KU Affirmations Defeat Cinderella Davidson – The Affirmation Spot for Monday March 31, 2008

Thank you for visiting The Affirmation Spot. Your comments on the blog or this article are always welcome. What do you think? Please click here to comment on today’s blog.




ray_launchpad.jpgDownload 2 Affirmations, Get 1 Free!

Take your positive thoughts with you wherever you go. During the month of March Download any two mp3 affirmations from The Affirmation Spot.com and get a third mp3 affirmation free.There are no limits! Simply type the word “blog” into the coupon field at checkout. Thanks for getting your audio affirmations at The Affirmation Spot! Click here to view, hear excerpts, or download affirmations.

Today’s featured affirmation is:

“Life is good. Things are going my way. The people around me are noticing a difference in me and I am noticing a difference in myself.” (repeats 3 times)

“Life is good. Things are going your way. The people around you are noticing a difference in you and you are noticing a difference in yourself.” (repeats 3 times)

Hear an audio mp3 version of this affirmation right now.


Jayhawks UnstoppableThe power of affirmation turned out to be slightly stronger than the magic of Cinderella Sunday afternoon in Detroit. The Kansas Jayhawks defeated 2008’s Cinderella Davidson 59-57.

As reported in the Kansas City Star, KU coach Bill Self has been delivering a powerful affirmation to his team: “You are unstoppable!”

In an outstanding article titled For KU’s Bill Self, This Moment is Everything, Kansas City Star writer Joe Posnanski wrote:

“To understand how much today’s NCAA Tournament game means to Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, you first have to understand this: Every single day, in one way or another, he tells his players that they are unstoppable.

Every day. Sometimes he yells it during practice. Sometimes he tells them in the locker room before the game. Sometimes he announces it on a bus ride. Sometimes he just pulls a player aside, wraps an arm around the player’s shoulder, whispers it in his ear. Always, though, the message remains.

You cannot be stopped. You cannot be blocked out. You cannot be screened. You are too strong. You are too tough. You are too fast. You have come too far. You have worked too hard. You have sacrificed too much.

You are unstoppable!”

In a year when the NCAA tournament’s big shots wound up on top of the heap, this tournament was not without its incarnation of Cinderella. Tiny Davidson College came into Sunday’s game against the Kansas Jayhawks with 25 straight victories and consecutive victories over “major conference” champions Georgetown and Wisconsin.

For most of the game Sunday, it looked as if Cinderella might punch her ticket to next week’s Final Four in San Antonio. A host sharp shooters led by tournament phenom Stephen Curry and a tenacious defense kept the top-seeded Jayhawks baffled and off balance all afternoon.

Kansas was sparked by senior Sasha Kaun who scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds. At times, Kaun seemed to be the one Jayhawk really willing to mix it up with the scrappy Davidson team. 

In the end, the Jayhawk nation was forced to hold its collective breath while Davidson’s Jason Richards launched a potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer. The shot was wide left and KU survived its toughest challenge of the tournament. 

Kansas became the fourth and final #1 seed to advance to next weekend’s Final Four – a first since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979. #1 seeds UCLA, North Carolina, and Memphis all comfortably advanced to college basketball’s biggest weekend. That set the scene for perhaps the most history-rich Final Four ever assembled.

Kansas coach Bill Self, who had led Kansas, Illinois, and Tulsa to a combined five Elite Eight appearances without a Final Four appearance, finally cleared that hurdle Sunday and reached the Final Four.

At least for another week, Self and his team are, indeed, unstoppable!

You’re unstoppable too! It doesn’t mean you always win or that you are perfect, but you have within you a tremendous power to aspire to and be more than you are. As Bill Self says, “You have worked too hard. You have sacrificed too much. YOU are unstoppable!”

Be positive Be peaceful Be prosperous!

Ray

The Affirmation Spot.com

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The Power of Struggle in Our Lives – The Affirmation Spot for Saturday March 29, 2008

Thank you for visiting The Affirmation Spot. Your comments on the blog or this article are always welcome. What do you think? Please click here to comment on today’s blog.




ray_launchpad.jpgDownload 2 Affirmations, Get 1 Free!

