I want you to stop what you’re doing right now and relax with me for just a moment. For just a moment stop worrying about all the pressure you’re under, the current economic crisis, the bills you have to pay, the family drama you have to endure…
And for just a moment, imagine your perfect life. Does it seem like a daydream? Something unattainable? A fairytale? Well if you’re bruised and battered by life you probably think so.
Many people completely give up on their hopes and dreams and settle for the life they have… created by their circumstances. But what if I told you it doesn’t have to be that way? What if you were not only given permission to dream again, but had the “tools” to actually see what you want most become a reality before your very eyes? Seem too good to be true? I wouldn’t blame you if you said “yes.”
But, it’s not. And in this article, I want to give you some PRACTICAL and PROVEN things you can do right now that will significantly impact your life for the better. Willing to give it a shot? Good.
First you need to understand what’s at work in your mind and how your imagination is CURRENTLY helping to create your present reality. You see, what you imagine on a consistent basis tends to become a reality. That’s because your subconscious, which doesn’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s vividly imagined, starts to work to make what you think about consistently a reality. Especially when you feel very strongly about something.
Ever hear the old cliché “a self-fulfilling prophecy?” That’s what’s going on with you. When you consistently imagine negative outcomes and circumstances, that’s what your subconscious works to make real for you.
But the good news is it works the other way too.
When you consistently imagine what you want most (more wealth, better relationships, weight loss, etc.), your subconscious is there to make it real.
But how do you do that? Well, here’s a tried and true 4-step strategy you can begin using right now to change your life for the better. Here we go…
1. Repetition
The key is to regularly repeat your “daydream” to yourself every day. You can write it on an index card and carry it with you. You can make up a little story or poem or song about it and repeat it to yourself (that’s what I do; I make up affirmation jingles for myself). Close your eyes and imagine what you want for a few minutes each day. And when you do, you want to…
2. Be the Star
Play your dream like a movie in your mind. Be the star. See yourself doing or accomplishing or enjoying what you want most. Enjoy it. Make it yours. You’re the director. Create the movie you want most and watch it unfold. And while you do that, make sure you…
3. Flood It with Emotion
It’s critical that you FEEL what you want most. The key to unlocking your subconscious mind’s potential to bring you good things is to repeat strongly-felt desires over and over. That’s how you’re subconscious knows what to focus on. But in addition to feeling it, you also want to…
4. Make It Vivid
The more detailed and colorful you can make your desire, the more focused your subconscious will be in making it a reality for you. Make it as specific as possible.
There you go. If you will commit to practicing this 4-step process, you’ll soon begin to see what you want most beginning to unfold before your very eyes. Start with something small, like breaking an annoying habit, and build your confidence. You’ll soon feel the exhilaration so many others have felt at finding the keys to obtaining real happiness.
Now all you have to do is DO IT – and that’s where most people fall short. You have to do it every day. It doesn’t have to be work though. As I said earlier, make up a story or song or poem or jingle that you can repeat to yourself. Make it something you enjoy. That’s what I do. I’ve made up these affirmation jingles (just like the jingles you hear on radio and TV), and I sing them to myself – feeding myself positive thoughts all day long. The best part is it requires NO work or special time. They just get stuck in my head and once they are anchored there, my subconscious does the rest.
Go ahead. Give it a try – you’ll thank me for it, I promise.
In Part 1 of this article we discussed why most affirmations end up on your desk gathering dust or in the waste basket. It stands to reason that what you put your attention on most of the time is what you will get. That’s the main theme of the Law of Attraction as made widely known in the Secret. So, this makes a lot of sense and we get excited and write a long laundry list of affirmations about what we want to see happen in our lives. I know I did. I wanted to lose weight, I wanted to get along better with my kids, I wanted to grow my business exponentially, so I wrote all that down and started to write them and repeat them every single day. For a few days, maybe even a week and then my subconscious would start feeding me every reason in the book why I should stop this foolishness right now. We also learned that the reasons for this were two fold
1. We can’t get past our belief filters in our subconscious minds long enough to make the affirmations stick – this is was covered in Part 1, and
2. We don’t really know how to handle negative situations or how to put the brakes on a negative tailspin, so when we start feeling this way, we abandon our affirmations because if they were working we wouldn’t feel this way, right!
There are lots of things that can happen in a day to set us up for one of those downward tailspins. You get up on the wrong side of the bed and it’s all downhill from there, right? That used to happen to me a lot. I used to have a saying, “I’ve earned this depression and I’m going to enjoy it for awhile.” What a crazy belief, but believe it I did. Somehow I really thought I was getting something out of being nasty and grumpy. But the Law of Attraction states that what you spend most of your time thinking about and focusing on is what you will get. You can probably guess that I was getting lots of reasons to be nastier and grumpier, that’s for sure.
But, when you look at the other side of the coin, the more you can focus on what you want to have in your life, the quicker it will come to you. If you can focus on it with emotion and feeling, well then, so much the better. So it makes sense that the more time you can spend feeling good and keeping the dark clouds at bay, then the easier it would be to bring about your desires.
