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Feelings manifest as physical sensations in your body, not as an idea in your mind.
No matter what happens to you, your mind works by reverting to your predetermined level of happiness once you’ve adapted to the new event.
The How of Happiness, fifty percent of our happiness is determined by genetics, forty percent by internal factors, and only ten percent by external factors. These external factors include such things as whether we’re single or married, rich or poor, and similar social influences.
The ego refers to the self-identity you’ve constructed throughout your life. How was this identity created? Put simply, the ego was created through your thoughts and, as a mind-created identity, has no concrete reality.
Note that the ego is neither good nor bad; it’s just a result of a lack of self-awareness. It fades away as you become aware of it since ego and awareness cannot coexist.
Once you realize you don’t actually need anyone, you can start enjoying people’s company. You can see them as they really are rather than trying to get something from them.
The ego is never satisfied. Your ego always wants more. More fame, more stuff, more recognition, and so on.
In short, most of your emotions are based on your personal story and the way you perceive the world. As you replace your current story with a more empowering one—while, at the same time, letting go of your excessive attachment to things, people or ideas—you will be able to experience more positive emotions.
Emotions work the same way. They signal you to do something about your current situation. Perhaps, you need to let go of some people, quit your job, or remove a disempowering story that creates suffering in your life.
After adopting a high-power pose for two minutes: Testosterone increased by 25% Cortisol decreased by 10%, and Risk tolerance increased, with 86% of participants choosing to partake in a game of chance. After adopting a low-power pose for two minutes: Testosterone decreased by 10% Cortisol increased by 15%, and Risk tolerance decreased, with only 60% of participants choosing to partake in a game of chance.
Studies have shown that exercising can treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressants. In one study, James Blumenthal, a clinical psychologist at Duke University, assigned sedentary adults with major depressive disorders to one of four groups: supervised exercise, home-based exercise, antidepressant therapy, or a placebo pill. After four months Blumenthal found that patients in the exercise and antidepressant group had the highest rates of remission. In his conclusions, he stated that exercise has more or less the same effect as antidepressants. When he followed up with
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Your thoughts define who you are and create your reality. That’s why you should channel your thoughts towards what you want, not what you don’t want. As the success expert Brian Tracy says, “The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire, not things we fear.”
Positive affirmations are sentences you repeat to yourself on a regular basis until your subconscious mind accepts them as true. Over time they help you condition your mind to experience positive emotions such as confidence or gratitude.
Some examples of powerful affirmations: I love being confident. I am independent of the good or bad opinions of others. I am beneath no one and no one is beneath me. I love you …. (add your name and say it while looking into your eyes in the mirror, e.g. “I love you, Thibaut”). Awkward, isn’t it? Thank you. Exercise • Use positive affirmation for five minutes daily.
Proper breathing benefits you in different ways. Slowing your breathing helps reduce anxiety. In Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body, Mind and Spirit, Gurucharan Singh Khalsa and Yogi Bahjan mentioned the following benefits from slow breathing: Eight breathing cycles per minute: Relief from stress and increased awareness. Four breathing cycles per minute: Intense feelings of awareness, increased visual clarity, heightened bodily sensitivity.
You can go one step further and use the power of music to condition your mind by creating playlists tailored to your emotional needs. Building playlists is time-consuming, but well worth the effort.
Start creating playlists for specific moods you want to experience.
They waste time holding onto negative emotions that serve no purpose just because they can’t let go of them.
Realize that each thought or image crossing your mind isn’t the emotion itself, it’s only your interpretation of it. Practice feeling how it feels.
shame. Maybe you blame yourself for something you did in the past, or you worry about your future. Just write down whatever comes to your mind. Now, use the method mentioned above. Select one emotion then ask yourself: “Could I let this feeling go?” “Would I?” (Yes/no) “When?” (Now)
Humans possess a power no other living beings have: their imagination. We can use our thoughts to manifest things and turn the invisible into the visible. However, a thought in itself isn’t enough to manifest things or circumstances. It must be fueled with an energy in the form of emotion, such as enthusiasm, excitement, passion, or happiness. For this reason, someone enthusiastic about his or her dream will achieve more than a pessimistic and unmotivated person.
one of the most important skills you can master is your ability to control your thoughts and emotions. This entails understanding what your emotions are, how they work, and what purpose they serve.
Feeling the same emotion over and over allows you to better access it. Neuroscience has shown that experiencing the same thought or emotion repeatedly, strengthens the corresponding neural pathways, easing future access to that thought or emotion. Put it simply, the more you experience an emotion, the easier it becomes to generate. That’s where daily conditioning comes into play.
