Life is never unfair to us. We are unfair to ourselves. Ours is the choice: we may offer ourselves in the bargain basement or in the exclusive section, and Life is not only willing to pay; it has no alternative but to pay the exact price we set upon ourselves. It can pay no more or less, because it is impartial as the mirror, which must reflect exactly what is placed before it. It is as impersonal as the loom, which must weave into cloth the threads that are given it, be they cheap white cotton or costly threads of silk.
"My Wage," by Jessie B Rittenhouse, says this very well:
I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;
For Life is a just employer;
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life
Life would have paid.
When we come to see this, Life no longer seems harsh and cruel to us. Our world will change as our ideas concerning ourselves change. So never be afraid to think highly of your value.
This implies making ourselves valuable. The shirker, constantly watching the clock or giving inadequate service, should not expect to lie on his back, filling his thought with the picture of his worth, and imagining that Infinite Mind will bring this later picture into form.
Never say a thing about yourself that you don't desire to see realized in your life. Act out the part of the person you desire to be...we can decide what sort of person we would like to be and begin at once to act the part.
Today is the finished product of yesterday's or last year's thought. Today's thought is even now passing through the loom of mind, will become the pattern of tomorrow's or next year's experience. That which we now are thinking will take form, sometime, somewhere.
If we hope to get free from those negative, unwanted conditions we have been voicing, we must change our thought. And if we have not yet advanced to the point where we have thorough control over our thoughts, we can, at least to a large degree, control our speech; therefore, today we refuse to give utterance to that which we now know will only perpetuate our unwanted past experiences.
Turn away from past failures...and focus instead on past successes no matter how small.
Taken from the book The Science of Mind by Frederick Bailes
Let's practice putting a guard over our mind and our mouth!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
The Power of Choice
My focus for this week is on the mind because it impacts every aspect of our life...our health both mental & physical... relationships...success...wealth.
That said I'm going to share with you some of the things that I've learned over the past year on my journey of taking control of my thoughts, attitudes, and what I speak. Its a lot harder than I thought it would be! In fact I challenge you to pay attention to the random thoughts that go thru your mind on a continuous basis...become conscious of what you think about and say, then change any negative thoughts to positive ones as soon as they show up. I picture a big red X for delete on the computer of my mind whenever they happen...sometimes I even say delete that out loud!
Our conscious mind can be called "directing" mind. It is characterized by the words "I choose." With it, we weigh values; we weigh reasons for and against; we judge; we decide; we deliberately choose what we desire to do, what we desire to be, what we desire to have. And we deliberately choose the thoughts we wish to think.
All of our choices are made in conscious mind.
Our subconscious mind is the creating, the manufacturing, phase of mind that takes what conscious mind gives it and turns thoughts into things. Beneath the surface, it works ceaselessly to turn those thoughts - both good and bad - into the outward conditions of our lives.
It has no power of choice, it never reasons. It cannot refuse to take what conscious mind gives it. It must always work from a pattern, and it has no choice but to work from the pattern of thought that comes to it from conscious mind. Like the soil that must accept the seed, it must accept that thought.
Subconscious mind is habitual mind. Whatever we entertain often enough and vividly enough in our conscious mind - whether by conscious , deliberate choice or by choice made so rapidly that we are not aware we have made it - eventually passes into subconscious mind, where it continues to act automatically. This is the process by which we learn everything that we learn.
A negative disposition, for instance, is the result of repeated negative thoughts that have sunk into subconscious mind and have become habitual. But a cheerful, happy disposition can become just as automatic by conscious choice of positive thoughts. Thus it is not true that some people are blessed with positive natures, and others cursed with the opposite. People are not born optimistic or pessimistic: they learn to be what they are.
What anyone earnestly desires to be, he may become, not, however, by waving a magic wand but by the same procedure he uses to play the piano or to swim.
It is the level of the thought of subconscious mind - of our inward mental states - that makes us and our outer circumstances what they are and will become.
The loom that weaves thought into thing.
We all know enough about the principals of rug weaving to know that there are a loom, threads, and a weaver (or overseer) - and a rug.
The loom has only one task; that is, to keep weaving. It does not decide whether it will weave a beautiful or an ugly rug. Hour after hour, it moves back and forth, while yard after yard of rug comes slowly forth at the end of the loom.
The weaver watching it may be displeased and outraged by what he sees coming out, but he does not berate the loom and say, "Why have you done this to me?" He does not sit at the other end crying over the ugly pattern wishing it would somehow change into a thing of beauty. He knows that the only place where beauty can be made to replace ugliness is on the rack of spools at his end before the obedient weaving apparatus gets it, and so he changes the threads. He takes off a dark spool, replacing it with a brighter color; he exchanges a gaudy yellow for a mellow gold. Then he starts the machine once more, and as he watches what now comes out at the other end, he is pleased.
