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March 20 - March 27, 2018
Our brain and nervous system cannot tell the difference between a real experience, and one that is vividly imagined.
When you feel successful and self-confident, you will act successfully. When the feeling is strong, you can literally do no wrong.
The “winning feeling” itself does not cause you to operate successfully, but is more in the nature of a sign or symptom that you are geared for success.
Remember: When you experience that winning feeling, your internal machinery is set for success.
He urged that teachers arrange work in the early grades so as to insure that the student experienced success. The work should be well within the ability of the student, yet interesting enough to arouse enthusiasm and motivation. These small successes, said Dr. Eliot, would give the student the “feel of success,” which would be a valuable ally in all future undertakings.
But by arranging things so that we can succeed in little things, we can build an atmosphere of success that will carry over into larger undertakings. We can gradually undertake more difficult tasks and, after succeeding in them, be in a position to undertake something even more challenging.
Success is literally built upon success, and there is much truth in the saying “Nothing succeeds like success.”
Even in those areas where we have already developed a high degree of skill, it sometimes helps to “drop back,” lower our sights a bit, and practice with a feeling of ease. This is especially true when one reaches a “sticking point” in progress, where effort for additional progress is unavailing. Continually straining to go beyond the “sticking point” is likely to develop undesirable “feeling habits” of strain, difficulty, effort.
Use your Creative Imagination to picture to yourself just how you would act and just how you would feel if you had already succeeded.
Begin with your “suppose.” “Suppose the best possible outcome did actually come about?” Next, remind yourself that after all this could happen. Not that it will happen, at this stage, but only that it could. Remind yourself that, after all, such a good and desirable outcome is possible.
gradual doses of optimism and faith.
As your mental images become more detailed, as they are repeated over and over again—you will find that once more appropriate feelings are beginning to manifest themselves, just as if the favorable outcome had already happened. This time the appropriate feelings will be those of faith, self-confidence, courage—or all wrapped up into one package, “that winning feeling.”
First of all, it is important to understand that failure feelings—fear, anxiety, lack of self-confidence—do not spring from some heavenly oracle. They are not written in the stars. They are not holy gospel.
They originate from your own mind. They are indicative only of attitudes of mind within you—not of external facts that are rigged against you.
The worrier’s job is not to overcome some particular source of worry, but to change mental habits. As long as the mind is “set” or geared in a passive, defeatist, I-hope-nothing-happens sort of attitude, there will always be something to worry about.
Negative feelings literally defeated themselves by becoming a sort of “bell” that set off a conditioned reflex to arouse positive states of mind.
1. The Need for Love 2. The Need for Security 3. The Need for Creative Expression 4. The Need for Recognition 5. The Need for New Experiences 6. The Need for Self-Esteem To these six, I would add another basic need: the need for more life. The need to look forward to tomorrow and to the future with gladness and anticipation.
This is why I tell my patients to “develop a nostalgia for the future” instead of for the past if they want to remain productive and vital. Develop an enthusiasm for life, create a need for more life, and you will receive more life.
“We age, not by years, but by events and our emotional reactions to them,”
Faith, courage, interest, optimism, looking forward bring us new life and more life. Futility, pessimism, frustration, or living in the past are not only characteristic of “old age,” they also contribute to it.
It is not retiring from a job that kills these men, it is retiring from life.
let us not limit our acceptance of life by our own feelings of unworthiness. God has offered us forgiveness and the peace of mind and happiness that come from self-acceptance.
It is an insult to our Creator to turn our backs upon these gifts or to say that his creation—man—is so “unclean” that he is not worthy or important or capable.
The purpose of mental imagery is to give your Creative Mechanism a goal to move toward without inhibition or tension. You feed this goal to your brain and nervous system with imagery and emotion.
in the beginning you’re better off picturing a short-term goal or project—as well as something that tends to be emotionally charged. Picturing something you’d like to create in a day or a week is better than having a goal that is a year or further in the distance. Play around with this process and have fun with it. Start with small stuff before tackling the big stuff. In this way you’ll build confidence in the process—and in yourself.
