Overcoming the Habit of Negative Thinking

A while ago a young friend of mine complained, “If only I can figure out how to turn off the bad thoughts inside so they can stop manifesting in my life!” My wish in that moment was that I could wave a magic wand and wipe away all her negative thoughts, but unfortunately life does not work like that.

We are all plagued by negative thinking to a degree, but allowing this habit to rule our lives, for habit it is, is a grave error. Happiness, prosperity, wellness and wisdom are our birthright; they are the four elements of the good life we all deserve and constitute the abundance we are intended to experience throughout life. Regrettably, we make a bit of a mess of these fundamentals as we go through life and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

When you enter your school years you have other figures of authority telling you what to do and what not to do. We are expected to respect them and learn from them, but often they are not worthy. They will frequently tell you how much you are incapable of doing, but seldom tell you how much you are capable of doing. In retrospect, these years are seldom building up; for so many children they are years of breaking down. Did you ever have a teacher who put big red crosses on your carefully prepared homework, or circled things out with their hated red pen, or worst of all, crossed it all out with one big red slash? How children come out the other end of this period of life with any sense of ‘being’ is a mystery. But somehow we do, but in what state?

I have always thought that the mark of a good teacher, guide, coach or councillor, is not one who is able to impart information but rather one who can reveal the rudiments of living, and simultaneously build a sturdy character in their student, or client. Strength of character requires self-esteem, healthy beliefs and values and a readiness to change where adjustment is required. Self esteem can be built and beliefs and values can be adjusted to suit new times and experiences.

Life is a journey with a purpose, and you have chosen to walk the path you are travelling. That means that every experience along the way prepares you for a future step. When you turn your thoughts of yourself to positive affirmations and see the value of your experience, you increase your own energy. Berating yourself is a waste of precious energy. You should permit yourself the time to truly feel your feelings, but don’t let them hold you back; rather you must move forward on your chosen path. Feeling worthy and self-confident today, you can look forward with the same enthusiasm with which, in retrospect, you viewed your past achievements.

So how do we break this habit? First of all we have to consider how this habit came about in the first place, and the sad answer to this question is that we are programmed into thinking negatively in out formative years and we take it along with us as we develop toward adulthood. If you consider how many times a toddler hears the words, “No,” “can’t,” or “don’t” between one and three years of age you may get my drift here. What’s distressing about this is this is delivered at the hands of those the infant loves, trusts and depends on for his or her well being.

Happiness Through Excellence

Being able to accept what has gone down in the past, good or bad, requires sterling faith, strength of character and amazing resilience. Keep this in mind as you grow. New qualities and strengths are already waiting for you; they are just waiting to be used. As you draw on these new qualities and strengths, you are bound to grow.

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"Look at the abundance all around you as you go about your daily business. You have as much right to this abundance as any other living creature. It's yours for the asking."

Earl Nightingale

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This is such a beautiful quote taken from "The Strangest Secret". Far too often we take our surroundings for granted and do not give respect to their worth. We more frequently see the negative side of life and its situations, thinking of the bad things that happen to us rather than finding something good out of our experiences. Focusing on the negative things only brings more of the same into our lives.

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By giving respect to the abundance surrounding us we draw that abundance towards ourselves, thereby enriching our lives. We would be doing ourselves a great favour to rather look for even the slightest bit of good in a situation. It might be like looking through a whole bucket of oysters just to find the one that has the pearl in it.

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It is our right to possess abundance and we only need ask that it be ours, focusing on the good we wish to have, rather than only seeing the dark clouds that may be covering us. By recognizing abundance, giving thought to it, we take the first step toward bringing it into form in our lives. That we will receive it takes faith and a decision to accept it in the appropriate season.

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THE LAW OF GENDER

Every seed has a gestation or incubation period. Ideas are spiritual seeds and will move into form or physical results. Your goals will manifest when the time is right. Know they will.

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"The ancient Greek definition of happiness

was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence."

