire Your Brain

There is an old, and rather wise, saying: “We are what we repeatedly do.” To this, I would add, “We become what we repeatedly think.” Over long periods, our patterns of thinking become etched into the billions of neurons in our brains, connecting them together in unique, entrenched patterns. When certain brain pathways, connections between different components or ideas, are frequently repeated, the neurons begin to “fire” or transmit information together in a rapid, interconnected sequence. Once the first thought starts, the whole sequence gets activated.

Autopilot is great for driving a car, but no so great for emotional functioning. For example, you may have deep seated fears of getting close to people because you were mistreated as a child. To learn to love, you need to become aware of the whole negative sequence and how it is biasing your perceptions, label these reactions as belonging to the past, and refocus your mind on present moment experience. Over time, you can begin to change the wiring of your brain so your prefrontal cortex (the executive center that is responsible for setting, planning, and executing goals), is more able to influence and shut off your rapidly firing, fear based mind (emotion control center). And, this is exactly what brain imaging studies on effects of mindfulness therapy have shown.

Practise Self Compassion

The pioneer of self compassion research, Dr. Kristin Neff, described this concept as “A healthier way of relating to yourself.” While we cannot easily change the gut level feelings and reactions that our minds and bodies produce, we can change how we respond to these feelings. Most of us were taught that vulnerable feelings are signs of weakness, to be hidden from others at all costs. But this is  wrong! Authors such as Dr. Brene Brown provide us with a convincing, research based argument, that expressing your vulnerability can be a source of strength and confidence, if properly managed. 

When we judge our feelings, we lose touch with the benefits of those feelings. They are valuable sources of information about our reactions to events in our lives, and they can tell us what is most meaningful and important to us. Emotions are signals telling us to reach out to for comfort or to take time out to rest and replenish. Rather than criticising ourselves, we can learn new ways of supporting ourselves in our suffering. We may deliberately seek out inner and outer experiences that bring us joy or comfort. Memories of happy times with people we love, the beauty of nature, or creative self expression. Connecting with these resources can help us navigate the difficult feelings while staying grounded in the present.

To be a successful CEO of your own mind, you need to listen, get to know your "employee", acknowledge its contribution, realise its nature, make peace with it, implement a retraining or employee development program, and treat it kindly. It will repay you with a lifetime of loyalty and service to the values and goals that you most cherish.

With thanks to Melanie Greenberg Ph.D

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201304/become-the-ceo-your-own-brain-in-six-easy-steps

Success Requires Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a part of life. It is supposed to be. It is not something to regret. It is something to aspire to. – Mitch Albom

No matter what goals or aspirations you might have, there is one thing certain, there is a price you must pay to get what you want in life. In fact, there is no sidestepping the fact that any type of success demands something from you. It is simply the way life works and rarely will a shortcut ever get you there.

Take a closer look at exactly what success in any field of endeavour may demand from you:

Show No Fear

Fear is something that is likely to consistently hold you back from your desired objectives. Success demands that you overcome your fears and develop the necessary courage you need to pursue your goals with vigour, passion, and zest.

You must successfully strive to overcome, or at the very least successfully manage the fear of uncertainty, the fear of failure, the fear of getting rejected or criticised, the fear of making mistakes, the fear of change, and even the fear of hard work. These are all common fears that hold people back from the life they want to live. However, they cannot hold you back, because success demands that you have no fear, and if you want to achieve any kind of success in your life, then this is something you must successfully work through.

Unwavering Committment

When you are fully committed to something, nothing will sidetrack you. It does not matter whether or not the sun comes up tomorrow, or whether or not the earth stops spinning on its axis. Okay, well maybe these are a bit  far fetched examples. However, I hope you get the point. It is important that you are fully committed to your endeavours without allowing things to pull you off track.

