A Positive Mind
Your prescription to a more fulfilling life.
First published in What Medicine Magazine and Live it Naturally 2006/7
‘Learn by Doing’
Let me tell you something perhaps you won’t know about yourself – something at this moment you may find difficult to believe.
You are a GENIUS! In fact; so is every member of your family, all your friends – and everyone who reads this is a genius too. How do I know that? Let me explain.
Inside you right now, is all the power you need to realise any dream, any wish, any ambition and make it a reality. Within you is GENIUS. Within you is an unlimited potential to achieve success in all areas of your life. Whether you want to quit an addiction, create long-term changes, or transform other areas of your life; perhaps in your relationships or at work – every aspect of your life begins and ends with your thinking, your belief system; and this is the foundation we need to reinforce and make absolutely secure.
I know I don’t know you, nor of the problems you may have faced in the past, or problems you may be encountering now, or those you will experience in the future. But dwell on this great reality; your inner genius is not something you need to develop, in fact you can’t develop it because you already have it; neither does it involve a rigorous regime of mind training – all you require is a tool that will help you release your inner power; and that tool is ‘you’ taking control of the way you think.
Like it or not, we’re all ruled by our habits and a belief system built throughout our lives right to this moment. Whether these habits and beliefs are positive or negative depends on our own choices. We can choose to allow our mind to be dominated by negative thoughts, or we can make the conscious decision to replace negative ideas and impulses with positive ones whenever they occur. Positive habits will automatically influence your mind allowing it to become more alert, your imagination more active, your enthusiasm and willpower to saturate your senses.
So where do these negative thought patterns and beliefs come from? For most of our lives our minds have been trained to react to situations as they present themselves, from listening to others, following what other people do, basically heading in a direction that is largely negative; and we do this because our minds have never been told not to.
Look at it this way. There is your mind – which contains all those negative thought patterns – and then there’s you; you who wants to achieve wonderful things. But it’s these negative thought patterns that count towards your inability to achieve them.
The problem lies in the subconscious mind, that part of our thoughts and thinking that goes way beyond the mere ‘conscious’ state. Our subconscious mind doesn’t distinguish between what’s good and what’s bad for us – it doesn’t say “hey, lets not do that because it’s not good for me,” it simply responds to the instructions from the mind, these being your thoughts and beliefs. That’s why if you have a negative belief about something – your reality will represent that belief; and you will continue to believe it’s true – it’s a vicious cycle which you created because of your negative thought patterns.
Let me give you an example. Say you work for a large company, and you want to be successful in the work you do, but your private thinking tends towards the negative. “I’m not good enough” you might say, or I can’t do my job very well, no one likes me, they’re cutting back on staff, and I’m the one they’ll likely fire. Such negative beliefs about your abilities – no matter how much you want to do better, no matter how much you want to improve your performance at work, will simply not happen. Why? Because you don’t believe it will. Every belief you have is picked up by your subconscious mind and manifested into reality. Negative thought patterns lead to a negative reality in that area of your life.
If you have a negative belief system about money or success, if you worry, or you’re stressed, or frightened about the future, your subconscious will act on these beliefs and make them a reality. In many ways you destroy your own life based on the negative thoughts you have – and these negative thought patterns come from past experiences and how you interpret them.
The only way you can break this cycle is to change your beliefs, then your reality will change too. But how do we take that step towards success, and a happier more fulfilling life. We do it by examining the areas of our lives needing improvement, or even a complete change. Then take the next step and note your thought patterns. Do they limit you? Are they getting in the way of what you want to achieve? Do they help you accomplish your goals?
If you want to achieve something, anything; you need to make a plan. Let’s face it, if you’re about to go off on holiday, you will make a plan, similarly if you’re going to have a party, you will make a plan. Quite often these plans may be just a collection of ideas, of thoughts, or they may be written in indelible ink – like a military operation; we’re all different, we all approach things in our own unique way.
If you want to achieve your goals, improve your life in any way you wish; you must first decide what’s important to you, what you really want; you don’t need to know all the details, just a list of what you really want to achieve will be enough.
