Tools For Your Mind, Soul and Spirit

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Shortly after I opened my hypnotherapy office, I was discouraged by the lack of clients. I believed it was caused by too many hypnotherapists available to service our area. This led to feeling that there just weren’t enough potential clients interested in utilizing hypnotherapy to support us all.

One day, I realized how limiting those thoughts were, and that my experience was just validating them. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I changed my thoughts to “There are plenty of people in this area who want hypnotherapy to make a positive change.” I didn’t affirm that they found me. I simply changed my thoughts to encompass a larger pool of clientele than I formerly believed.

Sometimes, your underlying beliefs are restricting the flow of good into your life, and you’re not even aware of it. It’s like the old saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” Those attitudes are just below the surface of your consciousness, and shade your thoughts, keeping them out of the sunlight.

You may not even realize what your opinion is, but it’s closed you off from any potential of improvement. All you notice is the individual trees (conscious thoughts or the feelings they create), but don’t see they’re part of a bigger picture (the forest) that’s just underneath your awareness.

And that forest of beliefs has closed the door to opportunities. You’re using the Law of Attraction, but instead of attracting your good, you’re actually repelling it.

“Energy flows where attention goes.” Focusing on the lack of potential will channel your subconscious resources to create more of what is already absent. When you change your focus from what is lacking to what is possible, you’re engaging your subconscious to look for and attract opportunities.

Sometimes, to fling open those doors, you need to look at the situation in a new way. For instance, the economic climate may be difficult, with 10% unemployed. But when you consider that means that 90% are still employed, it lifts some of the mental heaviness from the first statistic. Instead of believing that no one has money to spend, believe that many people still have disposable income.

In our recession, jobs may be hard to find. Positions may not be as abundant as in the past, but work is still available. Imagine that what you’re seeking is seeking you, and it shifts your energy and your viewpoint, opening up to potentially finding employment.

Pay attention to what is scrolling across the marquee of your mind. Is it fear, doubt and anxiety? Set aside the negatives your conscious mind wants to dwell on. They close down your energy, making it impossible to consider greater possibilities. You don’t have to eliminate those thoughts right now, just put them on the shelf.

Then mentally explore what good could be available to you. At this point, you don’t have to claim it, just crack the door open. Trying to affirm something better, when you’re in the midst of a mess, can cause your conscious mind to undermine your affirmation. Simply considering what could be possible opens the door a crack, to allow the toe of opportunity to wiggle its way in.

Within a couple of months after I made the mental change that there were plenty of potential clients, and doing very little else, my practice had tripled. This has happened to me over and over again, as I track down my own limiting thoughts in all areas of my life. When I change them, not even to what I want, but to simply consider the possibility of improvement, it’s amazing what has transpired.

Affirmation:
I become aware of the negative, self-defeating statements that I’m telling myself. They are simply beliefs, and beliefs can be changed. When they come into my mind, I set them aside to consider the possibility of some greater good that could happen in the situation. I simply raise my level of awareness to encompass something better that could happen. In so doing, I’m instructing my subconscious mind to find new opportunities to flow into my life.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

A nationally known hypnotherapist, writer, speaker and coach, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, inspiration

by Linda-Ann Stewart

I’ve gotten my tax stuff together to take to my tax preparer. It was so much easier and faster this year than I’d expected. I’ve been working at making my life easier by creating some organization and putting some systems in place. Initially, it takes extra time to do this, to think through what would make the process smoother and what you need to make it easier.

I figured out one of the places I waste time and energy was in pulling all the information and receipts together. Usually, I spend (at least) a couple of hours sorting and putting my receipts in order by month.

Last year, I got one simple product that made a huge difference. I bought a check holder that was divided into months. Instead of putting checks in it, I put my receipts into it, month by month. When it came time to enter the amount in my spreadsheet, all I had to do was pull them out, month by month. I was done within an hour, rather than half a day (or longer) it used to take.

This idea of making things easier can work in other areas of your life as well. Figure out where you waste time, and what would make it easier for you. It may be that you need to organize your desk better, or your pantry.

It does take some extra energy to do this, and look for possible solutions, but it’s well worth it. Easier is worth it. It saved me several hours of work, and weeks of having it hanging over me like a thundercloud.

This year, my goal is to keep my spreadsheet current so I have even less to do when tax time comes again. But even if I’m not disciplined enough to do that, I won’t dread pulling it all together next year.

productivity

by Linda-Ann Stewart

I’ve been reading articles that have blamed positive thinking for the housing bubble and our current recession. They claim that banks were optimistic that the increase in home prices would just keep climbing.

That wasn’t positive thinking. That was greed and completely ignoring common sense.

Banks and mortgage brokers falsified loan documents, inflated buyer’s incomes, to get people into homes. They did this, even though they knew the buyers wouldn’t be able to afford the payments then or when the mortgages adjusted a couple of years later.