So most teachers of the Law of Attraction stress that you need to control your thinking and CHANGE your negative thoughts to positive ones. Just DO IT, right? But that is not as easy as it sounds. The usual recommendations are affirmations – been there done that – some wonderful books to read or beautiful meditations (which I love to do), but it is not normally easy to drop everything and find a quiet space to meditate, or find the perfect passage in a book to help you in the moment. These are all long term strategies, but it’s rare to be in the middle of a crisis situation and be able to stop RIGHT NOW and meditate until you feel better.
In times like this, you can’t wait for the right quiet moment to come along to work on your feelings later. You need something to grab onto RIGHT NOW, in the very moment that you realize the tailspin is starting. You need to have a tool available to you that will literally turn your emotions around, just like flipping a switch on and off. That’s what you need to find.
Most people have been suffering in their negativity for so long that the idea of changing their thoughts in an instant seems literally impossible. But my suggestion is to put in some thought today, this minute when you are feeling pretty positive, about how you might flip the switch the next time you are feeling down and out. What could you say or do or sing that might turn it around on a dime. Get something stuck in your head – a little jingle or something that the minute you recognize that – “Geez, here we go again” – you can say – “NO, not this time.” Something that you can apply without giving it any thought, it just goes on autopilot. Something that your ‘Belief Detective’ won’t recognize as an affirmation. Song lyrics are great for that because you suspend your disbelief when you are singing. You don’t have to believe the words, it’s just a song.
So the moral is – be prepared. Think about it right now, while you are reading this. Don’t wait until the next time that life hands you lemons to wonder why it is happening again and again. Take the bull by the horns and be ready with your own secret weapon. You’ve been to the Pity Party enough times and there’s nothing there for you any more. Be ready!
If you have had any interest in personal development in the last few years, you probably have of the Law of Attraction which was brought to the mainstream publics attention in the movie, ‘The Secret.’ This law of the universe basically states that what you focus on and give attention to is what will show up in your life. If you want something and really Believe that you have it, you will begin to take the necessary actions to make it become a reality. There is an old saying that says “I’ll believe it when I see it”, but that couldn’t be more wrong. The truth is, once you really Believe it, then you will most definitely See it.
Our magnificent brains process and store every single bit of information that we have ever learned or experienced. When it comes to learning new things, the way our brain learns new things is by REPETITION. Think about it. How does an actress master the dialog in a play – repetition. How does an athlete become the best at what they do – repetition. Everything we’ve learned, from times tables to walking and talking has been learned by repetition. So it would seem reasonable that if you want to teach your brain to believe differently, the way to do it would be by repeating what you now want to believe about yourself and your life.
That makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? If you keep repeating something over and over to your self, your subconscious mind should start to agree with you, right? So we start to use Affirmations. Affirmations are simply statements you make about what you really WANT to believe. Almost every personal development expert on the planet has recommended affirmations and THE best tool to ‘Fake it ’til you Make it,’ and keep up the positive attitude, because the repetition of the affirmation is teaching your brain how to think.
Still logical isn’t it? If we just repeat our affirmations over and over and over, we should all be healthy, wealthy and wise, right? Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it? So….Why aren’t we all fabulously wealthy if we know this should work? Because we just DON’T DO THEM on a regular basis or for long enough. There are two reasons for this:
1. If we don’t see instant results, we have a hard time actually believing what we are telling ourselves, so we give up in disgust, and
2. We don’t know how to instantly turn things around when we are thrown into a downward spiral when something happens to upset our plans, and we have no anchor to grab onto, so we stop trying, telling ourselves that ‘this doesn’t work.’
The main reason we don’t keep doing daily affirmations, even though we know repetition is the best way to learn is that the affirmations are aimed at changing deep rooted beliefs. It’s not the same as changing your nail polish. Most of our beliefs about ourselves were deeply implanted before we were 7 years old. So if you have a deep belief that money is the root of all evil for instance, you can affirm that you are a millionaire all day long and all you will echo back is ” Who are you kidding?” it won’t take long before the average person gets bored, too busy or out and out frustrated long before the affirmations can start to work.
Now if you did keep on practicing diligently, you would eventually see a change, but since you belief filters won’t allow you to change instantly, most people give up in frustration far too soon. But it’s really not your fault, at least not your conscious mind’s fault.
You see, we really are of two minds, our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. So what it comes down to is that your subconscious mind – the one that breathes for you and keeps your heart beating – has been running the show all of these years, and it likes you just the way you are, even if it is broke, sick and miserable. It’s got being YOU down to a tee and doesn’t take kindly to being told that it’s doing it all wrong. It has you wrapped up in the shell of your ego – who you believe you are – and it will put up a royal stink if you try to change. So you say statements like “I am a millionaire” – and it comes back at you with “Yeah Right!” This belief filter, or ‘Belief Detective’, as it were, ironically really thinks it is helping and protecting you. If you can’t get past that filter, then your affirmations are doomed to fail.
