Does Positive Thinking Work?

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Let's consider the antithesis to this question. Does negative thinking work?

Well, has there been a time when you have worried unduly about something? Maybe you were worried about an exam, a driving test, an interview. Chances are that your worst expectations came into fruition and even if you got the outcome you desired you recognised that you could have performed better had you not worried.

When we worry or have negative thoughts about something we are not allowing ourselves to think constructively about how to achieve what we want. We focus all our energy on the negative elements of a particular situation and what we put energy into grows.

Dr. Kathleen Hall writes in her book A Life in Balance,

"Affirmations are positive statements we tell ourselves. Our mind believes what we tell it. When you tell your brain positive information, you are feeding your brain extremely valuable food that heals your mind and body...When you tell yourself something over and over again, it gets recorded in your brain; then your mind and body believe it and you become what you have been telling yourself. A positive affirmation is a self-fulfilling prophecy."

This statement represents half of the picture because when we tell our brain, meaning our sub-conscious mind, negative information, when we repeatedly tell ourselves something which is negative it also gets recorded in the mind as if it were a true statement.

"A negative assertion is a self-fulfilling prophecy."

I was chatting to an acquaintance the other day. I could see she was tense and she was complaining of having headaches. I asked if she was worried about anything and she admitted that she was worried about a new job assignment. Now she wasn't worried about her ability to handle the assignment; she was worrying because she had this type of assignment before and didn't enjoy it. She was worrying herself sick and for no good reason.

"When you send your brain negative information, you are feeding your brain anti-nutrients that harm your mind and body."

Take getting a promotion at work. If we focus on why it's not possible to get the promotion and focus on our limitations then that's what we'll put our energy into. The presentation and or interview will roll around, we'll perform poorly, lose the opportunity and tell ourselves, "See, I knew I wasn't good enough!" "I knew I wouldn't get the promotion." We may even blame someone else – "The boss doesn't like me." "Bob is more experienced than I. He was bound to get the position."

When we have these thoughts we give up our power to influence change in our lives. When we accept that we create our reality then we can choose our reality. We can become more aware players in this game called life.

So if negative thinking works then, by the Law of Polarity, the opposite must also true. As Larry King said in his introduction to a special edition of Larry King Live aired recently called The Power of Positive Thinking where he interviewed Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Michael Beckwith, John DeMartini and JZ Knight,

"Positive thoughts can transform, can attract the good things you know you want."

However, holding on to positive thoughts is challenging. When we are born we are encoded with the genetic material of our parents and, it has been proven, with the genetic material of our ancestors – that's a lot of hardwiring. We then grow up in an environment where the values of our parents and or guardians are also engrained into us whether it is 'information' that serves us in a negative or positive manner. Hence there is a lot of stuff to override. As Jack Canfield, puts it,

"We are a bundle of conditioned reflexes out of control."

We tend to put a lot of emotion into our negative thoughts compared to the emotion and energy we put into our positive thoughts. I can have a negative thought and if I don't invest too much emotion into it then I generally don't have to worry about it taking hold and manifesting itself. Unfortunately, we often invest a lot of energy and emotion into our negative thoughts and this simply serves to bring our worse fears into fruition even faster.

Conversely, when we say positive affirmations there can be an emotional detachment and a lack of consistency in saying them. Also, a lack of evidence in our visible world may cause our analytical conscious mind to filter and delete positive affirmations. Yet, if we are able to overcome this challenge and hold the thought in our mind of what we really want irrespective of our current circumstances then our outer world will eventually catch up with our inner world.

To demonstrate the power of positive thinking I'd like to go back to the 2006 Winter Olympics held in Turin, Italy. The men's Alpine skiing downhill race was won by 3 times French champion, Antoine Dénériaz. Dénériaz says,

"…since time that I said myself, "One day you will be World Champion, Olympic Champion…"

But Dénériaz was not expected to win. He had performed no better than sixth in a World Cup race this season. The commentators and many of the other competitors all talked about how tough the course was. The course also was getting progressively more demanding as the day wore on and more and more runs were completed.

Dénériaz was also the last of 30 seeded skiiers. None of this deterred Dénériaz. He knew he had a job to complete plus there was champagne waiting for him to drink.

You see Dénériaz had been applying the power of positive thinking to the extent he was so confident he was going to win and become Olympic Champion he bought champagne to celebrate beforehand!

Dénériaz skiied beautifully and won emphatically in a time of 1:48.80 stealing what had, until that point, looked like a sure gold medal, from Michael Walchhofer from Austria (1:49.52). Bruno Kernen of Switzerland was third with a time of 1:49.82.

The top US skier, Bode Miller, said in an interview afterwards,

"The way Dénériaz skied today, he was pretty much untouchable."