Once they had the mortgages, banks then bundled and sold them, making more money. They passed those bundles around like hot potatoes, as investor after investor bought them. If they had truly been optimistic, the banks would have retained the mortgages, expecting them to grow even more valuable.

Optimism, and the Law of Attraction, rarely supersedes natural law. When you walk off a roof, you will probably fall, and not float gently to the ground. When you reach into a 350-degree oven to take out a casserole, positive thinking won’t keep your fingers from being burned (or dropping the dish).

Positive thinking looks for the best solution in a difficult situation. It looks for the silver lining to the thundercloud. It doesn’t ignore the thunderhead. It doesn’t ignore that there are lemons when it chooses to make lemonade. For the lemonade couldn’t be made without the lemons. Optimism opens to new possibilities, in spite of the current situation, and uses them to help create a brighter future.

For anyone who mistakenly believes that positive thinking got us into this recession, think again. It was greed and deliberately disregarding all reason, history and responsibility. “Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.”

I’ve also recently heard that greed is good for capitalism. It’s not. Greed is concerned with “What’s in it for me - today.” Greed doesn’t care about the future, or building a foundation, or growing a business. All it cares about is what it can squeeze out today. We’ve seen this with leaders and CEO’s, who leave a company in ruins, rake in bonuses anyway, and go onto another position. They don’t care about the business, just what they can get out of it right now. There is no accountability or responsibility for undermining the business. It’s a very shortsighted view.

Capitalism is concerned with “What’s in it for the community and me. For today and the future. For as the community is served and grows, then the business grows as well.” It’s enlightened self-interest, realizing that as it invests and help others grow, they reap the rewards. This creates a sustainable future, one that creates growth and expansion. Capitalism is interested in long-term results, not short-term gains.

And this is exactly what the leaders of Wall Street and the banks lost sight of. They only cared about the moment, and that single transaction. They weren’t invested in the future and didn’t care about the problems their transaction would cause. And that’s not optimism. It’s not capitalism. It’s greed, plain and simple.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation

This year, my goal is to allow things to flow easily, rather than struggling to get things done, and having distractions and obstructions slowing me down. I’ve been looking for some sort of object that would help me keep that idea in front of my mind.

On Valentine’s Day, one of the presents my honey got me was an “Easy” button that was a promotional product from a popular office supply store. “Easy” is written in white letters on a red background, and when you push the button, a man’s voice blasts, “That was easy.”

The instructions say to think of a challenging situation, press the button, smile and get on with your day. Talk about positive thinking and visualizing! And that’s exactly what I’m using it for. It’s right beside my computer, and whenever I’m going to dive into something, I’m going to visualize it completed, push the button and imagine that’s what I’m saying at the end of my project.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation, productivity, inspiration

The Silva Mind Control Method
by Jose Silva and Philip Miele

This book is a great resource. Jose Silva was a pioneer in the area of self-hypnosis, even though he claims that isn’t the process he’s teaching now. He began with traditional self-hypnosis and then expanded its techniques. He calls his method “dynamic meditation.”

In this book, he explains the conscious and subconscious minds, the process of dynamic meditation, as well as different ways to utilize it. He instructs the reader how to use it to improve health, solve problems, increase your psychic ablities, learn faster, remember your dreams, and much more. If you’re interested in a systematic way to improve your connection to your inner self and inner power, this is a great book to have, read, and practice.

by Linda-Ann Stewart

As a teacher of how to use one’s mind to manifest the things a person wants, I very often get the objection, “But what if what I want isn’t what the Universe, my Higher Self, wants for me?”  My response is, “Why wouldn’t the Universe want the best that you can imagine for youself?  Your Higher Self is in you, around you, thinking through you.”  Most people still have the old idea of the Universe, God, as a wise old man, sitting on a throne, doling out good to us a little at a time.  This isn’t true.

Think of the highest and best of yourself, and your Universal Self is infinitely greater than that.  But the Universe is still existing in you, through your thoughts and your desires.  As you choose something better than you’ve had, say more health, more happiness, more money, why wouldn’t that more joyous wholeness of you want you to have it?  You are simply accepting more of the good of the Universe.  All good has already been given to us.  Remember, the Universe always says “Yes” to us.  Whatever we focus our attention on, our Higher Selves gives us.

Another concern that people have is that “I feel I’m manipulating the Universe by trying to focus on what I want.”  Manifesting what we want isn’t coercing the Universe.  We are simply accepting more of the Universal energy as substance.  The Universe isn’t just wonderful, fuzzy ideals of love and joy.  It is also all of the material substance that our physical world is created from.  Divinity is Love energy in physical form.

The chair you sit on, the job you have, your relationships, your finances, your health, all if this is Love in material form in your life.  It is up to you to decide how much of that Energy you will accept.  The Universe wants to give you all you could ever desire.  The purpose of focusing on what you want is to change YOUR mind to accept it, to realize that you deserve it.  Not to change the Universal Mind.

