Empowering Your Mind – Page 126 – Mindset, Motivation and Empowerment

“Which affirmation will manifest first?”

August 13, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

Question: If a person is daily using several affirmations, which one will manifest first?

Answer: I always suggest that a person restrict themselves to affirming in one area of their life at a time. You can affirm one area, and when you see improvement in that area, you can move onto another area of your life.

The reason for this is that when the subconscious mind gets too many instructions at one time, it tends to rebel. Think about how you’d feel if someone dumped a lot of tasks on you, and expected them to be immediately completed. The
subconscious gets overwhelmed.

If you use several affirmations at a time, the affirmation the subconscious will manifest, if it manifests any of them, is the one with the least conflict and that you feel most confident of.

In other words, the affirmation that will manifest first is the one that has the least resistance or fear around the issue, or that you’ve had the most success with in the past.

“Accept Your Power”

August 5, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Some people don’t accept their own inner power. Many times, they abandon it because they’re afraid they’ll misuse it. Generally, this is because they’ve been the victims of other people who abuse their power and authority and don’t want to be like the abusers.

They’ve confused power with control. Power is the energy and ability to affect their own world. Contrarily, control is attempting to dominate the world of others for an advantage. Controllers manipulate, denigrate, discount and put others down to make themselves feel more powerful.

Since they don’t recognize their inner power, controllers feel they have to take it from others. This is the realm of bullies and abusers. They’re trying to make others do their bidding so that they feel better in some way. This is control, not empowerment.

If you don’t accept and exercise your power, then you’re making yourself a victim and living in survival mode. Instead of impacting your life in an assertive fashion, you’re always reacting to outside events. This causes you to live in fear, feel helpless, and let others define who you are. They’re filtering who you are through their own beliefs about who they think you should be.

When you accept this and don’t set and keep boundaries, you’ve actually abandoned your inner self. Living at the mercy of someone else’s whims isn’t conducive to spiritual growth or personal development.

By not taking responsibility for your power, you hand it over to others. Instead of making decisions for yourself, you let others choose for you. This is how the Law of Attraction works. Personal power is simply energy. If you don’t exercise it consciously, or reject it, it will go elsewhere. That disowned energy projects into the world and attracts people who will use it, usually to your detriment.

Personal power is a sense of confidence, strength and authenticity. Control comes from fear. When you accept your own inner power, you accept responsibility for yourself and your decisions. You rest in the assurance that you have the right to say “Yes” or “No,” based on knowing your limits and what’s appropriate for you.

Reclaiming your power may affect people in your life, because it changes the relationship. The other people now have to fall back on their own resources to meet their needs. Simply remember that they have their own power they can cultivate. They don’t have a right to your’s.

Only by being authentic and claiming your power can you attract what you want into your life. When you don’t hold yourself hostage to another’s motives, you can realize that you have a right to your life. Personal power means you decide what is best for you, rather than letting someone else do it.

You accept that your values, beliefs and opinions are as important as anyone else’s. They’re individual to you and appropriate for you. Other people can disagree with your ideas, and that’s fine for them. But your’s are valid for you. You are the person driving your life.

When you empower yourself, you authorize yourself to use your inner power to create your life. You’re accepting the responsibility for your beliefs, thoughts and actions, knowing that doing so means you can change any of these when you choose.

Believe it or not, when you accept your power and begin to exercise it in your life, other people will respect you more. You’ll be calmer, your inner self will be happier, and Life will be much more supportive of your endeavors. It takes courage to empower yourself, but it opens you up to the flow of the Universe.

Affirmation

I now give myself permission to reclaim my power. No one else has a right to it. It’s mine by Divine Right. I have the right to decide what is best for me and to ensure that I follow through on it. My values, beliefs and opinions are as important as anyone else’s on the face of the planet. I now accept responsibility for my life, and know I have the power to change it whenever I choose.

A nationally known speaker, life coach, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation, inspiration

Train Your Brain To Reduce Cravings

August 4, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

As a hypnotherapist, I’ve helped people quit smoking for over twenty years. One client had quit with the patch a couple of days before his first session, and he was having a terrible time with it. On our second session, he said it was like night and day. It was so much easier after his first session of hypnosis.

Hypnosis won’t make you quit smoking, but it does help make the process of quitting easier. Mainly, hypnosis imprints new information into your mind and focus on different thoughts about smoking. You focus on the advantages of not smoking and different strategies to get you through the cravings.

Over the years, people have argued with me about whether changing your thinking about smoking can make quitting easier. Finally, scientific evidence confirms this very premise. A new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers, using an MRI, found that focusing on the long-term negative consequences of smoking actually switched off the part of the brain that controlled cravings.

Apparently, this concept also worked with cravings for various foods, as well. When you consider the long-range consequences, you change your focus, and it turns off the craving. Eventually, you’re able to train your brain to switch off the cravings. With hypnosis, you’re able to make those changes quicker.

