I’ve read many books and articles on positive thinking, and would love to take the best from every one and combine them for you, but that would take me forever, so…..I did find a few excerpts I’d like to share from About.com  and it pretty much sums up the point of getting the most out of life, in a positive and less stressful way...and it does work!

 

The Law of Attraction—the reality that our thoughts and feelings create our experiences, and that we attract to ourselves what we focus our attention on (be it good or bad)—has been known to sages for thousands of years, but is just now gaining mass popularity due to “The Secret”, Oprah, and other mass media outlets. Because of this, you can now use the law of attraction to relieve stress, and to attract the life you want. The following steps can lead you to the life of your dreams, via the law of attraction.

This is something fairly easy to do.  Try to find time daily to practice your positive thinking!

 

List Your Frustrations. Make a list of all the things in your life that have you feeling frustrated, or that you’d like to change. This can include a stressful job, your children’s behavior, or conflict in your relationships, for example.

List The Positives. Next, begin a journal. For each situation on your list, find everything you can think of that’s positive in the situation. For example, a difficult job may also bring the benefits of income, creative challenge, or personal growth; the job can be a vehicle for expanding your level of patience, for example. (At the very least, it could bring you the valuable information that this isn’t what you want to be doing with your life!)

Maintain a Positive Attitude. This doesn't just mean to paste a smile on your face; it means to work at feeling grateful for what you already have, and for what you believe will come. That's right: shift your focus from your feelings of lack, and toward feelings of gratitude and abundance. Believe in yourself, in your future, and in God or the Universe, and know that you can make whatever changes in your life you want.

Visualize A Better Life. Building and maintaining a visual image of what you want in your life (instead of focusing on what you don’t want) can be a powerful way to attract positive change and opportunity. Make a detailed list of what you’d like in your life. Sit down daily and visualize what your new life would look like and how it would feel to have these changes.

Think, Feel, Act. Be sure that your thoughts, feelings, and behavior all focus on your goals, rather than your frustrations with your situation, or any negative feelings you may have. Keep your self-talk positive and optimistic; engage in visualizations each day that reflect the life you want; work on your plan of action. If you do this, you should find you make quick strides toward the life you want.

Tips:

Frame your thoughts the way you would create positive affirmations, (repeating your positive thoughts)  by focusing on what you do want rather than what frustrates you.

 

Keep a gratitude journal, (see below) where you record the things for which you are grateful. There are many health and stress management benefits to journaling, and this practice helps you develop an attitude of gratitude, which creates a space for more abundance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever noticed that some people seem to be able to maintain a relatively positive attitude regardless of what’s happening around them? Like everyone, they can appreciate the good times, but they also seem to be able to focus on the positive in the face of some pretty negative events. They see the good in difficult people, they see the opportunity in a challenging situation, and they appreciate what they have, even in the face of loss. Would you like to increase your ability to maintain a positive attitude in your life, even in the face of significant stress?

 

Fortunately, a positive attitude can be cultivated, with a little practice. Although we are born with specific temperamental tendencies, the brain is a muscle, and you can strengthen your mind’s natural tendency toward optimism if you work at it.

 

While several factors go into emotional resilience and optimism, studies show that cultivating a sense of gratitude can help you maintain a more positive mood in daily life and contribute to greater emotional well-being and bring social benefits as well. Cultivating gratitude is one of the simpler routes to a greater sense of emotional well-being, and can be accomplished in several ways. For the next few weeks, try some of the following exercises, and you should notice a significant increase in your feelings of gratitude -— you will likely find yourself noticing more positive things in your life, dwelling less on negative or stressful events and feelings of ‘lack,’ and having a greater sense of appreciation for the people and things in your life.

 

Make Gentle Reminders

When you notice yourself grumbling about a negative event or stressor in your life, try to think of 4 or 5 related things for which you are grateful. For example, when feeling stressed at work, try to think about several things that you like about your job. You can do the same with relationship stress, financial stress, or other daily hassles. The more you gently remind yourself of the positives, the more easily a shift toward gratitude can occur.

 

Be Careful With Comparisons

Many people cause themselves unnecessary stress by making comparisons. More specifically, they cause themselves stress by making the wrong comparisons. They compare themselves only to those who have more, do more, or are in some way closer to their ideals, and allow themselves to feel inferior instead of inspired. In cultivating gratitude, you have one of two options if you find yourself making such comparisons: You can either choose to compare yourself to people who have less than you (which reminds you how truly rich and lucky you are), or you can feel gratitude for having people in your life who can inspire you. Either road can lead away from stress and envy, and closer to feelings of gratitude.

 

Because habits are usually formed within two or three weeks, you will have to actively focus on maintaining gratitude less and less as you go, and the habit of a more positive (and less stress-inducing) attitude will be more automatic. And greater feelings of emotional well-being can be yours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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