When a smoker chooses to quit smoking, does that mean that they’re choosing something other than what their Higher Self wants for them?  Are they manipulating the Universe?  Of course not.  They are choosing life and health.  They’ve decided they want more of the goodness of the Universe.

When you have a cold, and you want to feel better, are you trying to force the Universe to give you other than good health, which is normal and natural?  No.  You are simply aligning yourself with harmony and joy when you affirm health.  You are simply changing your mind to accept what is already yours.

Generally, people will then ask, “Is it spiritual to focus on material good?”  It’s all spiritual.  To believe that our thoughts of joy and love are the only spiritual things about us separates us from the Infinite.  There is no separation between our Highest Thoughts and our more material ideas, and the ultimate physical manifestation of those thoughts and ideas.  There is an old saying, “God is the giver, and God is the gift.”

Think of it this way.  You ( an expression of God) are focusing on more good (God), say a new car (God in the form of a car, created by another expression of God).  You buy it from an individual (an expression of God) or a dealership (yes, even the salesperson is an expression of God).  You exchange money (God substance) for God in the form of a vehicle for you (an expression of God) to move around in.  It is all God, Universal energy.

The only limitation put on our experience of Infinite energy is our beliefs, ideas, and thoughts.  Any choice we make is a limitation on the Goodness of the Universe.  But that’s all the Infinite has to work with.  Our ideas, beliefs, our vision.  We can raise our thoughts to the abstract of accepting more joy, love, and harmony, and the Universal energy will manifest through those thoughts to the level we can accept.

Or we can get more specific, and expand our beliefs to deliberately raise our level of acceptance to a more specific expression of Universal energy, such as health, or financial freedom.  We can focus on poverty and struggle, or we can expand our awareness to ease and financial comfort.  Whichever way we choose, it is our Higher Self giving Itself to us.  Our good has already been given to us.  The choice of how we want our lives to be is up to us.

Copyright 1999, 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

A nationally known hypnotherapist, writer, speaker and coach, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, inspiration

Question: What is the best way to go about trying to manifest a past love back into one’s life?

Answer: You’re not the first person to ask me this question. I’m afraid I have bad news for you. It’s not a good thing to try to affirm or manifest a particular person into your life.

I know this is hard to accept. If you decide that you want a particular person, you’d be interfering with that other person’s choices and maybe even his karma. Interfering with another’s free choice, or their karma, isn’t pretty. If that happens, and you take someone’s choice away from them, you’ll reap the consequences eventually.

My suggestion is a hard one. I’d suggest you begin affirming for the “Divine right person to come into my life. A person who harmonizes with me.” It may or may not be the person you’re in love with now. You can affirm that if it’s right for both of you, somehow you and he connect again. But realize that there may be a much better person waiting for you to let the Universe take over your romantic life.

There’s an old saying that goes something like (I can’t remember the exact phrasing) “Let love go free. If it flies away, it was never meant to be yours. If it returns, it belongs to you.”

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development

Jeff and I hiked one of my favorite places in Sedona, Fay Canyon, on Valentine’s Day. For those who are familiar with Sedona, it’s a canyon just west of Boynton Canyon (where the Enchantment Resort resides).

Fay Canyon is a box canyon, with an arch high up on the east wall. That was our destination. It’s a steep trail over loose rocks. Our thighs burned as we scrambled up the path. I slipped more than once, and at one point, coming down, Jeff slid and fell into me.  Fortunately, we caught ourselves and didn’t go tumbling down the hill.

When you’re climbing up to it, it looks like an overhang or shallow cave. But when you get underneath it, you find an arch that’s separated from the back wall by twenty feet or so. There was also a small Sinagua dwelling up here, dating to the 12th or 13th century, according to a book on the area by Stewart Aitchison.

As we descended, I decided that safety was more important than dignity, and scooted down some of the rocks on my posterior. We didn’t have time to continue to the end of Fay Canyon, but will return to hike to that point.

Question: When focusing on a particular goal, is it better to use a single sentence affirmation or several (four to six) sentences?

Answer: There are conflicting opinions on whether it is better to use a one sentence affirmation or several sentences. My experience is that the best way is to have a several sentence affirmation that you say a couple of times a day, along with a single sentence affirmation that reinforces the long affirmation. You can use the single sentence as a type of mantra during the day.

For myself, if I’m working on a particularly difficult issue, I’ll write a long affirmation that might be up to two pages long. It will include all of the issues around the difficulty, and include a single sentence that really impresses me as incorporating the essence of the affirmation. I’ll read the long affirmation out loud a couple of times a day, and then repeat a shorter version several times a day. I’ve made some incredible breakthroughs with this technique, which derives from my experience as a hypnotherapist.

Copyright 2001, 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development

Perfectionism is an unattainable goal, causing people to be constantly dissatisfied. They have unreasonably high standards, that they try to achieve because of fear. And the more they try to be perfect, the worse it gets. In the video, there are a couple of questions they can ask they can ask when tempted to do things perfectly.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, inspiration