Remind Yourself of What’s Important

A friend of ours who is a salesman and who’s away from his home and family more than he’d like to be, told us about a tape he put together that never fails to lift his spirits. 

The tape consists of a series of messages from the most important people in his life: his wife, his father, his kids, and his closest friend. 

On his tape, each of these people says, in his or her own words, how important this man is to them.  They say what they like, admire, and respect about him. They say how much they appreciate him, love him, and miss him when he’s away. 

He says that after a tough sales call, or anytime he needs a lift, he plays that tape and instantly he feels very fortunate, very happy, and has greater sense of self-worth. 

It puts everything back in its proper perspective, and gives him renewed strength and a very positive attitude. Perhaps you could benefit from creating a similar tape of your own.

Wash Away Negativity with a Powerful Visualization

Another technique for feeling totally positive is called the funnel of energy.  It’s a simple visualization exercise that can take less than a minute, but it makes you feel great.

Here’s how you do it. Imagine there’s a funnel of positive energy flowing in through the top of your head.  This positive energy comes from the purist, highest, most divine source of energy in the universe. 

It makes you feel more alive, stronger, more aware and alert.  The moment it enters your body you sense its positive, loving, healing effect.  You feel it cleansing you of negativity.  Washing away any past negative programming you have experienced.

It’s dissolving all the old fears, the old inhibitions, the old limitations.  Feel this positive, loving, healing energy washing away all negative thoughts, images and feelings.  

Feel it releasing your inner strength.  The energy continues to flow in, through your shoulders, arms and hands, your chest, your back, abdomen, hips, legs and feet, reaching every part of your body dissolving all negativity. 

It’s converting your entire body to healthful positive energy.  Imagine all the negativity flowing out of your hands and feet leaving your body filled with only the purest positive energy. If feels so good to free yourself from negativity, it feels so good to be totally positive.

Practice this visualization any time you’d like. Allow the visualization to last as long as you need to feel revived and purged of all negativity. It’s great any time you need a lift.

Welcome Life’s Obstacles – Adversity is Opportunity

Life throws each of us a lot of curves.   No one goes through life without problems, or without running into obstacles.  And some of these problems or obstacles can be huge. 

But what’s really important is how we face these obstacles.  If we think negatively, we can be overwhelmed, give up or become ineffective in dealing with them. 

But there is a much better way to handle them.  We can choose to look for something positive in the situation.  We can choose to consider it a blessing in disguise – even if we have no idea what that blessing might be.

We can look for an advantage or opportunity in any situation. As Richard Bach points out in his book Illusions, “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift in its hands.”

And the Chinese word for crisis is written with two characters.  One of them means opportunity.

Many of our students have become so positive that when an unexpected problem arises they automatically say “Oh good!” 

They then immediately start looking for the opportunity presented by the situation.  And they inevitably find it.  This can work for you, too.

Learning to deal successfully with obstacles can help you live a more fulfilling life.  As Booker T. Washington said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the positions that we have reached in life, as by the obstacles which we have overcome while trying to succeed.”

Don’t Worry – Be Happy

In order to be totally positive, we need to know how to deal with worry.  Every thought we have affects us physically as well as mentally, and worry can be very harmful.  Dr. Charles Mayo said; “Worry affects circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system, and profoundly affects the health.”

Think about the process you go through when you worry.  In your mind you picture a negative end result.  It takes no effort or willpower; you just dwell on it.

And in a short time this negative end result appears very real to you and you generate the same emotions that you’d experience if it really happened. You experience the same fear, anxiety, or discouragement. 

Consequently, you end up feeling bad right now for something that is merely a thought in your mind.

At the same time you are setting up patterns in your mind for future negative experiences. The more you worry, the more you train your mind to expect bad things.

Even if your “problem” never manifests itself, the worry takes its toll through immediate discomfort and the harmful effects of excessive stress.

It’s said that worry is interest paid in advance on a debt you may never owe. And Mark Twain put it this way; “I’ve had a lot of troubles in my day – most of which never happened.”

So, most worry is useless. You’re better off ejecting it.

But you can take the same process you use to worry, change just one thing, and it can help you immensely. Instead of imagining a negative end result, imagine a positive one!  This, too, takes very little effort or willpower. 

Just dwell on that positive end result and in no time at all you’ll be generating the emotions that are associated with that experience. 

You’ll feel great immediately as a result of something that is merely a thought in your mind.  You’ll feel joy, happiness, and self-confidence.  Plus, you’ll be setting up patterns in your mind for future positive experiences.

So make the worry process work for you rather than against you. Get into the habit of expecting good things.

Start Today

There are many other things you can do to become more positive, but this handful of ideas is a great start. Begin today and you’ll soon realize what a tremendous impact they’ll have on your life.

~ ~

Copyright © 2006 Bob Griswold and Jeff Griswold, Effective Learning Systems, Inc.

About the Authors:

Bob and Jeff Griswold are contributing authors to the compilation book "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life" and the Founder and President, respectively, of Effective Learning Systems, Inc., the leading creator of audio CDs and tapes for personal development and self-improvement:

~ ~ ~