That positive thinking works can be proven scientifically. You, undoubtedly, will have heard of The Science of Getting Rich and The Science of Being Well. Positive thinking is "The Science of Getting What You Want".

Nickolove Lovemore is a Life & Success Coach and a Certified NLP Practitioner. Please visit http://www.SuccessAccessories.com for free ebook to fire up your positive thinking!

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Positive Thinking: Are You Truly Being Positive?

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Positive thinking in this day and age is a tool people are trying to incorporate into their lives; from housewives to CEO’s. But the question is what is positive thinking and how do our thinking patterns truly affect how we feel and how successful we are?

The mind is a neutral party and can be positive or negative depending on what it is trained to think. Our training comes from our lives as a whole and many people are an active part of our training: parents, teachers, friends, those of a religious position etc. So at the point that we begin to choose what information we want, and what information serves the mind, it is here where we decide whether or not to absorb positive or negative information. To be positive is not to simply think, on a conscious level of happy things but to get to the roots of our thinking and make changes in the subconscious. It will then start to show in all aspects or our lives. Success breeds success; therefore successful thoughts breed successful thoughts which in turn breed successful actions, and so on. So if you begin to create successful thoughts and make it a habit to think this way you will become successful.

An example of our training is in our beliefs. Our beliefs are our filters in life. They decide the way in which we view the world, and whether or not we will absorb certain pieces of information. If I believe that all men are not worthy, then no matter what man I meet, regardless of how fantastic he is, I will still view him as not worthy, because I was trained to do so.

So the question now is how do we overcome the training that we were given, and eradicate those beliefs and patterns of thinking that do not support us?

If you feel that you hold a particular belief, e.g., the one about men, go out and act against this belief. Go and give a man a chance. This changes the mental connections of the old thinking and so you are forming a new belief. The more you challenge a belief the less your mind holds on to it.

1. Write down your thoughts and feelings. This is a great way to get to the subconscious mind.

2. Be more aware of the thoughts that color your judgment. The more aware you are the better chance you have at changing the ones you do not like.

3. What you think is a mirror image of your life, subconsciously and consciously. So whilst you are working on the subconscious, watch what your conscious thoughts are. If they are negative acknowledge them, but move on and act in spite of these thoughts.

Muneeza Khimji is a Coach and a Psychotherapist. She lives in Toronto, and currently has a practice that serves both clients interested in coaching and therapy. She works with emotional issues and traumas as well as coaches around career transitions, workplace issues, team coaching and life coaching to name a few areas.

For more information on bringing more positivity into your life please click here: http://www.muneeza.com/ or mail to coach@muneeza.com

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What is an Affirmation?

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One asserts the self to believe in something is called the process of affirmation, be it in a negative manner or positively. What differentiates a successful person from the others is the positive outlook in his temperament. He appears happy and casual, and accepts all facts about himself and tries to learn from all those. He ensures that no negativity impacts him in his ambition.

On the other hand, an unsuccessful person is full of sorrow, self pity and jealousy with failure. Rarely does he tries to find the fault within and always blames the circumstances that went against him. The success of others makes him feel that he is deprived despite being deserving. Such a person also can be corrected with the constant mentoring of a guide. But it is negative attitude to look for constant acknowledgement. Since people who can sincerely appreciate are rare now a day, one may be caught in a vicious circle of going negative over and over again.

One can get reoriented into believing oneself with the personal affirmation process. Let us see what affirmation is all about. It is a process whereby one starts feeling comfortable with the self as well as with the surrounding. Affidavits of such inner happenings manifest in encouraging incidences in external world. Though it is not easy to start believing in oneself, still it may be amusing for people to get into the process of affirmation on an experiment basis. While starting out afresh, one has to keep the past experiences behind and should be able to look forward. One has to recognize the past follies and should learn from those, if at all the looking back is necessary. It is only beneficial if we can emphasize more on our positive aspects.

The daily affirmation process starts with stressing the intended points to the self. Those points are to be sufficiently seen and visualized so much so that one starts believing them as realities already in shape. Seldom is it realized that the negative projection about a possibility is also mostly false and imaginary which acts as obstruction in our progress. Instead, if we start imagining positively by just reversing the attitude, it brings happiness along with success.

One can start by writing down 365 cards with messages about what one is, and the capability of the self. Each card may contain visualization indicating the equivalent of the affirmation like a slim body or a car. Another category of cards within those 365 will be about the dreams that will be a reality of the future. The cards should be of 3 x 5 inches size to be sufficiently visible and should appear prominent on the desk. One needs to concentrate on the cards for 20 -30 minutes everyday sitting in a relaxed position. The next thing is to visualize oneself in those actions when those dreams get actualized. This will improve one's self confidence and treatment of the self. This assertion process changes one's gait while walking which also conveys positive atmosphere all around making people feel good besides the self.

Affirmation is the confirmation of good things coming to one's life

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