Question: While an affirmation is beginning to manifest, why is it that you’ll get some mis-messages or dead ends as if your creative mind is trying out different situations as it works to manifest what you want?

Answer: Many people think that if an affirmation doesn’t manifest completely, it means that something is wrong. That’s not necessarily true. Many times, you just have to keep on keeping on with the affirmation and stay focused.

If you change your desire, then it confuses the subconscious, which then has to focus its energy on the new idea. Or if you vacillate back and forth between two desires, the subconscious begins to feel like its in a ping-pong match.

Most people have done this, including me. Also, we tend to then criticize ourselves and the subconscious for not having “gotten it right” (At least, I have), which then tells the inner mind to not “get it right.”

I now call the part-manifestation “an indication.” To me, it indicates that the affirmation is working, but the subconscious just hasn’t gotten it quite right and needs a little more time, and maybe a little more direction or specificity.

affirmation · goals · Law of Attraction · spiritual · subconscious

When you’re stressed, you go into a Fight or Flight mentality. This reduces access to your brain’s resources, and compromises your ability to think straight. Here are 5 ways to calm down your overactive stress response so you’re able to respond to situations in a more constructive way.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

meditation · mindfulness · self-hypnosis · self-improvement · self-talk · stress management

Napoleon Hill said, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve.” This is very true. What you imagine (good or bad) plants that idea in the subconscious.

Your subconscious can’t tell the difference between what you imagine and what’s really going on. So it begins to work on that idea to make it real.

The next step is believing you can have it. Belief is the power that drives the subconscious. So when you can wrap your mind around actually having it, the subconscious goes into overdrive.

But many times, when you’re working this concept, you keep the achievement in the future. That’s a signal to the subconscious not to accomplish it in the present.

It’s like the carrot on a stick being held in front of a donkey to keep him moving towards it. He keeps chasing it, but never gets to eat the carrot.

When you imagine your desire, you need to imagine that it’s happening now. If you imagine it’s happening in the future, even a moment ahead you’ll never achieve your goal.

Whether it’s to quit smoking, lose weight, get a better job, have more money, or be in a relationship, your subconscious needs to know you want it…NOW.

Your conscious mind may rebel, saying, “But it’s a lie, I don’t have it now!” It’s not about trying to trick your mind, the idea is to specifically instruct your subconscious about the goal you want and when you want it.

Bring the feeling and thought picture of having your desire into the present, as if it’s happening now. Whatever you can conceive of having, and believe you have in the present, you can achieve.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

beliefs · believe · goals · imagination · inspiration · positive thinking · subconscious · visualize

How To Raise Your Self-Esteem: The Proven Action-Oriented
Approach to Greater Self-Respect and Self-Confidence
by Nathaniel Branden

This is a great book, not just for self-esteem, but also to raise self-awareness. This book is filled with strategies and exercises to help the reader not only improve their self-esteem, but increase confidence, self-acceptance, self-respect and authenticity.

The author describes self-esteem as “a feeling of personal competence and a feeling of personal worth…a sum of self-confidence and self-respect.” All of these go into a feeling of value. A person must feel “enough” to feel good about themselves and what they do. And a person with high self-esteem treats others with value and respect.

The author states that living consciously, in the sense of being aware of what they’re thinking and doing, is necessary to high self-esteem. Living consciously means a person learns to listen to themselves and to trust their impressions and decisions.

Other chapters address feelings of guilt, integrating the younger self, living authentically, selfishness, nurturing the self-esteem of others and more. The exercises are easy to do, mainly completing sentences, and the answers can be very illuminating. For any person troubled with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, I’d recommend this book highly.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

authentic · beliefs · empowerment · personal development · personal growth · self-help · self-improvement · self-talk · self-worth

by Linda-Ann Stewart

However, when you’re able to focus on one thing at a time, it allows access to more mental and emotional resources. For example, driving the car without talking on the phone or texting is safer and less stressful than dealing with those distractions. Working on a project without interruptions means you’re able to bring all of your creativity to it.

Being fully engaged in a conversation means you’ll hear what the other person is saying and be able to respond appropriately. If you have to reply to an upsetting email, having the time and space to rationally choose what to say is better than reflexively shooting out a nasty response.