Do not just commit to your goal. That is not enough. Success demands far more than that. What success demands from you is that you fully commit to being extraordinary, courageous, disciplined, and to being accountable for your decisions and actions. Success also demands that you have an unwavering commitment to excellence, a commitment to persevere despite the inevitable setbacks that life will throw your way, and that you are committed to taking consistent action daily towards your objectives.

It is the dedication you show on a daily basis towards your desired outcomes that will make all the difference in the end.

Believe Failure Is Not An Option

Success in anything you do is riddled with problems, mistakes, and the inevitable failure. These things are unavoidable. You will face these circumstances sooner or later on your journey. However, it is not the circumstances that matter, rather what you believe about these circumstances that makes all the difference in the end.

You must believe that no matter what happens, how badly you fail and how horrible this might make you feel, failure is never an option. Success demands that you pick yourself up after a failure or mistake and try once again. Yes, change your strategy and do something a little (or a lot) different, however, you must keep going. Just keep moving forward with passion and a strong sense of purpose that no matter what, you will eventually get to your ultimate destination. 

Make No Excuses

Excuses are for those people who live with constant regret about the things that they could have, should have or would have done. These people never achieve their desired long term outcomes because excuses get in the way and prevent them from taking advantage of the opportunities that problems present them with.

Success demands that you take full responsibility for everything that happens to you without blaming others or blaming external events or seemingly uncontrollable circumstances for your problems. You are responsible for your decisions and actions, and as a result, you never make any excuses, fully understanding that excuses only lead to further problems. They most certainly never help you solve them.

Difficult Choices

As you make progress along your journey towards your desired outcomes, success will demand that you make difficult choices about what you will and will not do and choose what you will and will not sacrifice. It also demands that you decide what is the most important thing to focus on at any one time. Success demands that you choose who you will spend your time with, keeping in mind that the people you spend the most time with could either help or hinder your progress.

Most importantly success demands that you make difficult daily choices about how you spend your time, energy and money. You must consistently invest your energy into meaningful tasks and goal congruent activities that will provide you with the highest long term benefits. Spending your time on the wrong things could very well spell the difference between success and failure.

Sacrifices

The goals and objectives you have in mind will not magically manifest in your life. You will need to work hard and potentially make some drastic sacrifices along the way.

Success requires some kind of sacrifice. You will not gain something for nothing. That is not how the world works, and it is therefore certainly not something you can bank on. If you are not willing to make the necessary sacrifices to attain your goals and objectives, then you will fail to create the momentum you need to get your desired outcomes.

Anything you want in your life is essentially unattainable. It is unattainable if you do not give something up in order to get something back. Giving something up could come in the form of your time, energy or money. You might need to sacrifice one of these things, or maybe a combination of these things in order to get what you want.

With thanks to Adam Sicinski

To read the full article go to https://blog.iqmatrix.com/price-of-success

Develop An Abundance Mindset

Imagine that you and I are walking down the street.

You breathe in and out, I breathe in and out. We both need oxygen to survive. Would you worry that there would not be enough oxygen for both of us? Of course not, air is abundant.

Now imagine suddenly that air becomes a precious commodity.  It is scarcity that makes us worry.  What if there is not enough for both of us?

Our attitude towards scarcity and abundance in other aspects of our lives greatly influence our success. 

Most people see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else.

The Scarcity Mentality is the zero sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit, even with those who help in the production. They also have a hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people. 

The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth or security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody.  It results in the sharing of prestige, recognition, profits and  decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives and creativity.

Covey tells us that when you live in a world of scarcity, you compete for available resources, even when there is an abundance of them.

More often than not, the challenges people face stem from a scarcity mindset.

Leaders who allow a scarcity mindset to work its way into their culture pay a high price. When resources (money, opportunity, recognition) are perceived to be limited, paranoia, fear and politics thrive. In this environment, people become nervous and afraid to make a mistake. As a result, teamwork and innovation suffer.

Effective leaders, on the other hand, develop and model an abundance mindset. By doing so, they create an environment where they can positively influence the people around them  and help them to thrive. 

