Wouldn’t it be thrilling to hurdle every barrier in your life and excel like you’ve never excelled before? You absolutely can! The first step is believing that it’s possible.
Within each one of us there is a power we scarcely tap. This power has fueled heroic deeds since time began and has energized great inventors, artists and musicians throughout the ages. It’s the exact same power available to you every day of your life. It is the power of belief.
What is a belief? It is a sense of certainty about something. For example, if you believe you’re a good musician you think, “I feel certain that I’m a fine musician.” And that sense of certainty helps you channel your skill, creativity and resources to produce beautiful music. On the other hand, a negative belief works the same way. If you say, “I believe I’m a terrible singer” then your certainty that you sing badly will actually help orchestrate just the right elements needed to produce results that validate your belief.
I would like to ignite the marvelous power of positive belief within you. This power can, without question, amplify and enrich every area of your life. As you study and practice this principle, and as you identify and use positive beliefs in your life, you will gain access to a reservoir of energy and inspiration for constructive personal growth, taking you to a whole new level of living.
Marcus Aurelius, a 2nd century philosopher and Emperor of Rome once said, “A man’s life is what his beliefs make of it.”
And Dale Carnegie, author of the book How To Win Friends and Influence People wrote,
“Believe that you will succeed. Believe it firmly, and you will then do what is necessary to bring success about.”
Through the years I’ve heard, “How can I believe I’ll be successful when my past history tells me otherwise?” That’s a common question asked by people who are wounded by past failures. They’ve allowed the blows of life and the multiplication of their challenges to produce entrenched self-doubt. Frequently, those who want to believe they can become their ideal selves suffer from a deep sense of inadequacy and insecurity. They simply don’t trust their ability to make positive changes in their lives. Their damaged hearts don’t allow them to believe in themselves, so they settle for something less than true fulfillment.
Take a look at some facts about people who believed in themselves and in their special “gifts”:
- Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book was rejected by 23 publishers.
- Michelangelo endured 7 long years lying on his back on a scaffold to paint the Sistine Chapel. He was nearly blinded by the paint that dripped in his eyes.
- Michael Jordon was cut from his high school basketball team.
- Walt Disney went bankrupt four times before he succeeded.
- Charles Goodyear was imprisoned for debt and ridiculed by family and friends.
- Albert Einstein’s doctoral dissertation was rejected and called “irrelevant.”
- Cyrus Curtis lost $800,000 on the Saturday Evening Post before it realized a single dollar profit.
- Thomas Edison failed one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine times before his invention of the light bulb worked. He remarked, “I am not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
I believe we’re all here to contribute something unique, and that each of us has a special gift, a particular talent, to share with others.
My hope is that you will come to believe that you don’t have to be defeated by anything. You can enjoy peace of mind, boundless energy, compelling confidence and even improved health each and every day of a joy-filled life.
Too many people go through life in quiet unhappiness, defeated by everyday problems. They struggle through their days and nights without knowing that it doesn’t have to be that way! Yes, life throws us curves and challenges – frequently. But allowing ourselves to be defeated by difficulties is needless and avoidable. While not ignoring the obstacles and tragedies in our lives, we shouldn’t allow them to dominate our minds because the beliefs in our minds create the results in our lives.
As you sow in your mind, so shall you reap in your life. Think of your mind as a bed of rich soil that will help all kinds of seeds to flourish, whether good or bad. If you sow noxious thistles you can’t expect to reap luscious fruit. It is essential to allow only good thoughts to grow in the fertile soil of your mind because happiness is directly related to our ability to fill our minds with positive thoughts.
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Phil. 4:8) For, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
THE WORLD WITHIN CREATES THE WORLD WITHOUT
Another way to explain this concept is that the world within creates the world without. If you want to change external conditions you must first change the cause – your thoughts. Every thought is a cause, and every condition is an effect. Often, people try to change circumstances by working on the circumstances. Why? Because they fail to see that to remove limitation and lack from your life you must first remove the beliefs and images which encourage that limitation and lack. Change the cause and you change the effect. You possess all the power necessary to heal a troubled mind and a broken heart, and to move forward joyfully. Indeed, you can choose to make your life greater, richer, nobler and better than ever before, or you can choose to live in emotional bondage, in a stagnant or even regressive state.