When you learn to be more mindful and more present in your life, you’re able to engage much more of the brain’s creativity, abilities, perspective, problem solving, and flexibility. You open up channels to the Universe and allow more of Its guidance and wisdom into your life.

Take some time to turn off all the technology in your life and shut out the distractions. Focus the light of your attention on one task. Immerse yourself in it.

If it’s washing the dishes, don’t watch TV at the same time or focus on hating the chore. Just do it without giving it much emotional energy or distraction. Consider it time for your mind to recharge without having to think ahead. Just be. The same technique can be used for a project at work, or a task at home.

Instead of tying up so much of your resources in your day-to-day scramble, learn to be more focused and mindful. This allows you to release more of the talents and creativity that are innate within you.

Affirmation

I commit myself to be in the present. The past is over, the future is yet to be. When I have a task, I focus on it and it alone. This gives me more mental, emotional and spiritual resources. It allows me to hear Divine Guidance more clearly and use it to make better choices. So I choose to shut out distractions and be right here, right now.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

creativity · mindfulness · personal development · personal growth · problem solving · self-help · stress management

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Most people are overwhelmed by the amount of distractions in their lives. When you’re trying to work, you’re interrupted by phone calls, texts, or a problem suddenly needing an immediate solution or decision. All of this diverts your attention and keeps you from focusing on one thing at a time.

You’re trying to multi-task to be more efficient and you’re accomplishing exactly the opposite. Your attention is split between all of the distractions, and nothing gets your best effort. So everything suffers from a lack of your full capabilities.

Unfortunately, your fast-paced lifestyle promotes stress and anxiety. This engages the Fight or Flight mechanism that causes you to be in survival mode. Everything that happens is then considered to be a threat. You can’t keep things in their proper perspective.

For instance, let’s say you’re expecting a busy day at work. In the morning, you take the trash bag out of the trashcan and the bag breaks. Now you have to clean it up before you can leave. On the freeway, you’re caught in an unexpected traffic jam and get to work late.

You’d planned to have plenty of time to print out a report for a meeting. But because of the morning’s delays, you’re hurrying to get it done. The printer jams and you’re ready to throw it through the window. Due to the accumulated frustrations, an insignificant problem (the printer) has been blown up out of proportion. It takes on monumental importance, when it actually may simply take a couple of minutes to fix.

When your mental reserves are completely used up and you’re in survival mode, stress monopolizes resources in the brain. It’s like a huge program that consumes all the available memory in a computer. There’s nothing left over to make rational decisions.

Being stressed and in overwhelm means that you can’t think straight, be creative, resourceful, or plan effectively. You’re reacting from your past experience and conditioning and can’t choose a different response.

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

creativity · mindfulness · personal development · personal growth · problem solving · self-improvement · stress management

When a person comes to see me, as a hypnotherapist, to work on stress, I teach them relaxation and have them create a peaceful place in their minds. I tell them, “This can be a favorite vacation spot, or a place you create solely in your imagination.” The main idea is that it’s serene and safe.

I’ve heard people poke fun of the idea of a “peaceful spot.” They can’t believe that anything so simple can be effective. But after working with hundreds of people with this concept, I’ve seen the positive results. Practicing relaxation daily with this image can reduce stress significantly. I’ve seen stress, pain, and anxiety decrease immensely with this technique.

Recently, I read an article about girls who were susceptible to depression. They were able to rewire their brains to reduce this risk. People like them have an overreaction to upsetting experiences, which can be seen in brain scans.

Stanford researchers scanned the brains of these girls to see how they responded to negative pictures. The area of the brain that responds to stress showed increased activation on the scans. The researchers then instructed them to think of pleasant experiences and shift their focus from negative to positive images. On brain scans, it showed that the part of the brain triggered by stress calmed down.

Even several days after the exercises, the girls showed the same reduced reaction to stressful images. They were able to rewire their brains to be less reactive to stress, which in turn reduced the likelihood of depression later on.

This is very similar to the technique I teach my clients. But I also include relaxation, which reduces stress on its own. You can rewire your brain so you don’t overreact to stress, which will reduce the amount of stress and anxiety that you experience in your life.