Here is how to spread this positive mentality: 

Offer words of appreciation. 

Let people know how much you value their contributions. People want to know that their work matters. Your influence and happiness will increase in direct proportion to the appreciation that you show them.  This is one of the fastest and simplest ways to build a more abundant life.

Choose to see opportunity. 

The next time your are faced with an obstacle, flip it around and consider it an opportunity. Face the challenge with optimism and make sure everyone sees you modeling that attitude. You willl be surprised at how quickly problems dissolve and how soon optimism becomes your default mechanism.

Remind yourself that there is more than enough. 

As Covey said, there is enough pie to go around, so break that nasty habit of comparing yourself to others. Repeat after me: There is plenty for everyone. Say the sentence often enough, and it will become second nature.

Carefully select the company you keep. 

Mindsets are contagious, limit your time with the "glass is half empty"type of people.

Spend time in reflection. 

Learn to acknowledge and appreciate all the positives in your life. Gratitude is a powerful aspect of an abundant mindset. A grateful heart is at the centre of an abundant life.  People with a grateful mindset tend to see the message in the mess. And even though life may knock them down, the grateful find reasons, if even small ones, to get up..

Give more of what you want. 

Although it may sound counterintuitive, one of the best ways to increase your abundance is to give. Do not feel like there is not have enough time to slip away from your obligations, even if just for an hour, to help someone in need.  Or feel like you do not have enough money? Give to someone less fortunate. In other words, be a river, not a reservoir. Giving is sure to put you in a more abundant and appreciative frame of mind.

Reflect on the influence you have on other people.  Which mindset do you model? Do you see a positive, abundant mentality reflected in your family and friends? Or are they pessimistic, stingy and competing among themselves for your attention? Remember, you set the tone.

I challenge you to foster an abundance minded culture. Encourage people to see options and opportunity when they face obstacles or challenges. Express appreciation regularly, and recognise others who do the same. Communicate and share your hopes for yourself and  the people around you.

Remember, we are all leaders. Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. We influence the people around us wherever we are, whether it is at home, work, on the motorway or in the checkout line. As you build an authentic and sincere abundance mindset, you will find that your positive outlook can spill over and influence the people around you.

William James said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.” Let your mindset be your biggest asset!

With thanks to JJimenez

https://www.success.com/john-c-maxwell-6-tips-to-develop-and-model-an-abundance-mindset/

Thoughts Are Things

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” — Norman Vincent Peele

Thoughts are things. They are powerful and preemptive. The very thoughts running through your mind can help to manifest the life of your dreams, or draw you closer to your greatest fears. But most people do not realise the inherent power of their thoughts. We go about our lives steeped in one mindset or another, without the clear realisation that whatever it is we think about or focus on consistently, we move towards.

Whether or not you believe that statement is rather subjective. The truth of the matter is that we are the product of our thoughts. Think, and you shall become. It is part of the manifestation of our destiny. But not everyone holds to this credo. Not everyone believes in the fervent power of their thoughts. They brush it off while dwelling on the past or fearing the future, not quite understanding that the very things that they are thinking about, they are inching closer towards.

At the very fundamental level, thoughts are purely energy. They move across the synapses in our brains, jumping from one neuron to another, moving from one cluster to the next in lightning-fast speed. It is a near instantaneous process. If you think about moving your hand, as you think it, it happens. There is no lag there. You  are not waiting for some CPU to crunch directives. The mind is the most powerful computer in the world at the moment.

That energy moving across the synapses of your neurons, has potential to revolutionise your life. A single thought can spark a flurry of activity. In a moment we can decide and commit to something, anything, that will move us in one path or the next towards our hopes and dreams. Those same thoughts can also fester and marinate in our minds, infecting every emotion and behaviour until it manifests itself into reality.

There is no denying the power of your thoughts and no hiding from something that is so real and exact that it can either be harnessed for good, or leveraged for extreme bad. But what are thoughts exactly? How do they work? Is everything in our lives right now the product of our thoughts? Have we truly manifested whatever reality we might be experiencing at this moment in time?

