Tired of Negative Campaigns? Look for the Good – The Affirmation Spot for Thursday October 30, 2008

Regardless of your political views, it’s hard not to turn sour in the face of the negative campaign onslaught as this election cycle draws to a close.

This year is turning particularly ugly with loaded words and innuendo running amuck. Your biggest fear becomes that they all might be right about each other.

Words fly like “unstable”, “risky”, and “socialist”.

Some day, perhaps, we will have politicians (and their surrogates) who are able to articulate their messages like adults to audiences who behave like adults. Someday maybe we will reward candidates who speak to our highest hopes not our worst fears.

One day we may have an electorate that demands better behavior by punishing this kind of negativity at the ballot box rather than revelling in it. We will banish politicians whose only case for office is a negative case against their opponents.

To the extent we are divided by our elected officials, it is because we have accepted it and not demanded more.

One day these things may come to pass, but we do not yet seem to live in that world in 2008. So what can you do to counter all the negativity?

One group is taking positive steps to counter that negativity and encourage others to do the same.

LookForTheGood.org is encouraging people to stay positive this election season and offers tips on how to do your civic duty to pay attention to the campaigns without giving in to the negativity. Their mantra?

“This election season, make a positive difference…and remember to look for the good.” 

Check out their website for more information.

Stay inspired!

Ray

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Positive Thinking Myths

Today’s Affirmation:

Today I am the person I came to the planet to be!

 

Woman with lots of moneyThere are two destructive myths circulating around positive thinking today. Unfortunately, these myths are making it difficult for many people to buy into positive thinking as a tool and reap its benefits in their lives.

The first myth is the Kiss the Frog and it Becomes a Prince myth. Fueled by the popularity of a few books, this myth tells people that all they have to do is think happy thoughts and everything they want will manifest in their lives.

People know, instinctively, this is not true. It leads many people to label all positive thinking as chicanery.

Hear no evilThe second, and I find pervasive, myth is that somehow thinking negatively is more “realistic” than thinking positively. I don’t know where this idea comes from, but I wish I’d been there to stamp out the first few sparks before it became the mental forest fire it is today.

This myth claims that the world is an awful place and thinking positively is unrealistic delusion bound to create heartache. For people who believe that, I have no doubt it is true.

The world is what it is. Thinking positively or negatively about the world does not change the world. It does, however, have a profound effect on a person’s experience of the world.

Positive thinking is not about changing the world it is about transforming ourselves into more capable, caring, compassionate, productive, and successful people. It is about becoming people better able to cope, adapt, and deal with life’s ups and downs. It grants us no immunity from trial or tribulation. Simply put, positive thinking gives us a fighting chance in a world that wants to tell us, “It can’t be done.”

There is a very real price to be paid when we think negatively. Our actions follow our thoughts and when our thoughts lack confidence, conviction, or positivity our interactions with the world will mirror that reality back to us.

All balance is lost and the problem magnified when someone follows this pattern over and over in his or her life. By projecting negative expectations onto the world and getting negative results repeatedly over years, the person’s experience of the world is all negative. The tendency is to think that negativity began “out there” and to react against it.

These people become known as unhappy, miserable, malcontented, criminals, or even terrorists. They believe their unhappiness comes from outside of themselves and so they create negative acts and spread negative energy in the world.

I suppose the debate over the significance of positive thinking will rage on regardless of what I say here. However, there is one truism and there is no escaping it.

Positive thinking is not a cure for all ills, but choosing to think positively will yield better and more consistent results in life than thinking negatively.

Thoughts are free, but the consequences cost. I can’t see any benefit to thinking negatively, though we all do it at times.

My conviction is that we can see the glass as half full without compromising reality.

Follow your bliss. Experience your bliss. Become your bliss.

Ray Davis is the founder of The Affirmation Spot. He’s spent more than 25 years studying personal development and especially writing, recording, and using affirmations to achieve his goals. His eBook – The Power to Be You – offers 416 life-changing and original quotes, ideas, and affirmations to take you to new levels of achievement and reflection.

anunnaki_cover_full_colorAnunnaki Awakening: Revelation, Ray’s first novel,  is turning heads and opening minds. Humanity’s past is checkered, secret, and dangerous.

White House Correspondent Maria Love is on to the story of her life and with the help of an Anunnaki leader seeks to unravel and reveal history’s biggest conspiracy. The Awakening has begun!