A significant number of people who write their goals down achieve them – in fact 80% do, but sadly just 5% of us actually get around to writing our goals and desires. So many of us are conditioned to believe that things are difficult, that life is tough, you have to fight to get to the top. It’s a head down, keep going regardless kind of philosophy. This type of thinking is self-destructive, it’s restricting your belief system, and will destroy any chances of success.
When an idea occurs to you, it’s usually in the form of a picture, of something happening, rather than a sentence that runs through your head. The saying goes ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, much of your thinking takes place in words, yet the most profoundly motivational thinking you do takes place in pictures. Pictures are an immediate and powerful way of thinking.
Your minds image-making ability takes place at a far deeper level than its language-making. If we take a look at human evolution, the art of language-making has developed fairly recently. Pictures have a direct, basic, elemental appeal to your emotions. Words must first be translated into pictures before the deepest levels of your mind will accept them and be changed by them.
You must learn to discipline your thoughts and visualise the things you want. If you want to be successful at anything you first have to believe you can accomplish it. Your key to success is your belief system. If you have a negative belief system then your success will be limited, if you have a positive belief system then you will enjoy success after success and a rewarding life.
It is very easy to build a feeling of insecurity, or security by how we think. If in our thoughts we constantly fix attention upon sinister expectations of dire events that might happen, the result will be constantly to feel insecure. And what is more serious is the tendency to create, by the power of thought, the very conditions we fear.
Deep within us we may mistrust our ability to meet responsibilities or to grasp opportunities. Often we’re beset by a vague and sinister fear that something is going to go wrong, we do not believe we have it in us to be what we want to be, and so we try to make ourselves content with something less than that of which we’re capable. So many of us crawl through life on our hands and knees, defeated and afraid, and in nearly all cases the frustration is unnecessary.
Now – make that list of things you want to achieve in life. Think about those goals and pay particular attention to the thoughts you have about achieving those goals. Write down your negative thought patterns, negative beliefs – see what you come up with; then tear your list into fragments and leave them for the dustman next time he calls – those negative thoughts have gone now! Begin the process of visualising yourself having already achieved those goals, already living the life you want.
Copyright: Simon Lawrence
Let me tell you something perhaps you won’t know about yourself – something at this moment you may find difficult to believe.
You are a GENIUS! In fact; so is every member of your family, all your friends – and everyone who reads this is a genius too. How do I know that? Let me explain.
Inside you right now, is all the power you need to realise any dream, any wish, any ambition and make it a reality. Within you is GENIUS. Within you is an unlimited potential to achieve success in all areas of your life. Whether you want to quit an addiction, create long-term changes, or transform other areas of your life; perhaps in your relationships or at work – every aspect of your life begins and ends with your thinking, your belief system; and this is the foundation we need to reinforce and make absolutely secure.
I know I don’t know you, nor of the problems you may have faced in the past, or problems you may be encountering now, or those you will experience in the future. But dwell on this great reality; your inner genius is not something you need to develop, in fact you can’t develop it because you already have it; neither does it involve a rigorous regime of mind training – all you require is a tool that will help you release your inner power; and that tool is ‘you’ taking control of the way you think.
Like it or not, we’re all ruled by our habits and a belief system built throughout our lives right to this moment. Whether these habits and beliefs are positive or negative depends on our own choices. We can choose to allow our mind to be dominated by negative thoughts, or we can make the conscious decision to replace negative ideas and impulses with positive ones whenever they occur. Positive habits will automatically influence your mind allowing it to become more alert, your imagination more active, your enthusiasm and willpower to saturate your senses.
So where do these negative thought patterns and beliefs come from? For most of our lives our minds have been trained to react to situations as they present themselves, from listening to others, following what other people do, basically heading in a direction that is largely negative; and we do this because our minds have never been told not to.
Look at it this way. There is your mind – which contains all those negative thought patterns – and then there’s you; you who wants to achieve wonderful things. But it’s these negative thought patterns that count towards your inability to achieve them.