Understanding Your Thoughts

The human mind is still something that perplexes us. While we have an abundance of information on how it works, we have not quite grasped all of its nuances and complexities. Just how is it that we are experiencing reality? How does consciousness work? Why are we in this body right now and experiencing these things? If you stop for a moment to think about it, the thoughts will daunt you. It is an overwhelming fact, something that we cannot quite wrap our heads around.

To add to that equation, as humans, our bodies are made up of 99.9999% empty space. The atoms in our bodies, at their most finite scales, are simply empty space, held together by electrical charges. On a quantum level, things get even stranger. Those atoms can actually appear in two places at the same time, which is called quantum superposition. Matter exists in a variety of forms and states due to complex quantum wave functions. So, what we are experiencing and feeling is not quite 100% real, so to speak.

I know it all sounds very strange. And we do not need to understand how it all works or get into an indepth discussion about quantum physics to be able to understand that reality is merely a projection of our thoughts on a finite scale. But we do need to be able to leverage it. Since everything is held together by electrical energies, and our thoughts are pure energy, it is easy to see how thoughts, on their most fundamental scale, can permeate everything. On the macro scale, it is harder to appreciate. But think smaller. Think nano-level and beyond.

However, another problem that arises is that the human mind is a computer that has been pre-conditioned. It has some software that is installed at birth in the form of our DNA, but after that, every new experience is another memory logged that might create a variety of functions. As we grow older, those functions turn into habits. But at the very basal level, everything is created by our thoughts and how we perceive things.

We are all unique in our own special little ways, and even identical twins can grow up to become wildly different people. That is because their thoughts evolve differently, permeating their lives in ways that are unique only to them. It is the nature of mankind, and the divine chisel that carves us into who we are. I doubt we will ever understand it all. But for those that can appreciate it and harness the true power of their thoughts, anything is possible.

Living In Fear

Did you know that the human mind processes anywhere between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts in any given day? Obviously, not all of those thoughts are conscious. And, not all of those thoughts are unique. Many of the thoughts are repeated and replayed in our subconscious minds. They stem from our deepest and most darkest fears. These are the what-if scenarios that we cannot seem to escape no matter what we do.

Fear-based thought is one of the most prevalent thoughts that pervade our minds. On the other end of that spectrum are thoughts that are founded on the purity of love, honesty and forgiveness. Yet, not enough of our thoughts are love-based thoughts. Much of them are fear based. The problem with living in a fear-based mindset, is that those fears have a tendency for transmuting themselves into reality.

When you live in fear, not only does it tax you mentally, but also emotionally, spiritually, and of course, physically. Mentally speaking, you spend much of your time dwelling on the what-ifs, and thinking about all those doomsday scenarios. Much of our fear-based thoughts revolve around our finances and relationships, but also extend into our careers, health and other areas of our lives.

Clearly, spending much of your time living in fear also does a number on your emotions. Thoughts produce emotions. Any thought based on fear is going to produce a set of resultant emotions that will develop a foundation for stress and anxiety. When your emotions are taxed, it weighs heavily on your spirit, but also produces stress hormones that negatively affect your physiology. It suppresses your digestive and reproductive systems along with reducing your immune system into shambles.

The power of our fear-based thoughts are abundantly clear. They can ruin us. They can make us head for the ropes and run for the trenches. It is a terrible state-of-mind to have to live in a constant mindset of fear, but countless people from around the globe cannot help but live in that very state. However, if you are serious about achieving your goals or accomplishing anything notable in life, you have to extricate yourself from a mindset of fear.

As difficult as it might feel, we have to gravitate towards love. Fear (and also hate) take a great deal of energy, whereas love is effortless and empowering. The sooner you move from a fear-based mentality to a love-based mentality, the sooner you will feel that cathartic cleansing that comes along with pure and unconditional love. It is not a gullible state to live in. That is simply the inherent power of thought at play on a constant basis in our minds.

