I wrote this post a few years ago, but I might as well have written it two days ago. It all rings true. This time of year can be hectic and challenging for many people, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Life is a gift. Be grateful for your friends and family. Be grateful to be alive. Be Buddha!
“We become what we think about, all day long.”
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
On January 1, 2007, I decided to begin a new life and I’m not talking about making New Year’s resolutions. I made goals for myself: Exercise five days a week and write five pages a day—NO MATTER WHAT (Laundry, groceries, cleaning, cooking would have to wait until my daily goals were met). I decided to call this the ME year. I also decided to fill myself with positive energy and then pass it on to my family and anyone else I happened upon. Right away things started happening. I received an email from a local journalist asking to interview me about my life as a writer. She didn’t care that I was a struggling unpublished writer. The interview was enlightening and fun. People began to approach me and told me that my story inspired them. My kids began to notice a difference in me. The woman I exercise with left a DVD of The Secret at my door. I watched it twice and I knew my positive thoughts had attracted the DVD right to my doorstep.
“Imagination is everything.
It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
--Albert Einstein
The Secret DVD has flaws. Don’t we all? If you watch the entire DVD though, hanging on to the stuff that works for you, it could change your life. I was mesmerized because I knew I had already started using some of the principles of the Law of Attraction. Like attracts Like. Negative attracts Negative. Positive attracts Positive. Below are the things that helped me. And remember, the Law of Attraction is only ONE tool to help you improve your life.
Take responsibility. Take responsibility for the things, good and bad, that have happened in your life. I feel I attracted the bad things and the good things that have come my way. Scientists have proven that we are all made up of energy. Think of yourself as tiny particles. Quantum physicists have proven that like energy attracts like energy. Whatever it is you choose to focus on is exactly what you are drawing to you. Start focusing on the things you want: happiness, financial freedom, a stress-free life, a publishing contract, etc. And then begin to visualize these things as if they have already happened to you. It only takes seconds to feel the power of good positive thoughts. When you’re tired, don’t think “tired.” Think energizing thoughts. If you can’t go to bed and take a nap, what good is thinking about how tired you are going to do you? You have nothing to lose by thinking positive. Nothing. Take all negative words out of your life. If you keep telling yourself that a task is going to be hard, then guess what? It’s going to be hard!
Be grateful. I think this is THE most important thing to do if you truly want to change your attitude and your life. Be grateful for every single thing you have. If you aren’t getting along with someone, remember all the wonderful things about that person. Look around you and be grateful for your eyesight. Be grateful for your legs that help you get around. If a messy house drives you nuts, be grateful you have a roof over your head. Be truly grateful and you’ll make room to receive more wonderful things into your life.
Be positive. Positive that you’re going to get a front parking spot at the store. Positive that today is going to be the best day ever. Positive that you will get everything done that you need to. Positive that any financial problems will take care of themselves. Positive that you will write five pages a day, that you will get an agent, that you will publish.
Action. Don’t just sit on the couch wishing. Do something. You might not know what to do, but putting yourself out there, even if it’s going for coffee with a friend, will lead to the next thing or idea. The very ACT of being, thinking, and feeling positive will make you feel happier. If you want to be published some day, you need to write. If you want to be rich, you need to come up with an idea or go to work. If you want to have a stress-free life, you need to stop sweating the small stuff AND the big stuff. You need to take action.
Amazing changes will occur. Once you start thinking positive, everybody you come into contact with, including your family, will react differently toward you. They will become more accommodating and/or cooperative. You’ll relax more and worry less. You’ll look and feel younger.
Life Still Happens. Think positive, but also keep your logic intact and know that your car might still break down, your kid might not make the soccer team, you might lose your car keys or stub your toe, but HOW you REACT will make all the difference in the world. Since surviving cancer, Lance Armstrong said, “I now have good days and great days.” You don’t have to survive cancer to feel the same way.
“We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path.”
--Martin Luther King Jr.
Being positive, for whatever reasons, doesn’t appeal to everyone. Read up on the Law of Attraction and positive thinking and convince yourself to give it a chance. The power of positive thinking can do things beyond your imagining. If the idea seems strange, give it a try anyhow. You have nothing to lose, but only to gain. Ignore what others might say or think about you once they discover you are changing the way you think. My son pointed out that people aren’t changing around me, but that I’m seeing people in a new way, perhaps even through rose-colored glasses. Maybe he’s right. But you know what? It’s working for me. The other day I came home from a two hour PTC meeting and my daughter asked me how it went and I said, “AMAZING.” And it was. My husband rolled his eyes and said, “Everything that happens to you can’t possibly be amazing.” I laughed and said I would stop using that word around him so much and I could see his mind reeling, perhaps remembering the old me, and he said, “No. No. Keep doing whatever you’re doing. I like it.”
“We are shaped by our thoughts, we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”
--Buddha