I wonder what else they’ll discover that you can train your brain to do that hypnotherapists have been doing for years?

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation …

Book Review – “The Abundance Book”

July 28, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

The Abundance Book
by John Randolph Price

This little book is worth its weight in gold. I used my original one so much that it’s fallen apart, and I keep it in a plastic zip top bag. I now own three copies, just in case.

Quoting from various teachers and books about prosperity, it condenses all the wisdom about prosperity, money and abundance into this tiny volume.

The author writes about the profound idea that you are your own money, and that it’s your energy that circulates. He includes some prosperity “secrets” to help manifest quicker and easier.

Included in this book is a 40 day prosperity plan, which are 10 affirmations you meditate on. Taking one of these affirmations each day, you circulate through them 4 times.

By the end of the 40 days, you’ll have begun to change your consciousness about money, prosperity and abundance. And it works! Money will begin to flow more easily into your coffers.

This book will change your perspective on money and yourself. Whenever I get into fear about finances, I pull this book out and read it again. And when I do, money begins to appear. If you have an issue with money, run, don’t walk, and buy this book!

The Necessity Of Taking Time-Off To Recharge

July 27, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

Last week, I took my first vacation in two years. I just did what I wanted and played around the house. I went to a movie in the middle of the week (gasp!), had lunch with a friend, hiked and took a day trip.

When the week began, I kept feeling pressure to DO something, anything, like email, write, work, etc. I’d feel the pressure surface, and would remind myself, “No, this is my vacation. I don’t have to do anything.” It was hard, but I knew it was important for me to be able to recharge.

It made me aware of how much pressure we put on ourselves to produce. Thinking time, creative space, mulling things over just aren’t valued in the U.S. culture. We push ourselves to the brink and keep pushing. This isn’t very healthy or helpful for creativity, solving problems or even productivity.

To be able to progress and formulate new ideas, we actually need downtime to do it. This is when our minds get their batteries charged and we get the juice to come up with new concepts.

It’s like being sleep deprived, which our culture also is. Without sleep to reset our bodies and process our experiences, we tend to get sick, confused and cranky. We don’t value something that is integral to our survival and thriving.

It’s interesting that looking productive is more important than actual efficiency. If we’re not pushing ourselves, then it’s assumed that we’re slackers. But the most inventive people are those who sit and look into thin air as they think. They do enjoyable things as their minds process and incubate ideas.

After exercise, we need to let muscles rest and rebuild. The same is true of our working lives. Taking time-off is necessary for not only mental health, but also physical health. It was hard, but I forced myself to take the time to give my brain a rest. When is your next time-out?

motivation, productivity, inspiration

“Reclaim Your Power: Train People How To Treat You”

July 15, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

It’s a sad truth that most people only treat you as well as you treat yourself. If you don’t respect yourself, set boundaries and take care of your self-interest, other people won’t do it either. They take their cue from how you treat yourself. When you take care of your own well being, then you train others to respect you.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development

Flagstaff Schultz Fire Devastation

July 14, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

Jeff and I were driving from Jerome to Cottonwood when the Flagstaff Schultz fire got started last month. Initially, we saw a little bit of smoke over the rim.

Within a half-hour, that smoke had grown into a huge column of smoke. From that we could tell that the fire had really exploded. Apparently, the fire was caused by a hiker abandoning their campfire without putting it out thoroughly.

Most people think that Arizona is all desert. In actuality, much of Northern and Eastern Arizona is wooded. It has a very active lumber industry.

Fire is a natural cycle in these woods, but normally it’s mainly on the floor of the forests. In this case, fire actually burns off brush and improves the health of the trees. Gigantic forest fires, like the one in Flagstaff, burn the trees and leaves scorched stumps.

Flagstaff Schultz Fire A week after the fire began, we drove up to Flagstaff to view the extent of the damage and see how firefighting efforts were going.

It looked like the entire side of one of the mountains was smoldering. It’s heart-rending. It’ll take decades, if not a century or more for the forest to recover.

“Why has my relationship not progressed?”

July 12, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

Question: I have been in a relationship for about a year now and have put a lot of energy into it without any expectations of anything in return. Why has it not manifested any further?

Answer: Although you say that you’ve been in this relationship with no expectations, you have had an expectation, that the relationship would progress. I’m sure you thought it would happen on its own. That’s what we’re told. But by trying not to have any expectations, you’ve actually manifested what you were expecting. No expectations, no progression.

We’ve been told over and over to let go of any expectations in our relationships, when what it actually means is to not have any expectations of our partner. The idea of no expectation really means that we shouldn’t expect our partner to change to suit us or to our ideas of how they should be.

However, there are some expectations we should have in any relationship. To be treated well, to have open communication, to have respect, to be treated equally.

When we put so much energy into a relationship, and don’t get anything back, it’s time to reassess the relationship. The person you’re with may not be able to give you what you obviously want.