How to Shift Your Thinking

We are all creatures of habit. We have very set ways of doing things because we have conditioned ourselves to think, feel and behave that way through years (and sometimes decades) of practice. It is this type of habitual thought patterns that can set the stage for an empowering and fulfilling life, or help to play a hand in our resultant downfall over time. Thoughts quite literally are things since they lay the foundation for any type of life we might decide to lead.

If you are serious about achieving your goals and accomplishing anything worth noting in life, then you have to leverage the power of your thoughts by shifting your thinking. Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” You cannot expect to think, feel and behave the same way but garner different results. You have to take drastic measures by sowing the seeds of change to reap powerful results.

Yet, it does not happen overnight. For those that are serious, there is a pathway to achievement. As long as you can shift your thinking into the right direction, you can quite literally manifest your dreams. So how does this work? This multi-step process is born through the application of a few fundamental principles to help manifest and attract whatever it is that you want in your life. As long as you appreciate the power behind focused thoughts, and you can apply these steps, you can achieve anything.

Refine Your Focus

The power to achieve anything lies in your focus. The more you can focus your thoughts on something, the more likely you wiil be able to achieve it. If you focus your mind on the wrong things, then you will have a harder time achieving anything in life. Learn how to direct and refine your focus to help guide you in the right direction. If you do not, you will feel at the mercy of the events in your life rather than at the helm of them.

Gain the Proper Perspective

Sometimes, we take things for granted in life. We live in the status quo, with the expectation of a certain standard of living, or that people around us will be there for us in our times of need and so on. But, oftentimes, it is the things that we take for granted, which were once not a part of our lives, that we need to appreciate and be grateful for if we want to succeed. There are hundreds of millions of people living in complete squalor with no hope for the future, so be sure to have gratitude for whatever it is that you do have, no matter how meek it might seem.

Set Meaningful Goals

If you want to leverage the power of your thoughts to achieve great things, you have to set meaningful goals. What do your goals mean to you? They cannot be superficial. When we set superficial goals, it is easier to lose sight of them. They have to mean something so profound that it allows us to focus solely on them no matter what tends to get in our way. That only happens when we set goals that truly mean something to us beyond things like money, fame and prestige.

Find Ways to Add Value

We can harness our thoughts to achieve wild success when we are constantly seeking ways to add value. Life should not always be about a direct return on investment from your time spent on things. You have to look at the long-term implications of doing things the right way today, even if it takes a considerable amount of time for that to materialise into real results. When you search for shortcuts, you cut yourself off from the abundance that awaits the person who goes out of their way for others.

Follow a Detailed and Intricate Plan

We can help to guide our thoughts in the right direction when we follow detailed and intricate plans. Whatever it is that you want in life, as long as you do the right amount of planning, you can achieve it over time. It just will not happen overnight. But it is the right plan that will take you from Point A to Point B. Without it, you will be left scratching your head and wondering why you are not making the amount of progress you want to achieve.

Manage Your Time Effectively

Effective time management is a skill that some of the most successful people on earth institute. We all have the same amount of time in this world, no matter who we are. However, it is how we use that time wisely that dictates just what we are capable of achieving. Guide your thoughts in the right direction by first auditing and analysing your time, then institute a system to use the little time you do have wisely towards the achievement of your goals.

Handle Your Bad Habits Before They Handle You

The right thoughts directed in the right direction can be powerful. But the wrong thoughts directed in the wrong direction can be fatal. Poor thoughts help to instill bad habits. And those bad habits can run rampant on our lives. There is almost no way to accomplish and achieve great things in life when our bad habits consume us. Take control of your bad habits before they take control of your life you if you are serious about reaching your goals.