The problem lies in the subconscious mind, that part of our thoughts and thinking that goes way beyond the mere ‘conscious’ state. Our subconscious mind doesn’t distinguish between what’s good and what’s bad for us – it doesn’t say “hey, lets not do that because it’s not good for me,” it simply responds to the instructions from the mind, these being your thoughts and beliefs. That’s why if you have a negative belief about something – your reality will represent that belief; and you will continue to believe it’s true – it’s a vicious cycle which you created because of your negative thought patterns.
Let me give you an example. Say you work for a large company, and you want to be successful in the work you do, but your private thinking tends towards the negative. “I’m not good enough” you might say, or I can’t do my job very well, no one likes me, they’re cutting back on staff, and I’m the one they’ll likely fire. Such negative beliefs about your abilities – no matter how much you want to do better, no matter how much you want to improve your performance at work, will simply not happen. Why? Because you don’t believe it will. Every belief you have is picked up by your subconscious mind and manifested into reality. Negative thought patterns lead to a negative reality in that area of your life.
If you have a negative belief system about money or success, if you worry, or you’re stressed, or frightened about the future, your subconscious will act on these beliefs and make them a reality. In many ways you destroy your own life based on the negative thoughts you have – and these negative thought patterns come from past experiences and how you interpret them.
The only way you can break this cycle is to change your beliefs, then your reality will change too. But how do we take that step towards success, and a happier more fulfilling life. We do it by examining the areas of our lives needing improvement, or even a complete change. Then take the next step and note your thought patterns. Do they limit you? Are they getting in the way of what you want to achieve? Do they help you accomplish your goals?
If you want to achieve something, anything; you need to make a plan. Let’s face it, if you’re about to go off on holiday, you will make a plan, similarly if you’re going to have a party, you will make a plan. Quite often these plans may be just a collection of ideas, of thoughts, or they may be written in indelible ink – like a military operation; we’re all different, we all approach things in our own unique way.
If you want to achieve your goals, improve your life in any way you wish; you must first decide what’s important to you, what you really want; you don’t need to know all the details, just a list of what you really want to achieve will be enough.
A significant number of people who write their goals down achieve them – in fact 80% do, but sadly just 5% of us actually get around to writing our goals and desires. So many of us are conditioned to believe that things are difficult, that life is tough, you have to fight to get to the top. It’s a head down, keep going regardless kind of philosophy. This type of thinking is self-destructive, it’s restricting your belief system, and will destroy any chances of success.
When an idea occurs to you, it’s usually in the form of a picture, of something happening, rather than a sentence that runs through your head. The saying goes ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, much of your thinking takes place in words, yet the most profoundly motivational thinking you do takes place in pictures. Pictures are an immediate and powerful way of thinking.
Your minds image-making ability takes place at a far deeper level than its language-making. If we take a look at human evolution, the art of language-making has developed fairly recently. Pictures have a direct, basic, elemental appeal to your emotions. Words must first be translated into pictures before the deepest levels of your mind will accept them and be changed by them.
You must learn to discipline your thoughts and visualise the things you want. If you want to be successful at anything you first have to believe you can accomplish it. Your key to success is your belief system. If you have a negative belief system then your success will be limited, if you have a positive belief system then you will enjoy success after success and a rewarding life.
It is very easy to build a feeling of insecurity, or security by how we think. If in our thoughts we constantly fix attention upon sinister expectations of dire events that might happen, the result will be constantly to feel insecure. And what is more serious is the tendency to create, by the power of thought, the very conditions we fear.
Deep within us we may mistrust our ability to meet responsibilities or to grasp opportunities. Often we’re beset by a vague and sinister fear that something is going to go wrong, we do not believe we have it in us to be what we want to be, and so we try to make ourselves content with something less than that of which we’re capable. So many of us crawl through life on our hands and knees, defeated and afraid, and in nearly all cases the frustration is unnecessary.
Now – make that list of things you want to achieve in life. Think about those goals and pay particular attention to the thoughts you have about achieving those goals. Write down your negative thought patterns, negative beliefs – see what you come up with; then tear your list into fragments and leave them for the dustman next time he calls – those negative thoughts have gone now! Begin the process of visualising yourself having already achieved those goals, already living the life you want.
Copyright: Simon Lawrence