 

You Never Know When Destiny Calls – The Affirmation Spot for Tuesday October 28, 2008

“Destiny,” said William Jennings Bryan, “is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for. It is a thing to be achieved.”

Life is a funny thing. You never know when it is going to take a wrong turn that winds up being just right. As this story from DarynKagan.com illustrates, that change might land right on top of you.

View Lavender Enlightens at DarynKagan.com.

Be watching for the part of this story where the grabbing her destiny. Remember, it’s never too late to grab your destiny.

Stay inspired!
Ray

Freeing Your Mind – The Affirmation Spot for Friday October 24, 2008

Today’s idea:

“The mark of a moderate person is freedom from his own ideas. Tolerant like the sky, all-pervading like sunlight, firm like a mountain, supple like a tree in the wind; she has no destination in view and makes use of anything life happens to bring her way.”

Tao Te Ching, Verse 59

Most of us like to consider ourselves open-minded and fair. We like to think we look at things objectively and tolerantly. The fact is, however, that our life experiences have indoctrinated and biased our views.

Most of us are not, as Lao Tzu suggests, “free from our own ideas.”

The mention of certain words or concepts evokes waves of emotion that have little to do with the concept and a lot to do with the mental baggage we have accumulated. Worse, our views are often formed based on what other people have told us rather than what we ourselves know.

Since awareness is the doorway to understanding; let’s do a little test.

I’m going to list some words. As you read each word, take a moment to listen to your reaction. I’m not saying you should feel one way or the other about any of these words or the concepts they conjure. I’m simply suggesting you become aware of your blind spots and prejudices so that you can release them and truly deal with life in the open and honest way you want to.

Some of these words may cause little reaction within you, while others may cause a strong, visceral reaction. Becoming aware of your reactions is a very empowering way to take back control of your own thinking.

Ready? Read the words one at a time (silently if you like) and pay attention to your reaction.

  • New and Improved
  • Capitalism
  • Communism
  • Sarah Palin
  • Barack Obama
  • Democrat
  • Republican
  • Christian
  • Jew
  • Muslim
  • Buddhist
  • Hindu
  • Immigrant
  • Labor union
  • Russia
  • Israel
  • Corporation
  • Old
  • Young
  • Fat
  • Freedom
  • Fear
  • Math
  • Wall Street
  • Science
  • Religion
  • War
  • Peace
  • Terrorism
  • Love
  • Hate
  • Rich
  • Poor
  • Environmentalism
  • Profit

The Greek sage Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” The more you examine and pay attention to your auto-reaction to things the better able you are to look at each circumstance with fresh, unconditioned eyes.

The key to freeing your mind is to ask yourself why. Why does this word evoke this emotion? What information is that feeling based on? Where did I get that information? How do I know that information is accurate? It takes a lot of strength to really examine your unconscious assumptions.

You don’t have to use this list. You can make your own list of emotionally charged words and explore your feelings.

The fact is that – for better or worse – words that create unconscious reactions when they are even uttered hold the potential to be used as manipulation. An empowered thinker is able to set aside the initial reaction and explore what is being said beyond the word.

We see this all the time in political campaigns. Labels start getting tossed around. The labels are a kind of psychological warfare because the labelers know people react to those words.

You may find that this approach helps you break free from old programming and allows you to move forward in your life.

Know thyself!

Ray

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The Rules for Being Human – The Affirmation Spot for Thursday October 23, 2008

Today’s Affirmation:

“I am working consciously toward a greater opening of my heart and my mind.” (click to hear it now)

Some of you may have seen The Rules for Being Human before. For others, this may be new. This humorous and down-to-earth manual is very practical and full of wisdom when looked at deeply. As far as I know, this originated in the hard copy of The Spiritual sometime in the 1990s.

The Rules for Being Human

  1. You will receive a body – You may like or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
  2. You will learn lessons – You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
  3. There are no mistakes only lessons – Growth is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works”.
  4. A lesson is repeated until it is learned – A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
  5. Learning lessons does not end – There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
  6. “There” is no better than “here” – When your “there” has become “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will look better than “here”.
  7. Others are merely mirrors of you – You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
  8. What you make of your life is up to you – You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

Read this several times and give it some thought. The wisdom is obvious, but what if you really chose to look at your life this way? How much more patient would you be with yourself and others knowing they are going through the same thing.

Stay inspired!

Ray