Avoid Negativity Like the Plague

Negative thinking will lead us nowhere fast. Do what it takes to avoid negativity. Remember that all of reality is merely an illusion. On the macro level, it does not seem that way. But on the quantum level, it is hard to believe that what exists actually exists. There is true power in the positive energy of good and pure thoughts. But there is also true catastrophe in negative thinking. Avoid negative thinking like the plague because like attracts like.

Contribute Your Time To Others

Contribution is at the heart of success. Our fellow men, women and children are struggling, even right in our own backyards. Find ways to contribute to them. Contribution will open you up to an enormous source of good energy from the universe. Do not look for ways you can take from others, but rather what you can give to them. No matter what the situation, nor how little you think you might have, others have less. But you do not need to give them money. Just contribute your time. That is all it takes.

Stay Persistent No Matter What

Life can be hard at the best of times. And it can be downright unbearable at the worst of times. But the true pathway to achieving anything is to stay persistent no matter what. No matter how many times you fail or feel like giving up, do not throw in the proverbial towel. Stay strong, persistent and keep pushing. You can do and achieve anything you put your mind to as long as you stay persistent. It is all in your mind. It always has been and it always will be.

With thanks to Wanderlust Worker

https://www.wanderlustworker.com/the-power-of-your-thoughts/

Creative Visualisation

Visualisation is the fundamental technique underlying reality creation. It is the process of using your thought power to consciously imagine, create and attract to yourself that which you intend to experience in your life. Mastering creative visualisation grants you direct control over your thoughts at the subconscious level. While there are several ways to programme the subconscious mind, visualisation is the most effective and its results the most rapid.

The visualisation techniques outlined here will enable you to harness the creative power of your thoughts to change your circumstances and consciously choose the life you create. There are five basic steps to visualising your intentions for reality creation. 

Step 1 – Relax

Learn to relax your body and empty your mind. Find a comfortable seat, sit upright, breathe deeply and steadily, count down slowly from 25 to 1 while relaxing all your muscle groups from head to toe. Empty your mind by focusing on your breathing.

Step 2 - Imagine 

Imagining your intended outcome. Your imagination is the engine of your thoughts. It converts your thought power into mental images. Imagine your ideal reality in the present moment, bring your pictures to life as if watching a movie, concentrate your thoughts with laser like precision and indulge all your senses.

Step 3 - Feel

Feeling what it would feel like if you already had that which you have mentally chosen in the present physical moment. Where imagination is the engine of your thoughts, your feelings are the fuel. Your e-motions are energy in motion they bring your images to life.

Step 4 – Believe

Believing that you already have your mental intentions in the present moment. The words of Jesus Christ were clear on this in Mark 11:24, "What things so ever you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them". This is not about wishful thinking or lying to yourself. It is about knowing the scientific truth behind reality creation and having the kind of faith that is the "evidence of things not seen".

Step 5 – Detach

The fifth and final step in the creative visualisation process cannot be emphasised enough, detachment. Detach yourself from the outcome you intend to see manifest in your life. Whenever you are attached to someone or something, you effectively strip yourself of your authentic power to consciously create the life you choose. You cannot be grateful or feel unconditional love or enjoy peace of mind when you are attached to the unfolding of a specific outcome, so detach, detach, detach.

Practice is Key

You must practice, practice, practice. Set aside a time each day for your creative visualisations, preferably once in the morning upon waking and once in the evening before you go to sleep. Both these times are ideal as your mind is already in a semi-relaxed state. Once you have mastered this simple five step process, you will see your life transforming in miraculous ways.

Getting On With It

Once you have completed the process, get on with the rest of your day. To bring yourself back to a normal waking state, simply continue to breathe deeply and rhythmically and count up from 1 to 5 consciously waking yourself from the relaxed state and slowly opening your eyes. Alternatively, if you are visualising while in bed, you can allow yourself to drift off to sleep although it is perferable that you do not.

Leave the How up to the Universe

The focus of your visualisations must be on the outcome, not the process. Once you accept the truth about your thought power and that you are one with the Universal Mind, you will be able to release any need to control the process. Instructing the all-knowing Universe "how" you want things to come about is telling Omniscience that you know better.