Take your positive thoughts with you wherever you go. During the month of March Download any two mp3 affirmations from The Affirmation Spot.com and get a third mp3 affirmation free.There are no limits! Simply type the word “blog” into the coupon field at checkout. Thanks for getting your audio affirmations at The Affirmation Spot! Click here to view, hear excerpts, or download affirmations.Today’s featured affirmation is:

“It is not the mountain I conquer, but myself. I am reaching for the top of the mountain and my day in the sun is here.” (repeats 4 times)

“It is not the mountain you conquer, but yourself. You are reaching for the top of the mountain and your day in the sun is here.” (repeats 4 times)

Hear an audio mp3 version of this affirmation right now.


A brief article in this week’s People Magazine reveals that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling once went through a bout of severe depression. The article, based on an interview by University of Edinburgh senior Adeel Amini, quotes Rowling as saying, “We’re talking suicidal thoughts here – not I’m a little miserable.” Obviously, Rowling was able to move through that difficult patch of life and move on to great things.

I live in Kansas. Our state motto is Ad Astra per Aspera – translated “to the stars with difficulty.” That really is the story of being human.  Struggle is a fact of life. Most successful people had to “overcome their demons” to succeed in life. It has certainly been the case in my own life.

I’m not saying that we should readily invite struggle and difficulty into our lives. Only that when we experience it we should remember that it presents an opportunity for growth, change, and self-improvement. The reason, I believe, struggle often is a precursor to success is that struggle is a point of decision.

We either give up and give in or we push forward. In the pushing, we often open new doors and new possibilities that would not have appeared in our complacency.

Struggle is a powerful catalyst that can transform us. It may be painful and our human nature is to avoid it or push it away. However, if we can find the strength to face it and seek its new opportunity, we may just wind up on our way to the next best thing.

Be peaceful Be positive Be prosperous!

Ray

Affirmations: Passive Listening – The Affirmation Spot for Friday March 28, 2008

Today’s featured affirmation is:

“Learning helps me achieve my goals in life.” (repeats 6 times)
“Learning helps you achieve your goals in life.” (repeats 6 times)
Hear an audio mp3 version of this affirmation right now.


multi.jpgLet’s face it. You live in a multi-tasking rich world. You juggle multiple projects at work or school. You have to get the kids to soccer practice and dance practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Tae Kwon Do on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Or is it the other way around? You care for your aging parents. You take the dog for a walk. You try to be a part of your community.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that you try to find time to better yourself and understand the meaning of this crazy world.

I understand. I live that life too. That is why I started The Affirmation Spot. I’ve written, recorded, and used audio affirmations for more than 15 years.  The reason I preferred audio affirmations over saying them or reading them is because I could listen to them wherever and whenever I wanted. With the advent of digital media that is more true than ever.

Over the years, I’ve found that passive listening is very effective. You’ve had the experience of hearing a song or a commercial many  times – without paying conscious attention – and suddenly one day you’re singing the song or saying the words to the commercial. That’s the result of passive listening. You have unconsciously learned it through repetition. That’s why advertisers run the same commercial on a radio station 20 times a day. That’s why they play Top 40 songs over and over. It’s to unconsciously put them into your head. Passive listening is powerful!

You can use your affirmations the same way. Put your headphones on and listen while you work or play them in the car on the way to Tae Kwon Do. You don’t have to really be listening to get the benefit. Your mind is absorbing them. Sometimes it’s even better than conscious listening because you’re not really questioning as much.

Pretty soon you’ll find yourself saying the positive words to an affirmation when a negative situation arises because, like the song, you have unconsciously absorbed it. Unlike the song, though, it brings real benefit to your life.

Be positive Be peaceful Be prosperous!

Ray

Identifying Your Negative Thoughts – The Affirmation Spot for Thursday March 27, 2008

Today’s Affirmation:

I create my own life everyday and I work hard to create a life full of growth and expansion.


panic.jpg Are you consciously aware of the negative thoughts that are impacting your performance or your happiness in life? Knowing what those thoughts are is the first step in dealing with them.

One of the key benefits of affirmations is their ability to replace negative or destructive thoughts with positive and productive thoughts. This process is referred to as “thought replacement” or by psychology professionals as “cognitive restructuring.”