Daily, man's loom of mind weaves the pattern of his life. If he does not like the pattern, he is foolish to sit crying about it or wishing it would change. He is wrong to complain about "luck" or to berate "Providence." He, and he alone is the weaver.
The great law of cause and effect gives us back what we have put in.
The above is taken from the book The Science of Mind by Dr. Frederick Bailes
These were initially hard concepts for me to swallow...to think that our thoughts have brought circumstances that we honestly don't believe to be our fault into our life is a hard lump to swallow! I argued profusely with the friend who shared these concepts with me...giving him all the reasons "why" I was NOT responsible for this or that. The sad reality is that now that I've taken the time to study these principals and pay attention to what I'm thinking and saying my mind has been happy to send me instant replay messages of all the things that I previously thought to create the circumstances that I didn't feel responsible for. Your subconscious mind never forgets anything! The bright spot is that you can start immediately to reverse the negative and shift to the positive...this has truly changed my life.
That said I'm going to share with you some of the things that I've learned over the past year on my journey of taking control of my thoughts, attitudes, and what I speak. Its a lot harder than I thought it would be! In fact I challenge you to pay attention to the random thoughts that go thru your mind on a continuous basis...become conscious of what you think about and say, then change any negative thoughts to positive ones as soon as they show up. I picture a big red X for delete on the computer of my mind whenever they happen...sometimes I even say delete that out loud!
Our conscious mind can be called "directing" mind. It is characterized by the words "I choose." With it, we weigh values; we weigh reasons for and against; we judge; we decide; we deliberately choose what we desire to do, what we desire to be, what we desire to have. And we deliberately choose the thoughts we wish to think.
All of our choices are made in conscious mind.
Our subconscious mind is the creating, the manufacturing, phase of mind that takes what conscious mind gives it and turns thoughts into things. Beneath the surface, it works ceaselessly to turn those thoughts - both good and bad - into the outward conditions of our lives.
It has no power of choice, it never reasons. It cannot refuse to take what conscious mind gives it. It must always work from a pattern, and it has no choice but to work from the pattern of thought that comes to it from conscious mind. Like the soil that must accept the seed, it must accept that thought.
Subconscious mind is habitual mind. Whatever we entertain often enough and vividly enough in our conscious mind - whether by conscious , deliberate choice or by choice made so rapidly that we are not aware we have made it - eventually passes into subconscious mind, where it continues to act automatically. This is the process by which we learn everything that we learn.
A negative disposition, for instance, is the result of repeated negative thoughts that have sunk into subconscious mind and have become habitual. But a cheerful, happy disposition can become just as automatic by conscious choice of positive thoughts. Thus it is not true that some people are blessed with positive natures, and others cursed with the opposite. People are not born optimistic or pessimistic: they learn to be what they are.
What anyone earnestly desires to be, he may become, not, however, by waving a magic wand but by the same procedure he uses to play the piano or to swim.
It is the level of the thought of subconscious mind - of our inward mental states - that makes us and our outer circumstances what they are and will become.
The loom that weaves thought into thing.
We all know enough about the principals of rug weaving to know that there are a loom, threads, and a weaver (or overseer) - and a rug.
The loom has only one task; that is, to keep weaving. It does not decide whether it will weave a beautiful or an ugly rug. Hour after hour, it moves back and forth, while yard after yard of rug comes slowly forth at the end of the loom.
The weaver watching it may be displeased and outraged by what he sees coming out, but he does not berate the loom and say, "Why have you done this to me?" He does not sit at the other end crying over the ugly pattern wishing it would somehow change into a thing of beauty. He knows that the only place where beauty can be made to replace ugliness is on the rack of spools at his end before the obedient weaving apparatus gets it, and so he changes the threads. He takes off a dark spool, replacing it with a brighter color; he exchanges a gaudy yellow for a mellow gold. Then he starts the machine once more, and as he watches what now comes out at the other end, he is pleased.
Daily, man's loom of mind weaves the pattern of his life. If he does not like the pattern, he is foolish to sit crying about it or wishing it would change. He is wrong to complain about "luck" or to berate "Providence." He, and he alone is the weaver.
The great law of cause and effect gives us back what we have put in.