So…what you need to do, right now while you are reading this, is to start to think of a way of bypassing the belief filters that stop your affirmations in their tracks. How do you do that? Why not try putting your affirmations in a song. Song lyrics are non threatening to the subconscious mind because you suspend your disbelief while you are singing, much like you might do when you see a movie (Ever seen Shrek?). Besides, once you get a song stuck in your head, you usually sing it over and over and over and not get bored with it, feeding your subconscious on autopilot,. Give it some thought right now and stay tuned for Part 2 where we’ll discuss more about how to instantly change your negative attitude.
Over the last several years, I’ve been studying just about everything I could get my hands on in the Personal Development arena. One of the most important things I’ve learned from everyone from James Ray, Jack Canfield, Joe Vitale, Bob Doyle, Sandy Forster, Bob Proctor and many more is that if you focus on what you want and persistently and consistently tell yourself that you have these things, you will come to Believe it. Once you Believe it, then you will be inspired to take the actions you need to take that will bring what you want to you. Hence the saying, “When I Believe it, I will See it”.
When it comes to the way our brains learn things, REPETITION is key. Think about it – how did you learn your times tables in 5th grade math – repetition. How does an actor learn his lines – repetition. How did we all learn to walk and talk – repetition. So it stands to reason that if you want your mind to believe in a different way than it currently believes, you are going to have to teach it how to think that way by repeating what you want to believe.
Great…that makes sense. The more you repeat something, the quicker your subconscious should start to agree with you. So in comes Affirmations. Affirmations are just statements about what you WANT to believe. They are touted by just about every self help expert as the way to “Fake it til you make it”, because essentially you are just repeating over and over what you desire to believe.
OK, that makes sense too. If we all keep repeating affirmations, we’ll all be rich and happy, right? Sounds simple enough. So then……. Why aren’t we all rich and happy? Because we DON’T KEEP DOING THEM!! I certainly have tried many times. I’ve written impassioned affirmations, I’ve recorded them, I’ve done Power affirmations, I’ve listened to meditation CD’s with affirmations, subliminal affirmations, affirmations with binaural beats…I’ve done it all. But every time, after a week or two, the time required to continue to do these became a chore – I just didn’t Believe what I was telling myself and I couldn’t see anything changing so I would stop doing them. I think this is what happens to a lot of people. But it’s really not your fault, at least not your conscious minds fault.
You see, your unconscious mind or your ego can be your worst enemy. It likes you just the way you are – warts and all. It doesn’t see any need to change, it hates change and when you are trying to change by stating things like “I am wealthy, healthy and happy”, the unconscious “Belief Detective” I call it, immediately responds with “No, we’re not. We’re broke and depressed and I think we’re coming down with the flu. Besides, this is SOOOO boring”. If you can’t get past that “Belief Detective”, or at least realize what is going on, your unconscious mind will win and keep you broke, sick and depressed. Ironically, this is how it thinks it is protecting you. Gee, Thanks!!
Furthermore, many teachers have also taught that what we think about predominantly is what we get. The more you can focus on what you want to have in your life, the quicker it will come to you. If you can focus on it with emotion and feeling, so much the better. Dr. Robert Anthony (Secret of Deliberate Creation) teaches that what you need to do, more than anything is find a way to Flip the Switch when you find yourself thinking a negative thought, or one of doubt or worry or fear. Just Flip Switch he calls it. My first reaction when hearing that was “So, HOW THE HECK do I do that?” I understand the need to keep positive, but how do you change in the moment – in the NOW – from fear and doubt to happiness and joy. That’s the 64 bazillion dollar question. It’s almost like you need to actually have a Switch implanted that you can reach out and Flip at will. Hmmmm…
Well, that’s where these AttitudeZapz! come in. Have you ever heard a tune on the way into work or have you seen some silly commercial on TV and the tune has stuck in your head all day long no matter what you did? We all do that. It’s just stuck there and you can’t get it out.
Sooo…What if that tune that was stuck in your head was an affirmation jingle? What if it was fun and catchy and a no-brainer? You don’t have to stop and take time to write affirmation statements10 times. You don’t have to stop and take time to read them or listen to them. You don’t have to stop and take time to meditate on them by listening to a CD or subliminals or anything (although all of these things are good and will definitely work, we just WON’T DO THEM). It’s already stuck there in your head like a secret weapon.
All you need to do is listen to the jingle a few times, catch the wave and get it stuck in your head and it stays with you all day long. You walk down the hall at work and sing your Zapz! You are struggling with a problem and while you’re thinking you sing your Zapz! You are cooking dinner or changing a diaper or paying your bills – and you are singing your Zapz!. You are depressed about something and you suddenly remember that you need to be present in the Here and Now, so you JUST Flip the Switch by singing your Zapz! And here is the best part, when was the last time your “Belief Detective” made a stink about song lyrics? No arguments, the affirmations just seep into your unconscious little by little, smile by smile, Zapz! by Zapz!
