and Heal your Life
Tiffany Michelle Miller 7/30/2010
The healing starts from within.It is my goal to share with you, all of the wonderful techniques and information I have learned over the course of the last two years about health and well-being. I began my journey with several health problems as well as a faithless view of myself. I was the victim of low self -esteem, chronic pain, suffering relationships, and was basically a mess. I refused to believe that my shattering world would become my fate. I am in the wonderful process of healing my life. I have many more steps to take to be complete. In the meantime, I will freely post what I have learned in hopes that it can help even one person.
In this article I will show you how to use positive affirmations to change your thought pattern.
ONE. Roots of Self Criticism
I wish to start with Self Criticism. We all know what it is. Thoughts like “I’m not good enough, I’m too fat, it’s hard for me to learn new things, and I’m lazy”, we all have them. Most of us are our own worst critic!
But is this helping us? Does that cruel voice in our head help us to live a happy abundant life? No it doesn’t!
In fact, negative thoughts lower our self esteem, hold us back, and even affect our health!
Resentment, guilt, fear, and criticism cause the major problems in our lives (and our bodies).
Negative thoughts kill, positive thoughts heal.
In fact positive thinking brings improved relationships, inner peace, success, better health, happiness and satisfaction. Daily affairs of life move more smoothly. Life looks bright and promising.
How different our day would be if we instead thought "I am good enough, I have a healthy body, I learn new things easily, I am active". Just saying that in my head makes me feel better. But most of us are weighted down by negative thoughts about ourselves.
How did we learn to be so negative anyway? The way we learned to think about ourselves and our world has been very limiting. Simple phrases we hear everyday shape our beliefs “Women are horrible at math and men aren’t supposed to cry!” Our family, our environment, everywhere we hear negative condemning comments and we start to believe them. However, let’s not place blame on others for the thoughts we have chosen to believe about ourselves.It's true we hear and see a narrow view on acceptance most days, but we are responsible for changing our misguided ways, not everyone else. "Everyone else" has affected us though.
Our entire lives have been somewhat conditioned by influences that tell us we have to be a certain way. Teachers, parents, television shows, friends, ads, they all mold us into thinking we should be a certain way. Most are well meaning. People cannot teach us or influence us by what they don’t know.Most families pass down certain rules and expectations, our peers compete with us, and magazine ads certainly have us believe we should be more than we are. If we let it, outside influences can really make us believe that there is a lot to live up to and that we don’t measure up!
If we don’t feel that we are all that we can be (got the army tune in my head now) then, our thoughts are going to let us know on a regular basis that we are failures. It will become true.
No place, thing, or person has power over our thoughts, we are the only ones with that power.
You’ve heard, “what you think, you become”. Well, that is absolutely true! Our subconscious believes what we are telling it, it doesn’t discriminate. We tell ourselves we are worthless, and it is so! It obeys our thought patterns and we become what we believe ourselves to be.
So have you become someone that you don’t approve of? Do you beat yourself up mentally for all of your failures? STOP! You don’t have to do this anymore! You are fine exactly the way you are, I promise.
Sure, there may be areas that you improve on, but everyone has those. You’re not horrible!
In fact, most of the things you believe about yourself are probably untrue. (I will explain this to the best of my ability in a future article) You can change what is true for you, you have the capability.
For one thing, thoughts are that, Just thoughts. They have no power unless you give it to them.
Knowing that, why would you feed negative thoughts when you could be fueling positive, loving, nourishing thoughts instead? You can literally rethink your life!
TWO: Let's rethink the word SHOULD.
The awful word Should:
You should be more than you are.
You should have a partner, higher paying job, a nicer car, better body, a bigger house, more security!
Fill in the blank about yourself. I should___________. (name 3 things)
Now the question is why should you? Think of the things you tell yourself that you should have, or you should do, things that you criticize yourself about.
Now ask yourself where did these ideas come from?Look at the roots of self criticism. Your parents? Because you are afraid something bad will happen if you don’t? Because you think it is expected of you? Is it because everyone else does/has that?
The only thing you should do, is continue breathing. Everything else is optional. You have choices and so many opportunities. You could choose to bring into your life , situations, objects, and people that are beneficial.
Don't waste energy worrying about doing the things you think you should be doing!
THREE: Critical thoughts create your reality
What happens when you ask yourself why you haven't gotten to a certain point in your life? Do critical and doubtful thoughts enter the picture? Are any of your answers along the lines of “because I’m too lazy, too old, too fat, too ugly, and too dumb”? “Those things are impossible for me; I’ll never have what I want”. “I’m not good enough”. “People are out to get me; I’ll never get ahead in this crooked world”. “I can’t even imagine that.” “I don’t know how.”
Well, there you have it. That’s exactly why you are limited to what you have access to in this world. Remember, your thoughts, your critical thoughts, become your reality.
