YOU can be happy!

How do you understand the term “Positive thinking?”

To many of us, it is basically synonymous with affirmations- notions of how one would like things to be.  Affirmations are definitely useful and are certainly positive thoughts- and a path to positive thinking.

But a major pitfall to applying Affirmations, as well as other routes to personal improvement, is to try to stretch the use of affirmations to cover you even when you feel like they are not working.  It’s a stretch when you’re seeing your finances in the gutter, but try to say “I am in charge of my finances.” or “I am good with money.” You’re not going to back that up with the good feeling that it’s supposed to inspire because it’s diametrically opposed to what you’re seeing around you.

Which is why Esther Hicks and her Non-physical counterpart- Abraham- emphasize finding the next-best feeling thought to where you are; a slow, gradual approach to getting where you want to be.  In their book “Ask and It Is Given,” (www.abraham-hicks.com) they offer a process that suggests Talking yourself UP!  As you talk or write out your situation, try to look at it in slightly more positive terms- only slightly, to avoid pulling an emotional muscle and letting it backfire on you:

“I’m not where I want to be with my finances…  But I have some friends who know people at H&R Block and my niece is in school to be a CPA…”

One aspect of positive thinking that is often overlooked, as the focus tends to fall on Affirmations, is basic human resourcefulness- looking around at what you have available to you.  This helps you feel better and can lead to the next oft ignored aspect of positive thinking-

Appreciation!  When you see that you have some resources or, at the very least, some things working for you in your situation, you start to appreciate those things all the more.

Please avoid any struggle to appreciate things- that can also backfire on you and make you feel strained or frustrated.  A tendency I have- and I’m working with most of what I get tripped up by as well as what I’ve experienced around me- is to try to appreciate things.  It’s hard to appreciate birds chirping as a nice thing when they seem to always wake you up in the morning- an hour or so before your alarm.

What is positive for you may not be for others- One of my best friend finds comfort and joy from his two snakes… Not the most common source of positive thoughts, but it works very well for him!

The basic thing we want to do, in our studies of philosophies like the Law of Attraction, is to feel good- That’s it!  When you feel good, as Lisa Nichols points out in “the Secret” (www.thesecret.tv,) You draw to you more things to appreciate and that will get you thinking better and better.

One thing generally leads to another.  You need not struggle in this process, just consider something to make you feel a little better.  Allow yourself a little leeway when you’re not feeling up to affirmations and crawl up the steps to a next-better feeling thought.

There will be some back and forth between a bad feeling thought and a better feeling one- it’s a process, but reach for the better feeling one and see how far you can get.

Here’s a link to a listing of the emotional scale referenced from “Ask and It Is Given” On www.Contemplatethis.com.  See if you can figure out how your feeling along this scale, set a point about three-to-five levels up, and notice how close you get, or even how far you go up from that point.

I’ve had a pretty good week, so I’m around a seven- Contentment, though I tend to slip off to 11, 13… even as low as 16…  and I’ve been down by 22!  The general goal is relief- relief from the low you find yourself in.

Notice I said relief- any better state is a state of relief from where you were when you felt crappy.  The Biggest trip in the journey to your best life is when you think you need to feel GREAT to feel better…

It’s gotta start somewhere- Begin where you are, see how you feel, try to understand what that is and look for something to feel a little better about.  notice when you feel better and you can start appreciating that, which will get you appreciating more things to appreciate- which will help you feel even better.

Positive thinking doesn’t have to stop with Affirmations, whatever helps you feel just a notch better is a sure path to finding your Ocean State.  Thank you!

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