Imagination:
Posted by Amy Hale on October 31, 2011 at 7:22 am
Remember going to the carnival as a child? You were in such awe as you watched and maybe even participated in the spectacular shows and rides that were offered. The clowns and actors made spectacles of themselves to entertain you and the rest of the audience. If you had a sore toe or were feeling a little blue, having fun helped you refocus on something that made you feel good.
Letting your imagination take you to new places within yourself can also alter your perception and state of being. Even though the world seems like it’s becoming less stable and other people are struggling to pay their bills, you can evolve to a higher state by using your wonderful imagination.
When you are feeling down or negative, do you scold or even belittle yourself for having an attitude that feels bad? Have you ever thought about letting yourself have the negative without attaching yourself to them? Rather, let the come up, however, let them float away just the same. Instead of scolding yourself or judging the emotion as bad, could you just let it be for a moment?
When going through the feelings of sadness, anxiety, or resentment, people tend to forget to allow themselves to be human. Humans are emotional beings. When people stuff their emotions down or tell themselves that they are bad, they learn to distrust themselves and he value of of all of their emotions.
If you beat yourself up for having a negative emotion, this often activates a justification of unworthiness of better things. Our self-worth lowers as a result and guilt sets in for not being in control. It’s a big cycle. However, when you allow yourself to feel and metabolize your feelings and all self-forgiveness to take place, we see things in a different light plus we move from that space instead of resentment.
This week’s experiment:
Recognize your feelings for what they really are. Thoughts about people, events and things generate feelings. Do you best to acknowledge all of your feelings, including the ones that feel bad – like fear or sadness. Allow these feelings to be. Don’t judge them. Imagine them moving through your body and out your feet.
Then work at noticing how that affects your life. You’ll find that you’re more at peace, centered in the present moment, and your get more done with less effort.
Let me know your thoughts and how you do.
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Posted by Amy Hale on October 17, 2011 at 7:26 am
Everyone uses their imagination on a daily basis. Whether it’s just daydreaming, worrying, remembering to get angry or something else. We play a movie in our head as to how our life is, how we’ve perceived and reacted to our experiences, as well as, fantasize about how things “should” be or could be better. Have you ever stopped to really think about what your imagination might be costing you? Although many of us don’t realize we use our imagination to hold ourselves back, we can use our imaginations to catapult us forward into the life we want.
Here’s an example. If you fear making cold calls or public speaking, do you play a movie in your head about what it would feel like to be rejected? Scolded? Humiliated? If you said yes, you’re not alone. Most people indulge their fears through their fictional movie theater between their ears. If we have a fear of something, like public speaking, our subconscious mind will help you remember every time you felt bad getting up in front of others to speak, probably even remembering that time in high school when you forgot and important detail while giving a report.
Confidence isn’t something that you just install with a magic bullet. Just like you have to exercise your body to keep it in shape, you must exercise your mental confidence. Just 5 to 10 minutes a day can help move you forward to speaking with ease, or developing confidence in other situations.
Instead of wasting the day and evening away thinking about all of the things that could go wrong, imagine how things could go right. Use your imagery to capture how you would stand, speak and listen, if you were already confident and knew you were going to do well.
I admit, I don’t love public speaking, however, I have learned some great techniques which help me feel better about giving presentations – even feel confident with practice.
This week’s experiment:
The Shape Your Success Film Theaters are now open. Take at least 5 minutes per day to imagine something going well that you used to fantasize would go wrong. Add a soundtrack if you’d like to. Make the movie screen larger than life with vivid colors. Record the movie on your imaginary DVR to play back at any time.
As your move plays out, you’ll see images of success from your past as well as future scenes that haven’t even happened yet.
When you’re really imagining your success well, float out and toward that movie screen and place yourself in the movie. Merge yourself with the successful you. Hear through the ears, see through the eyes, feel through the calm and enlightened nerves of the successful you.