You need to set some boundaries of what you expect from the relationship. Only that way can the Universe and the other
person know what you need. You deserve to do that. You deserve to value yourself, and to expect to be valued by the other person.

By stating what you need and want, you allow the other person to decide whether they can give it to you or not. If they choose not to, then you need to let go and move on. By doing so, you give the Universe the opportunity to bring someone else into your life who can fill your needs.

“Mindfulness: Reduce Distractions To Reduce Stress”

July 6, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Over and over again, we’re told that we can only focus on one thing at a time. When we think we’re focusing on two ideas at a time, we’re really switching our attention from one to the other and back again. That is a waste of mental energy.

It’s a myth that we can multi-task without some decline in our ability to focus and be effective. Multi-tasking actually slows us down and erodes our ability to concentrate.

A study from the University of Michigan has actually found a reduction of 40 percent in production when we try to do two things at once. It also causes us to make mistakes and creates the problem of being burned out.

A Microsoft study found it can take up to 15 minutes to re-focus after an interruption. This can deplete internal resources and reduce creativity. Distractions take the place of true accomplishment. Just because we look busy doesn’t mean we’re achieving anything.

The solution is to shut out the interruptions, distractions and focus for an extended period of time on the project in front of you. Corporations are beginning to create these distraction-free time zones.

Not only does this free up time, but it reduces stress and allows space for creativity to flow. When we’re not busy dealing with the latest crisis, we can begin to move forward.

Establish one or two times a day to check email, let the phone messages go to voicemail, shut the door to be able to concentrate. These are boundaries we set around our time and workspace to allow us to be more productive and feel more peaceful.

Learning to set boundaries isn’t just important in our personal lives, it’s important in our business lives, as well. It forms a structure that we can count on and help us to be more calm and relaxed.

Inspired by the article E-mail is Making You Stupid from Entrepreneur.com, and gives more ideas of how to reduce your distractions.

motivation, productivity, inspiration

“4 Ways To Reclaim Your Power”

July 1, 2010 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

You’ve probably been taught to be generous, a giver, and put other people first. These are necessary ingredients for spiritual development, but they can be taken to extremes. When they are, they erode your self-worth, promote a victim mentality and you give away your power.

Many times, when you do too much for others, at the expense of your well being, they won’t appreciate it and will just demand more. They may feel that they’re entitled to whatever resources you have, and you’re expected to hand them over. This isn’t good for you or for them.

By taking on the responsibility for other people’s feelings and actions, you’re not allowing them the gift of being accountable for themselves. They are every bit as able as you are to develop abilities to handle difficult and disappointing situations. When you try to completely cushion their discomfort, you aren’t letting them exercise their problem solving skills.

Letting people be upset and uncomfortable can be distressing. But by doing so, you’re enabling them to increase their own resources and freeing yourself to have more time and money. Here are several ways you can take back your power in your relationships.

Put your well-being first

If you don’t put your health and well-being first, no one else will. You will have shown them that you don’t consider it to be important, so why should they. This is also a toxic message to your inner self. Eventually, you’ll run out of mental, emotional, physical and financial resources. Then you won’t be able to help anyone, including yourself.

You’re only responsible for your moods, feelings, and behaviors

When someone is upset, it’s natural to try to cheer them up. But in trying to do that, you’re distracting them from their issue and actually prolonging it. It will surface again, except it will have gained energy. You’re not responsible to make anyone else feel better. Let them cultivate their own resources, and they’ll have them forever.

Don’t try to reason with an irrational person

If you have someone in your life who manipulates you, learn to set a boundary. State what you plan to do, and don’t deviate from it. They don’t care about your reasons, they just want you to do what they want. Reasoning with them just gives them more ammunition to twist to their advantage. You aren’t required to justify your actions or decisions to others.

Learn to say, “No”

When you say, “No,” to other people, you’re telling your inner self that what you want matters. Unless you state what you’re willing to do and not do, then they’re not going to know. They’re not mind readers. By drawing a line in the sand, you’re communicating to them and your inner self that your desires, choices, and needs are important.

When you begin to make these changes, the people you’re dealing with probably won’t like the changes in your attitude towards them. It’s likely they’ll escalate their demands. Stand firm, because you’re not only dealing with them but also your patterns and habits.

The more determined you are to take back your power, the easier the transition will be. Your relationships will improve or the difficult ones will fade out of your life. It may be sad to see them go, but they’ll create a vacuum to draw in people who truly appreciate and respect you. You’ll regain your power over your choices, and your self-worth will improve because you’re establishing your value.

Affirmation

My choices, desires and needs matter. They are as important as anyone else’s. I now establish healthy boundaries and learn to say “No” to requests and demands that make me uncomfortable. I don’t need to justify my decisions to anyone. They are valid simply because they are important to me. I realize that I’m responsible only for my choices, moods and challenges. Other people have as much ability to solve their problems as I do. I now take responsibility for my well-being.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development