With thanks to Tania Kotsos

https://www.mind-your-reality.com/creative_visualization.html#Part_2

Master Your Own Destiny

Are you the master of your own fate, or are you a slave to fate? That has been a question mankind has been asking since they first became cognisant of their own existence. Why does it have to be one or the other? Could not both co-exist?

It can be very difficult, especially for a spiritual person to accept that life, the universe and everything are just the results of a gazillion years of random, meaningless occurrences.

Many of us have had experiences that are all too meaningful to think they were not contrived. Tell a person who got a bad feeling and changed his flight that it was just a coincidence he was not on the plane that burned and crashed.

Destiny

Tell the mother who dreamed of the birth of her child before it happened that she was just dreaming. If you have ever had a good psychic reading that foretold you of events to come, you will find it impossible to believe in the idea that everything that happens is an accident, that it is all coincidence and not contrived. How can this possibly be, if nothing is determined?

Free Will

At the same time, it is easy to understand why some people believe in free will. Think about how much our choices and actions (or lack of actions) guide our lives. Most of the time, we can trace things that happen to us back to a choice we made at some point.

If there was no free will, there would be no point in ever trying, would there? We could just sit back and let the chips fall where they may; and we would not have to take any personal responsibility for any outcomes. But the fact is, people who are responsible and smart, who plan well for their goals and their future, will usually succeed at most things.

People who blow off responsibilities, who do nyt make smart choices, will usually end up suffering for their mistakes. We cannot deny that we have a hand in how things turn out for us.

Working Together

Everyone does have a destiny. We are all born for a purpose, and there are lessons and experiences we are meant to have in this lifetime. However, we also have the right and the responsibility of choice. We get to decide if we are going to do things to pursue our destiny, or move further away from it.

Yes, you can create your own destiny. We need to accept that life can be hard, and some of us are here to learn some hard lessons, or do some difficult things. You can certainly opt out, you can take an easy road , or at least a road that seems easier at the time. You can even change your destiny with your free will.

The Power Of Negative Thought

Negative thinking appears to be more prevalent than positive thinking. It seems that with most people, positive thinking requires some effort, whereas, negative thinking comes easily and often uninvited. This has much to do with education and the environment one has been living in.

If you have been brought up in a happy and positive atmosphere, there is more probability that it will be easier for you to think positively. However, If you have been brought up under poor or difficult situations, you will more probably be attracted to negative thinking.

You view the world through your predominant mental attitude. If your thoughts are positive, that is fine, but if they are negative, your life and circumstances would probably mirror these thoughts.

If you believe that you are going to fail, you will unconsciously sabotage every opportunity to succeed. If you are afraid of meeting new people or having close relationships, you will do everything to avoid people and relationships, and then complain that you are lonely and nobody loves you.

The power of negative thinking in action

• Do you often think about difficulties, failure and disasters?
• Keep thinking about the negative news see and hear on the TV, or read in the newspapers?
• See yourself stuck and unable to improve your life or your health?
• Frequently think that you do not deserve happiness or money, or that it is too difficult to get them?

If you do, then you will close your mind, see no opportunities, and behave and react in such ways, as to repel people and opportunities.

The mind often, does not judge or examine thoughts and opinions before accepting them. If what it hears, sees and reads is always negative, it accepts this as a standard.

The media constantly bombards the mind with a lot of information about disasters, catastrophes, wars and other unhappy events. This information sinks into the subconscious mind, and then, manifests as your habitual manner of thinking. By occupying the mind with depressing and pessimistic thoughts you radiate negative energy into the surrounding world, and therefore, create and recreate more negativity, failures and disasters.

The mind is neutral energy. The way you think determines whether the results are positive and beneficial, or negative and harmful. It is the same energy acting in different ways.

The good news is that persistent inner work can change habits of thinking. You must be willing to put energy and time to pursue positive thinking, in order to change your mental attitude.

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