The process is simple. Let’s say you are a baseball player. You have this thought stuck in your mind, “I can’t hit curve balls.” Well, guess what? When you have a thought like that firmly planted in your mind you are going to struggle to hit curve balls. This is a perfect example of how our thinking can get in the way of our performance.

Affirmations are a very powerful thought replacement tool because you can – through repetition of a countering positive thought – replace the thought, “I can’t hit curve balls,” with a thought like, “I am a great curve ball hitter.”

Notice that the skill to hit curve balls is present, but the belief by the player that he or she can is limiting performance.  In a case where actual skill is the issue, an affirmation such as, “I get better at hitting curve balls each and every day,” is more effective.

When the negative thoughts or negative thinking process is obvious it’s easy to figure out what kinds of affirmations you need to counter them. Sometimes, however, the negative thinking is a bit more cloudy. You know it’s there and that it’s impacting some aspect of your life, but are not consciously aware of the problematic thoughts.

There are several effective techniques for uncovering your negative thoughts and getting them out in the open so you can deal with them.

Here are a three techniques you can use to expose your negative thoughts so that you can deal with them.

  1. Journaling – journaling is an effective way to get feelings out of your mind and into the real world for analysis. You may think your internal thinking is catching your true thoughts and feelings, but journaling can really surprise you.
  2. Recording – while journaling is a conscious effort to write down thoughts and feelings at an assigned time, recording is making note of the negative thoughts that occur to you as you go through your day. Try stopping and writing down every negative thought that comes into your mind for a day. You will be shocked at how many there are. Don’t beat yourself up over it. We all have negative thoughts. It’s not having negative thoughts that is the problem. It’s how we deal with them.
  3. Affirmation Therapy – this is one I’ve used to great effect. I’ve never seen it mentioned in any professional literature. If there is an area of your life that you know is causing you trouble, start using some affirmations targeted to that area of your life and wait. A natural process that occurs when you use affirmations is that the negative thoughts (conscious or unconscious) rise to challenge the positive thought for their supremacy. This causes the negative thought to come out into the open.
  4. Meditation – meditation or a quiet time with eyes closed is another effective way to identify negative thoughts. Just sit and “thought watch”. You will experience a whole range of thoughts from euphoric to depressing (the mind is an active thing). Write down the negative thoughts you observe and want to deal with.

Be peaceful Be prosperous Be positive!

Ray

The Affirmation Spot.com

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Hope and Medicine – The Affirmation Spot for Wednesday March 26, 2008

Thank you for visiting The Affirmation Spot. Your comments on the blog or this article are always welcome. What do you think? Please click here to comment on today’s blog.




ray_launchpad.jpgDownload 2 Affirmations, Get 1 Free!

Take your positive thoughts with you wherever you go. During the month of March Download any two mp3 affirmations from The Affirmation Spot.com and get a third mp3 affirmation free.There are no limits! Simply type the word “blog” into the coupon field at checkout. Thanks for getting your audio affirmations at The Affirmation Spot! Click here to view, hear excerpts, or download affirmations.

Today’s featured affirmation is:

“I am slender, strong, and perfectly conditioned.” (repeats 5 times)

“You are slender, strong, and perfectly conditioned.” (repeats 5 times)

Hear an audio mp3 version of this affirmation right now.


Today I have a link to a very intelligent conversation about hope and optimism in medicine.  Talk of the Nation: Science Friday host Ira Flatow interviews Dr. Jerome Groopman about his book The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness. This episode is from November 2004. If you are battling a chronic or severe illness or know someone who is, this interview may be very encouraging.

While affirmations and positive thinking are powerful tools to combat our daily struggles and help us achieve our goals, their role chanes when faced with serious illness. This interview underscores the point that positive thinking is a not a magic bullet that cures serious disease. It is, however, a significant factor that contributes to the success of treatments, the patient’s outlook, and quality of life.

Listen to the interview. Runtime is about 24 minutes. The interview opens in Windows Media or Real Player so that you can listen while working on other things.

Be peaceful Be positive Be prosperous!

Ray