Ignite Your Day: Look Beyond Body To Spirit!

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Ignite Your Day: Look Beyond Body To Spirit!
Bryan Adams is a popular Canadian musician active in charities around the world. He said:

Thoughts are things; they have tremendous power. Thoughts of doubt and fear are pathways to failure. When you conquer negative attitudes of doubt and fear, you conquer failure. Thoughts crystallize into habit and habit solidifies into circumstances.
This quote pretty well sums up the ideas we discuss here.

The overwhelming aura of negative ideas and thought are apparent to me every day when I research information for the business articles. Negativism overflows into every personal relationship; just look at the high divorce rates in most of the world. The wide use of illegal drugs also stems, in part, from ideas many people harbor that everything that happens is bad and there’s no solution except to destroy the ability to think; the same applies to alcohol abuse and all the other things people do to forget things that bother them. All these bothersome thoughts are the result of innate negativism within us all.

Why are we negative?

This is not a religious article, but a few things we discuss do have their origin in the Holy Bible and other religious texts. We use these in a totally different context from their original intent. The first idea about why we are negative comes from the Book of Genesis. Negativity in a religious context began when Cain murdered Abel. Cain became upset when God did not accept his sacrifice and he finally became so consumed with bad thoughts, he killed his brother. Religious leaders ever since have equated negativity with sin and many pronouncements have come down through the ages dealing with how to overcome negative ideas.

All these efforts may have fallen short of their goal. Treating negative attitudes as sin using religious ideas is like trying to extinguish a fire by pouring gasoline on it. This religious sin concept was born of religious ideas and in a religious context this may be the way to get rid of it. But negativity in our business and daily lives requires a quite different approach.

Here is an interesting thought: Negativity should not by itself be considered an evil force because without negative conditions there could be no positive outcomes. If you think about this, it has to be true; without the concept of negativity, positivity has no meaning. The problem arises because most people nurture their inborn negative mentality without tying to achieve positive results. The reason is we are born negative, and it’s not easy or natural for us to think positive thoughts. That’s the discussion of the biblical origin of our propensity to always be negative.

The other probable cause is more scientific. According to studies by John Cacioppo, Ph.D. negativity is seated deep within the human brain. The probable origin was as a defense mechanism. The brain wants to always alert the body of impending danger so it can protect itself. Through the ages, danger has become less significant while the negative defense mechanisms remain as strong as ever. Dr. Cacioppo has shown the brain reacts more strongly to a negative impulse than it does to positive thoughts. To succeed and have satisfactory relationships, negative and positive forces must be in balance. The problem is it requires more positive ideas to overcome one negative concept—five positives to one negative, to be exact, according to this study!

Sir William Davenant, godson of William Shakespeare, Poet Laureate of England, and Lieutenant Governor of Maryland said:

Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.

Anyone who has experienced a real tragedy knows how true this is. After a really bad life event, you either realize there is a hidden power within you can use and you rebound better than before, or you will instead languish in the negative world and perhaps become depressed; in any event this latter outcome will effectively destroy any kind of life enjoyment. So how do we combat negativity?

One way to incorporate this idea into your arsenal to overcome gloom is to develop at least twenty really positive experiences that made you very happy and list them. Make several copies of the list so you will always have access to one of them; if you can memorize at least five of the best you will always be able to balance your negative situations with at least five positives. Try it for a while; it may not work every time but your success rate will improve over time. A short but effective method for maintaining optimism is something I use several times a day: I say to myself, “I’m the luckiest man alive and don’t let me forget it!” This works for me and maybe for you as well.

Some additional ideas opposing negativism show how self-made millionaires approach the problem of remaining optimistic. Most entrepreneurs aspire to be millionaires. An article on the CNN/Money Website in 2002 discussed the mindset of self-made millionaires. These people think differently from everyone who is not a millionaire with these being some of their basic attributes which are worth emulating:

Possess a lot of optimism.

Have personal confidence.

Have the ability to find helpful relationships.

See things as a “half-full glass” rather than a “half-empty one.”

Rather than experiencing a setback, they view it as an opportunity to go forward.

After a mistake-turned-opportunity, they take action.

Rather than seeing what’s wrong with something, the millionaire will explore an opportunity to find what is right with it.

They believe the right time to start something is right this minute.
We humans carry powerful abilities deep within. In most people this ability remains hidden behind negative learned traits and inherited inhibitions. But they can bring remarkable events to pass. One inner power is the subconscious mind. Do not ignore this boundless energy source. There has been much written about the subconscious. Find out all you can and use it, because it works. Joseph Murphy discusses some ways to use the powers of your subconscious mind in The Power of Your Subconscious Mind: One of the Most Powerful Self-Help Guides Ever Written! Here are a few ways to use your subconscious (you may develop more to fit your own style):

Develop a way to extend your mind outside of your body (you might try to apply inner pressure to your mind, forcing it to seem to be floating around somewhere above you).

Give your subconscious a nickname (I use “Sub”) so you can easily address it.

For continuing problems, submit your request frequently throughout the day until a solution comes (may take many days).

Ask for subconscious help before or after sleep (often a solution will come to you upon waking).

Because ideas may arrive at any time especially while sleeping, it’s good to keep a notepad by your bed.

Prayer, meditation, supernatural communication—or whatever you may call them—are extremely powerful forces. These are all part of the spirituality of the universe where each of us is connected to all other beings and matter in the entire universe from the beginning of time. We all have the ability to tap into this vast force, but something, perhaps innate negativity, prevents most from using this boundless energy. Here’s a discussion touching upon many ideas we are talking about in this article.
Meditation is an important technique for gaining success and overcoming negativity. The basic process normally takes less than half an hour, and is meant to clear the mind of every thought. For the serious student of meditation here is a discussion of several meditation forms. For our purpose of an easy way to do things, here are some ideas:

Find a quiet place away from the traffic and noise around you.

Use a heating pad to relax your back and neck. (A massage would really help.)

Some quiet music helps.

Relax and try to clear your mind of all thoughts for 15 or 20 minutes.

Do this first thing in the morning and after work if you can.

Dr. Richard Wiseman, Britain’s first Professor of Public Understanding of Psychology, spent 10 years studying 400 of the luckiest and unluckiest people he could find. He found that the luckiest people unconsciously used four basic principles to create their good fortune:

They maximize opportunities by creating, recognizing, and being open to new experiences.

People who have good luck act on their intuition and gut feelings. These same people cultivate their intuitive skills by clearing their mind of other thoughts or meditating.

Lucky people go through life expecting good fortune; they are certain the future will be positive. Such expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies by helping lucky people persist in the face of failure.

Lucky people appear able to cope with or thrive on ill fortune that comes their way.

When using all these ideas, you are the one in control of your life and what happens in it. Your behavior controls your luck. If you are angry all of the time, few people are going to want to be your friend. Be more friendly, and you immediately have improved the odds of getting more of what you want faster. Inaction may influence our luck. For example, do nothing to get a raise and you won’t get one!