Notice where you feel those feelings of success strongest. Give those feelings a shape and a color. Moving the color to the top of your head and all the way down to the soles of your feet. Let the successful feelings expand as you float back to your body. Place your first finger and thumb together on your dominant hand and anchor those feelings in so that you can recall those successful feelings any time you want to.
Let me know how you do.
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Posted by Amy Hale on April 19, 2010 at 6:00 am
“Infatuation is when you think he’s as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, and as athletic as Jimmy Connors. Love is when you realise that he’s as sexy as Woody Allen, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger, and nothing like Robert Redford – but you’ll take him anyway.”
-Judith Viorst
People are continually being told to “do what they love and love what they do” in order to be successful. However, even with the multitude of books and audios on the market, many people still find themselves wondering what they love to do and inevitable wind up as desperate and unhappy in pursuit of doing what they love as much so as they are in the pursuit of who they love!
Are you in love with your visions of prosperity and abundance, or is it just infatuation? Here’s the simple test -
If it hurts, it isn’t love.
This Week’s Experiment:
(Based on Dr. John F. DeMartini’s book, Count Your Blessings: The Healing Power of Gratitude and Love)
Write down your vision of prosperity and abundance.
Imagine that vision is now a reality. List ten reasons or ways your abundant life is wonderful.
Now list ten problems or challenges that will still be in your life even when your vision is your reality.
Review the ten reasons or ways that your new life will be wonderful. Circle the one you believe you lack most now.
List at least three times when you have already experienced aspect you think you lack.
Finally, review the ten aspects of your vision you don’t yet like. Circle one aspect you think you could either accept or change.
May you fall in love with your life!
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Posted by Amy Hale on March 19, 2010 at 2:01 pm
If you’re on the right path, you’ll get to where you want to go. Consistent commitment keeps you on the path.
The hardest thing for people to unlearn is the short attention span that’s been shaped by television, entertainment, letting the kids rule the roost, and by letting pernicious, untrue self-victimizing thoughts snuggle up into our belief systems. And this inability to be flowingly calm and ‘real’ is really just the inability to return the mind to the most important thing it can be thinking about in the present moment. It leads to a lot of much unfinished business. The unfinished business then leads to drama. The drama leads to self-dramatization including wild stories about how other people make us unhappy or destroy our dreams. This self-dramatization replaces the committed life.
As Steven Pressfield writes in, “The War of Art,” “Sometimes entire families participate unconsciously in a culture of self-dramatization. The kids fuel the tanks, the grown-ups arm the phasers, the whole starship lurches from one spine-tingling episode to another. And the crew knows how to keep it going. If the level of drama drops below a certain threshold, someone jumps in to amp it up. Dad gets drunk, Mom gets sick, Jenny shows up for church with a tattoo. It’s more fun than a movie. And it works: nobody gets a darn thing done.”
Please share your thoughts & converse with me.
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Posted by Amy Hale on February 11, 2010 at 5:48 pm
I talk out loud when I drive. I don’t worry about what I look like or who might notice. I don’t care if they think I’m on the phone or not. When I talk in the car, I talk to my inner team or to a customer who I want to make sure gets what I am wanting to convey. I might even sing a tune.
I learned to do this when I recognized how much I beat myself up while driving. Have you ever looked around and noticed that most people who are driving, if they’re not on their cell phones, their faces appear worried or angry. Or maybe their listening to all of the bad things in the new on the radio.
How do you want to feel when you’re driving to your destination? Do you want to bully yourself, hear more about a crummy economy or would you rather engage in a conversation with your team to make it the best day you’ve ever had?
Personally, I find that using my driving time to build myself up instead of using ways that break down my mindset is far more useful to me. When you hold worries and anger inside your head, it brings on headaches, ulcers and more worry and anger. Your whole nervous system goes wild.
Plus, if you’re not use to hearing your own voice or you want to practice moving toward fearless public speaking, the car is the perfect place to speak out.
Just think, your competitors don’t do this. They’re listening to their negative self-talk, terrible news or swearing at traffic. So speak to your inner team and step out from the crowd and make success happen – one drive at a time.
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