Practice relaxation and imagining yourself in a special place. Then imagine an upsetting image, and immediately switch your attention back to your special place and all its peace.

This is one of the traditional ways hypnotherapists, like me, have used to help clients deal with stress. It’s gratifying when the techniques I’ve used for so many years are proved to be valid by scientific research.

Inspired by: Study suggests girls can ‘rewire’ brains to ward off depression.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

imagery · personal growth · relaxation · self-hypnosis · self-improvement

by Linda-Ann Stewart

If criticism diminishes life-force, then why doesn’t it work when you criticize something you don’t want in your life? For example, if you condemn the fact that you have so little money, why don’t you get to experience the opposite, more money?

Because you’re contracting the very energy of money. You’re decreasing the value of that which you want. Where your emotional attention goes, energy flows. So you’re creating more of the same lack by focusing on and condemning that area. You’re making your lack grow.

To create more of what you want, appreciate what you have. Even if you only have a penny, praise that penny. I get excited when I find pennies on the ground, in parking lots, on the floor of a store. When I turn the attitude around, and think, “So what, it’s only a cent,” I discover that they don’t appear for me. My overall prosperity also suffers.

Because of my appreciation of the smallest of coins, I’ve found not only pennies, but nickels, dimes, quarters, and one, five and twenty dollar bills.

The principle is the same no matter what you desire in your life. For relationships, give thanks for your relationship with yourself. If you want better health, find something that’s good about your body, like your immune system.

To find a better job, give thanks for something beneficial in your present job. Find something that you value in your situation. By discovering something of worth, you allow it to appreciate.

Because Cricket took the time to improve her self-image, she gained the confidence to become a marketing director. No matter how miniscule the thing is that you praise, keep your attention on it.

Don’t waste your valuable energy on being critical of that area. Condemning it will only bring you more of what you don’t want. By appreciating what you have now, you allow it to expand and blossom into what you really want in your life.

Copyright 2000, 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

attitude · beliefs · empowerment · gratitude · inspiration · personal development · self-improvement

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Cricket wanted to improve her self-image. Though she hated her appearance, she knew she had to find something to appreciate about her looks to be able to increase her self-concept. After trying desperately to find something she could value about herself, she decided that she liked her hair a little bit.

Knowing that praising something made it improve, she began to praise her hair. Every morning and every evening, she looked in the mirror and told her hair how much she approved of it. She liked its thickness, its length, its health. Over the next few months, her hair began to respond by beginning to curl for the first time in her life.

Whatever you appreciate in your life expands. Being grateful means you are appreciative of benefits you’ve received. As a matter of fact, the definition of both gratitude and appreciation is “thankfulness.” But the definition of appreciation goes further.

Appreciation also means recognizing the high value of something. In addition, it signifies an increase in value. So when you appreciate something in your life, not only are you recognizing its worth, but you’re causing that worth to multiply.

Remember how you felt when someone appreciated your efforts. Didn’t you want to do more for them? Now think of how you felt when someone criticized you. Didn’t it make you angry, and not want to help that person in any way? Didn’t it make you feel like crawling into a hole and licking your wounds? Criticism contracts energy, while appreciation allows it to expand.

Test this for yourself. Take two plants. For a month, treat them exactly alike. Water and fertilize them the same, make sure they get an equal amount of sun. However, praise one of them, and criticize the other.

Experiments like this have been done over and over, and the results are the same. The plant that’s praised will grow larger, with greener leaves and more roots. The other one will be stunted and wither.

Copyright 2000, 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

beliefs · empowerment · gratitude · inspiration · personal growth · self-improvement

Anger can be a positive force for good in your life. When you are able to stay conscious enough to recognize anger is a signal, you can rationally decide how to address the issue. Here are 5 questions you can ask yourself so that something constructive can develop from the situation. For explanations of these questions, watch the video.

1. Are they a frequent offender who isn’t valuing you?
2. Do you want to cut the ties with this person?
3. Did they step over an important line for you or were they aware of it?
4. Were you somehow culpable in precipitating the offense?
5. Was it a misunderstanding? Did you filter what they did through a sensitive area of your own?

Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved.

consciousness · empowerment · mindfulness · personal growth · self-improvement