The above is taken from the book The Science of Mind by Dr. Frederick Bailes
These were initially hard concepts for me to swallow...to think that our thoughts have brought circumstances that we honestly don't believe to be our fault into our life is a hard lump to swallow! I argued profusely with the friend who shared these concepts with me...giving him all the reasons "why" I was NOT responsible for this or that. The sad reality is that now that I've taken the time to study these principals and pay attention to what I'm thinking and saying my mind has been happy to send me instant replay messages of all the things that I previously thought to create the circumstances that I didn't feel responsible for. Your subconscious mind never forgets anything! The bright spot is that you can start immediately to reverse the negative and shift to the positive...this has truly changed my life.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The Power of Thought
I've always look forward to January...minus the snow and cold! The reason it's my favorite month is that I see it as a clean slate...a chance to do better...to be better than the previous year...I'm filled with hope and anticipation. This is especially true this year because I've spent the past 12 months doing much reading on the topic to follow.
"There was a time when I would have laughed at people who talked about the magnetic force of thought, how thought correlates with its object, how it can affect people and inanimate things, even at great distances. But I no longer laugh, nor do others who know something of its power, for anyone who has any intelligence sooner or later comes to the realization that thought can change the surface of the entire globe." Claude Bristol
I too, was once a skeptic, and even after spending considerable time reading and studying these concepts and findings, certainly wouldn't have risked being ridiculed by my peers by admitting that I now believe them to be true! Not only do I now believe them to be true, I believe that in our current economic environment, along with the gloom and doom mindset of the media, that it is more important than ever to determine whether or not you will choose to focus on all that is good with your life or will you buy into the concept that the best days of our lives are behind us. I personally choose to believe that the best days are in front of us and that we can overcome the obstacles and be stronger as a result!
Perhaps the following story and insights taken from the book I'm reading, The Magic of Believing by Claude Britol, from which most of the content for today is coming will be an encouragement to you as it has been for me.
"It came to me in a flash that the reason my firm was going on the rocks was not because of the threatening outside happenings and events, but because of the mental attitude of its members and employees. We were all succumbing to mass fear thoughts; we feared that the depression was weakening our spirit and sweeping everything downhill to financial disaster, and with our own thoughts of ruin we were attracting the disaster to ourselves. It occurred to me that all I needed to do to save the firm and to begin fighting the depression itself was to reverse the thinking of every person connected with our organization. I set about doing that very thing; and as Frank W. Camp who wrote the introduction to my brochure declared, "it was followed by the most remarkable transformation of individuals and organization as well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that the ancestor of every action is thought; when we understand that, we begin to comprehend that our world is governed by thought and that everything without had its counterpart originally within the mind. It is just as Buddha said many centuries ago: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Your very life is your thinking and the result of your thinking processes. Your flesh, bones, and muscles can be reduced to 70 per cent water and a few chemicals of small value, but it is your mind and what you think that makes you what you are. The secret of success lies not without, but within, the thoughts of man. You are the product of your own thought. What you believe yourself to be, you are." Claude Bristol
"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Jesus
"Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement. Without it there would be no great empires, no great fortunes, no great transcontinental rail lines, no modern conveniences; in fact, there would be no advance over life in the most primitive ages.
Your thoughts, those that predominate, determine your character, your career, indeed your everyday life. Thus it becomes easy to understand what is meant by the statement that a man's thoughts make or break him. And when you realize that there can be no action or reaction, either good or bad, without the generating force of thought initiating it, the Biblical saying, "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap," and Shakespeare's words "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking that makes it so," becomes more intelligible. We become what we contemplate, what we envisage.
I would like to point out that hard work alone will not bring success. The world is full of people who work hard but have little to show for it. Something more than hard work is necessary: it is creative thinking and firm belief in your ability to execute your ideas. The successful people in history have succeeded through their thinking. Their hands were merely helpers to their brains.
Another important point is that one essential to success is that your desire be an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be co-ordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without letup. It may be riches or fame or position or knowledge that you want, for each person has his own idea of what success means to him. But whatever you consider it to be, you can have it provided you are willing to make the objective the burning desire of your life. A big order, you say. Not at all; by using the dynamic force of believing,you can set all your inner forces in motion, and they will in turn help you to reach your goal." Claude Bristol
"It is done unto you as you believe." Jesus
"Now that you have a clearer idea of the part that thought and desire play in our daily lives, the first thing to determine is precisely what you want. Starting in with the general idea that you merely want to be a success, as most people do is to indefinite. You must have a mental pattern clearly drawn in your mind. Ask yourself, Where am I headed? What is my goal? Have I visualized just what I really want? If success is to be measured in terms of wealth, can you fix the amount in figures? If in terms of achievement, can you specify it definitely?" "I ask these questions, for in their answers are factors which will determine your whole life. Strange as it may appear, not one out of a hundred people can answer these questions. Most people have a general idea of what they would like to be a success, but beyond that everything is vague. They merely go along from day to day figuring that if they have a job today they will have it tomorrow and that somehow they will be looked after in their old age. They are like the cork on the water floating aimlessly, drawn this way and that by various currents, and either being washed up on the shore, or becoming waterlogged and eventually sinking." Claude Bristol
Thought - Desire - Belief...are you paying attention to yours?