FOUR: Change your thoughts
Changing your thoughts can rapidly improve your life and health. Changing your thoughts can put you on a path of true discovery. You will find ways that work for you. I will share with you my methods, step-by-step if possible (in a series of articles) and together we can change our negative thought patterns and see what miracles arise in our lives.
I choose joyful, loving thoughts. To completely heal our selves and our thought patterns, we must let go of past beliefs, (another topic for a future article) find the truth for ourselves and constantly be kind to ourselves. One way to reverse your thinking is to refuse to listen to negative thoughts when they arise. Think you can’t do it? How many times have you refused to listen to positive thoughts and praise? More than likely, you don’t always give yourself enough credit when you should.
If you hear, "I'm a loser because I'm so fat" Use your inner voice (or outer) if your alone and say:
I accept myself and love myself just as I am. Believe it.You create your life situations with your thought pattern. You get what you give out. It’s that simple.
If you are constantly thinking “people are rude, they’re out to get me”. Then that is the pattern you have chosen to believe and you will attract rude people in your life. You are giving out the signal that you expect others to be rude. I’m not sure exactly how this works, other than it does, but I’d like to share my experience with you because I had a similar thought pattern.
I would fear job hunting or even asking for assistance because my thought pattern was “People don’t want to talk to you, you’re too shy they think your weird, they don’t want to hire you. Asking for help will make you seem dumb”. I recently started daily affirmations that sound like “Everyone is helpful, friendly, and easy to talk too. I am exactly the kind of person companies want to hire. I accept me, and others accept me too.”
If this sounds silly, just try it for yourself. Reverse your own negative though patterns.
Did it work for me? Somehow it did. I’m not saying its magic. You still have all types of people to deal with. But whether it’s through your new body language or confidence, your willingness to change old negative attitudes towards others, you do start to attract more positive people in your life.
If you have negative thoughts about other people, or you constantly feel bitter resentment, feel unforgiving, this too can ruin your health. I wish to do an article about forgiveness and acceptance that will really help you move on and use your mental energy in more productive ways. But for now I’ll stick to criticism of self.
FIVE: Affirmations
Have you tried affirmations on a regular basis? Or at all? It may seem silly and you may doubt them working. But they do. The only way to know though is to do them. Your other alternative is to continue to take a mental bashing everyday. They can reshape your destructive patterns.
. You can use affirmations to improve your health, wealth, and basically your whole life!
For now, I will leave you with some positive affirmations to replace destructive thoughts toward yourself. Start these right away. Look in a mirror and say these to yourself. Even if it’s hard at first, believe that you are speaking only truth. This will work, that is, if you want it to. It’s up to you.
I accept myself and love myself just as I am.
I am free and safe I create a joyous world.
I am willing to change.
All is well in my life.
Create your own to suit your needs. Remember, though, to see changes you must actually say them and start to believe them.
In order for affirmations to really benefit you,develop a positive attitude toward life. Expect that everything you do will be successful, be willing to make changes.
Accept yourself. There's no reason to be critical. Even when you've just made a fool of yourself. Look at the situation without emotions clouding the picture. First tell yourself that you are great and that life is getting better every minute. (really do it) Then gently say to yourself, "Let's readjust this..." Immediately forgive yourself and others when problems arise.(say that to yourself also-or pray about it)Then picture the situation the way you want it to be. Have faith that it can be that way.
Overall tips:
Understand that the roots of self criticism usually come from outside influences.
-It's not beneficial to worry or criticize yourself over what you think you should be doing. Only do what is right for you, not someone else.Your thoughts create your reality
-Try your best to ignore and disregard negative thoughts. Refuse to think such thoughts. Replace them with constructive happy thoughts.
Change your thoughts.
-Be willing to change the way you think about yourself.Affrimations
- You are fine just as you are. Accept this and others will also.
- Speak kindly to yourself. Try the affirmations in this article or create your own.You can also read inspiring quote and books.
Let go of the power of outside influences. You chose how you feel about your thoughts. Chose to feel good about them. From this moment forward, Criticism is in your past.
I chose now to begin to see myself as the Universe see's me-perfect whole and complete.-You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay
I also use meditation. There are many guided meditations on You-tube for beginners. Along with meditation and positive affirmations, I try to eat healthier and do yoga. For me, just knowing that I am a good person for taking time to heal myself with these practices, is enough to erase a great deal of old negative thoughts I used to experience.
I have been researching this and topics like these for some time and it is my goal to help others heal their lives from the inside out. I am new to some of the techniques I will discuss, so you can read my future articles and watch as I heal my own life!
Many ideas are influenced by many self help articles, research, and life. A big influence is Louise Hay and her books. I use some of her methods and expand on them and research further. It is not my intent to plagiarize or take full credit for any words expressed that may have been written by other authors.
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