New Thoughts Can Remake You

[Luba]

As I've already posted once or twice, I've had a heavy heart for the last six weeks and reading the following excerpt from Norman Vincent Peale's book "The Power of Positive Thinking" I think I'm on the way back to recapturing my true positive self again: I wanted to share it with you:

"Think positively, for example, and you set in motion positive forces which bring positive results to pass. Positive thoughts create around yourself an atmosphere propitious to the development of positive outcomes. On the contrary, think negative thoughts and you create around yourself an atmosphere propitious to the development of negative results.
To change your circumstances, first start thinking differently. Do not passively accept unsatisfactory circumstances, but form a picture in your mind of circumstances as they should be. Hold that picture, develop it firmly in all details, believe in it, pray about it, work at it, and you can actualize it according to that mental image emphasized in your positive thinking.
This great law briefly and simply stated is that if you think in negative terms you will get negative results. If you think in positive terms you will achieve positive results. That is the simple fact which is at the basis of an astonishing law of prosperity and success. In three words: Believe and succeed.

[Merika]

Here is something I ran across which goes with your thread:
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by Kathy Gates

While most of us have heard the urban phrase, "Life’s a drag and then you die", (yeah, I cleaned that up a bit!), I find that most people don’t really want to believe that.

And it’s true. While off course we all have difficult times in our lives, overall life was not designed to be struggled through.

Feeling good about your life involves just two parts. One is to learn to think about yourself in healthy ways. This is a learned skill, ladies and gentlemen, not something that a lucky few were born with. If you weren’t given the gift of self confidence and self esteem as a child, it’s up to you to manufacture it as an adult. This is a skill, not a talent.

The second part of feeling good about your life involves making things happen. That the opposite of giving your life over to circumstance. If you want something, set things into motion to make it happen - from losing weight to getting the perfect job - it’s all in your hands.

Are you feeling like life’s a struggle? Try these seven tips to help you feel good about life again.

1. Never stop questioning - how can I do this better, faster, easier, simpler? Get interested and curious about yourself and about others.

2. Accept your weakness. Everybody has weaknesses. Instead of spending your time and energy trying to "overcome", accept it, don’t make excuses for it, and find ways to make it work for you.

3. Always keep learning. The brain is a muscle just like any other, and it will stagnate if you let it. Learn something new every day.

4. Expect nothing; expect the best. Paradox? No. It just means that you don’t want to miss out on what’s wonderful in your life right now, while you spending all your time peeking around the next corner.

5. Plant the "seeds" that you want to grow. Many people are (figuratively) wondering where the roses are in their life, yet they spend all their time sowing corn. You reap what you sow. That’s just the way it is.

6. Swim with the current. Accept life. There are lots of things you can’t control. Don’t waste your time complaining about what you can’t control - the weather, the economy, other people. Do accept those things and work within the circle that is within your control.

7. Don’t wimp out. When the going gets tough -- and it will -- keep your head up and keep moving. Nobody ever won a race by quitting.

Here’s my challenge to you: Take any one of these seven ideas and put it to work in your life over the next seven days. Just seven days -- you can do anything that long, right? Read it over in the morning and choose a particular way to practice it, review it at noon, recite it at dinner.