Make it a great year...the choice IS yours
Wendy
"There was a time when I would have laughed at people who talked about the magnetic force of thought, how thought correlates with its object, how it can affect people and inanimate things, even at great distances. But I no longer laugh, nor do others who know something of its power, for anyone who has any intelligence sooner or later comes to the realization that thought can change the surface of the entire globe." Claude Bristol
I too, was once a skeptic, and even after spending considerable time reading and studying these concepts and findings, certainly wouldn't have risked being ridiculed by my peers by admitting that I now believe them to be true! Not only do I now believe them to be true, I believe that in our current economic environment, along with the gloom and doom mindset of the media, that it is more important than ever to determine whether or not you will choose to focus on all that is good with your life or will you buy into the concept that the best days of our lives are behind us. I personally choose to believe that the best days are in front of us and that we can overcome the obstacles and be stronger as a result!
Perhaps the following story and insights taken from the book I'm reading, The Magic of Believing by Claude Britol, from which most of the content for today is coming will be an encouragement to you as it has been for me.
"It came to me in a flash that the reason my firm was going on the rocks was not because of the threatening outside happenings and events, but because of the mental attitude of its members and employees. We were all succumbing to mass fear thoughts; we feared that the depression was weakening our spirit and sweeping everything downhill to financial disaster, and with our own thoughts of ruin we were attracting the disaster to ourselves. It occurred to me that all I needed to do to save the firm and to begin fighting the depression itself was to reverse the thinking of every person connected with our organization. I set about doing that very thing; and as Frank W. Camp who wrote the introduction to my brochure declared, "it was followed by the most remarkable transformation of individuals and organization as well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that the ancestor of every action is thought; when we understand that, we begin to comprehend that our world is governed by thought and that everything without had its counterpart originally within the mind. It is just as Buddha said many centuries ago: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Your very life is your thinking and the result of your thinking processes. Your flesh, bones, and muscles can be reduced to 70 per cent water and a few chemicals of small value, but it is your mind and what you think that makes you what you are. The secret of success lies not without, but within, the thoughts of man. You are the product of your own thought. What you believe yourself to be, you are." Claude Bristol
"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Jesus
"Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement. Without it there would be no great empires, no great fortunes, no great transcontinental rail lines, no modern conveniences; in fact, there would be no advance over life in the most primitive ages.
Your thoughts, those that predominate, determine your character, your career, indeed your everyday life. Thus it becomes easy to understand what is meant by the statement that a man's thoughts make or break him. And when you realize that there can be no action or reaction, either good or bad, without the generating force of thought initiating it, the Biblical saying, "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap," and Shakespeare's words "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking that makes it so," becomes more intelligible. We become what we contemplate, what we envisage.
I would like to point out that hard work alone will not bring success. The world is full of people who work hard but have little to show for it. Something more than hard work is necessary: it is creative thinking and firm belief in your ability to execute your ideas. The successful people in history have succeeded through their thinking. Their hands were merely helpers to their brains.
Another important point is that one essential to success is that your desire be an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be co-ordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without letup. It may be riches or fame or position or knowledge that you want, for each person has his own idea of what success means to him. But whatever you consider it to be, you can have it provided you are willing to make the objective the burning desire of your life. A big order, you say. Not at all; by using the dynamic force of believing,you can set all your inner forces in motion, and they will in turn help you to reach your goal." Claude Bristol
"It is done unto you as you believe." Jesus
"Now that you have a clearer idea of the part that thought and desire play in our daily lives, the first thing to determine is precisely what you want. Starting in with the general idea that you merely want to be a success, as most people do is to indefinite. You must have a mental pattern clearly drawn in your mind. Ask yourself, Where am I headed? What is my goal? Have I visualized just what I really want? If success is to be measured in terms of wealth, can you fix the amount in figures? If in terms of achievement, can you specify it definitely?" "I ask these questions, for in their answers are factors which will determine your whole life. Strange as it may appear, not one out of a hundred people can answer these questions. Most people have a general idea of what they would like to be a success, but beyond that everything is vague. They merely go along from day to day figuring that if they have a job today they will have it tomorrow and that somehow they will be looked after in their old age. They are like the cork on the water floating aimlessly, drawn this way and that by various currents, and either being washed up on the shore, or becoming waterlogged and eventually sinking." Claude Bristol
Thought - Desire - Belief...are you paying attention to yours?
Make it a great year...the choice IS yours
Wendy
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Achievement
"The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat."
Napolean Hill
Napolean Hill
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