A. Write down things you’re grateful for: Take a pen and a piece of paper, or even better, a dedicated notebook, and write down at least three things for which you are grateful. This will help you focus on the positive side of things. B. Thank people who crossed your life: Close your eyes and think of people you’ve met. As you picture them one after the other, thank them while acknowledging at least one good thing they did for you. If you happen to picture people you don’t like, thank them anyway and still look for one good thing they did for you. It could be making you stronger or teaching
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‘gratitude meditation’ on YouTube)
A. Write down what you want: Take a pen and piece of paper and write, ‘What I Want,’ at the top of the page. Then, write down anything you can think of that excites you. B. Visualize what you want: Ask yourself, “What do I really want?” and visualize all the things you desire. Try to be as specific as possible. Clarity is power. Think of your ideal career, relationship or lifestyle, or any goals you want to accomplish in the coming decade or beyond. C. Create a goals/dreams journal: Buy a notebook and write down your goals in each area of your life. Review them each morning and keep adding
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If you want to have more confidence in your ability to achieve your goals, visualize yourself as having already accomplished them,
As you can see, you don’t have to write down anything big. In fact, by writing down small accomplishments, you condition your mind to look for more wins, which, over time, enhances your self-esteem.
Sometimes, you feel sad, angry, or even depressed, and can’t do anything about it. In this instance, the best you can do is to avoid focusing on your feelings, and just let them be. Your job here is to do what you have to do and live your life until these emotions fade. Don’t forget to practice letting go of negative emotions as they arise. As you learn to detach yourself from the negative emotions, it will help prevent them from growing and becoming more entrenched.
Positive people will lift you up and help you achieve your wildest dreams. Negative people will suck up your energy, demotivate you and destroy your potential.
Distract yourself: An emotion is only as strong as you allow it to be. Whenever you experience a negative feeling, instead of focusing on it, get busy right away. If you’re angry about something, cross something off your to-do list. If possible, do something that requires your full attention. Interrupt: Do something silly or unusual to break the pattern. Shout, do a silly dance or speak with a strange voice. Move: Stand up, go for a walk, do push-ups, dance, or use a power posture. By changing your physiology, you can change the way you feel. Listen to music: Listening to your favorite music
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aware of your emotions Write it down: Take a pen and paper and write down what you worry about, why, and what you can do about it. Be as specific as possible. Write down what happened:
Sometimes, all you need is a different perspective.
Write down your emotions in a journal: Take a few minutes each day to write down how you felt. Look for recurrent patterns. Then, use affirmations, visualization, or a relevant exercise to help you overcome these emotions.
To shed a light on the emotions you’re experiencing in your daily life, I invite you to record your emotions for an entire week. Use a notebook or the downloadable worksheet to do so. Spend a couple of minutes each day to record how you feel and rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, one being the worst you can feel, and ten being the best you can feel. At the end of the week, give yourself an overall score and answer the following questions:
Maybe I’m biased and I judged myself too harshly.
and affirmation. Additional tip: Remember to write down how you feel each day using a dedicated journal. This will help you detach yourself from your emotions as you realize ups and downs are a normal part of living.
Tell your partner three things you appreciate in them and ask them to do the same. Be as specific as possible and don’t worry about coming up with big things. Here are some examples: I appreciate that you prepared breakfast this morning even though you were in a rush. I appreciate that you picked up the kids today. I appreciate the way you always listen to my problems after work.
Whenever you become defensive, remember to ask yourself the following questions: What am I trying to protect here? Can I let go of that belief? What would I be without that belief?
write down what causes the most stress in your typical week. Come up with at least ten things.
Is that situation stressful in itself? What do I need to believe to experience stress in that specific situation? What would I need to believe to reduce or remove stress in that particular situation?
How on earth can another’s thought about you harm you? It is your thought about his thought that harms. Change your thought.
While you keep track of all your mistakes and awkward moments, nobody else does. People are simply too busy worrying about themselves.
Exercise 1 - Realizing people don’t care This exercise will help you understand at a deep level, most people are not really concerned about you. Choose one person you know. It might be a friend, an acquaintance, or a colleague. Ask yourself how often you think about that person in your daily life. Now, put yourself in the shoes of that person. How much do you imagine he or she thinks about you during an average day? How much does he or she keep track of what you do or say? What do you think he or she is worrying about right now? Repeat this process with at least two more people.