John F. Kennedy

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"We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is a habit."

Socrates

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The ancients understood the search for happiness. There is so much to be gleaned from the ancient writings about how we should live and how we should behave, not just for the benefit of ourselves, but for the service of all humanity. Those who are and will be remembered for time immemorial are those who sought to operate in excellence.

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Creating happiness through excellence goes beyond positive thought. Well, you might think that you have changed your thoughts but still not achieved the happiness you seek. Obviously there is another part of the process we need to consider.

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First of all, do you really know what you want to bring you happiness? What are your deepest heartfelt desires? And, will they bring you happiness. It's not just what you think you can have; think beyond that. And don't, like most people, start thinking about the things you don't want.

Remember that your mind will even respond to the negatives and give you these as well. And don't worry about HOW you are going to get what you want because then your desire will be reduced and the things you will think of will be small; think rather of WHAT you require to bring happiness and this will expand your thinking and your vision.

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You will probably have had this suggestion made to you before, but I am going to make it again, for it is something that should be an ongoing process in our live, which relates to increase:

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· Make a list, which you can add to daily, of the things or circumstances you would like in your life to bring you happiness.

· Be as specific as possible about the things you put on the list.

· Describe things fully, envision them, even make a graphic image if what your require and keep it where you can see it often.

· Don't be too fussy to begin with about the order of things on your list.

· Once you have a number of things you can then start to prioritize and bring the main thing to the top of the list.

· Then the MAIN THING is to keep the MAIN THING the MAINTHING! You only have one life to live, NOW that is, so give consideration to lifestyle, how you would like to be living that will bring you joy.

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To give you some idea of what I'm getting at here, think about the man who drives a fancy sports car, like for instance a Ferrari. You have probably been passed by one of these magnificent machines at some time and, looking at the driver, thought 'How does he get to drive one of those?' Or you have seen one parked on the street and peeped in through the windows thinking you can experience a little luxury while you can just by looking in. Well, let me tell you - looking IN is nothing, it's looking OUT that is everything. So in imagining the things you desire, imagine actually owning them and 'LOOKING OUT'. For me my dream car is an Audi A3 automatic. For me, that's frills and thrills.

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In making this list, give consideration to the fact that there are three motives for which you live: the body, mind and soul. You are a physical, mental and spiritual being and the balance of these faculties is what brings happiness. No one of these has supremacy over the other; when one has lack and another has abundance, you are out of balance and your happiness, if you experience any, will be fleeting. Neither body, mind nor soul can live fully if one of the others is cut short of full life expression. Lasting happiness will not ensue if you only live for the soul and deny the body and the mind. Likewise, to live only for the intellect and deny the physical and the spiritual side of life will also ultimately lead to an unhappy life.

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The object of all life is increase and all living things have the inalienable right to all the increase or development it is capable of attaining. This is what all people, exerting the natural urge within them to find fuller expression, are seeking. Your development needs to be balanced in that of soul, mind and body. This is achieved by making use of physical things. For the acquisition of these things we need money - it's this worlds currency of exchange. Therefore the basis of your advancement must be to attain wealth. This is your birthright. Forget the idea that being rich is reprehensible or evil. That's absolutely untrue. That's a dogma spread by those who wish to suppress the masses and keep them impoverished and thus dependent upon those in control.

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The Powers of the Universe want you to have life, and to have it in abundance. You require the free and unrestricted use of whatever you feel may be necessary for your fullest physical, mental and spiritual development. To put it in a nut shell - You deserve to be rich.

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The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the fundamental impulse of the Universe. Every human action relies upon the desire for increase. Every living thing is driven by this need for continuous growth. Where increase ceases, death begins.

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There is an abundance of opportunity for the person who is prepared to flow with the tide. When you begin to do things in a certain way, the tidal harvest cannot miss you; you become a target for delivery of all good things that will ultimately bring happiness. True, money does not necessarily bring happiness, but it sure makes life a lot easier; it makes excellence achievable too.

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