LET’S TALK ABOUT HOW TO CREATE POSITIVE CHANGE AND MOVE FORWARD JOYFULLY.
If we want to make use of physical forces of nature, such as in chemistry, mathematics and physics, we must first learn the principles. Likewise, if we want to make use of the force of our mind, we must learn its principles.
One law of your mind is this: the response you get from your subconscious mind is determined by the nature of the thoughts in your conscious mind. The latter is like the captain of a ship. He sends orders to people in the engine room who control the ship navigational instruments. The engine room people are like the subconscious mind. They don’t know where they’re going, they just follow orders. They’d hit rocks and wreck the ship if the captain sent them faulty instructions. Because the captain (conscious mind) is in charge, the engine room people don’t talk back to the captain, they just carry out his orders because he’s supposed to know what he’s doing.
Your conscious mind – the captain of your ship – gives your subconscious mind orders based on your self-beliefs. Then your subconscious mind acts on the orders, without questioning them, even if those beliefs are wrong.
For example, if you say to yourself, “I’m no good at selling. Hey, I like people, but I just can’t sell.” Then your subconscious mind acts on that belief and will be sure that you don’t succeed as a salesman. You will not be able to sell, and you’ll believe that circumstances caused it. The fact is, you created your circumstances through your negative belief. Your false belief was the cause, your failure as a salesperson is the effect.
CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSIOUS
You may know that the conscious and subconscious are two spheres of activity within your mind. Your conscious mind reasons and chooses. For example, your decisions like the home you live in, the food you eat, the people you choose as your friends – these choices are made with the conscious mind.
On the other hand, your subconscious mind functions without any conscious choice on your part. It keeps your heart beating automatically and your body functioning without thought. Your subconscious mind doesn’t reason things out, it doesn’t argue with you, it just blindly accepts your conscious belief, both good and bad. Again, it’s like rich soil that accepts any kind of seeds. For example, if you consciously believe something is right – even if it’s wrong – your subconscious mind accepts it as right and then works to make that information correct. It will bring information and suggestions (even the wrong ones) to pass as conditions and experiences. This works for both good and bad like this: When you think, “I believe I’m a loving, kind person,” each day you act in loving, kind ways. On the other hand, if you think, “I’m always impatient with my children,” you continue to be impatient.
Whatever the conscious, reasoning mind believes, the subconscious mind accepts and acts on.
Your subconscious mind is always working, night and day. It keeps your body functioning even though you aren’t consciously participating; it’s always on the job for you. Since you can’t interact with the subconscious mind, realize that your business is with the conscious mind. Therefore, it is imperative to a healthy, joyful life to sow the seeds of positive thought, gratitude, abundance, love, and peace. Expect the best continuously and fill your mind with goodness. Take care of your conscious mind, knowing that your subconscious mind is always expressing and manifesting according to your habitual thinking.
Almost everything that has happened to you in your life happened because of your conscious beliefs, impressed on your subconscious mind. If you’ve communicated wrong or distorted beliefs to your subconscious mind, it is urgently important that you correct them. And as you learn new ways of thinking, your subconscious mind will accept your new, healthy thought patterns and they’ll become habitual. Your subconscious mind drives habits.
THINKING PATTERNS CREATE DEEP GROOVES
Your habitual thinking patterns create deep grooves in your subconscious mind. If your habitual thoughts are constructive, peaceful, loving, your subconscious mind will respond by creating positive, peaceful, loving conditions in your life. On the other hand, if your thought patterns are fearful, worrisome or otherwise destructive, the good news is that you can create powerful, positive beliefs to break the cycle and create new, healthy thought habits.
I absolutely know that we have the power to take control and change nearly anything and everything in our lives, because within each of us lies both the ability to turn our dreams into reality, and the solutions to our every challenge.
~ Dr. Paula
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