You’ve heard us say it loads of times; “You can add articles as part of your membership and it will help make your business more visible”, but does it really make a difference!?
I’ve got an example for you from one of our members who has recently renewed. We were looking at their stats you see and we found that in their first year with us they received around 300 views of their business listing (and we’ll go into how you can make sure those views turn into clients in another article!) – not world shattering perhaps, but good visibility non-the-less.
But here is where it gets interesting…
You see, they didn’t just have a business listing, they also have been proactive in adding articles to the website too and this is the difference it’s made:
During the 12 months of being with us, they posted 15 articles, just over one a month, and those articles have been seen just under 6,000 times!! Now, i’m sure you’ll agree, that is quite a big jump in the level of visibility for the business and well worth the effort getting them written and shared.
As you’ll know, at the base of every article is a link to the authors business listing and also their website so not only do you help people with your informative writing, you also enable them to build trust with you and your business and then they are easily able to contact you to find out more (again another article about writing an effective bio to follow!).
So, if you’re not already posting articles on The Holistic Directory then I urge you to consider doing so.
As you can see, even sharing one a month can have a dramatic effect on how much exposure your business gets, not only on the Directory website but also online in general. And we’ve not even mentioned the extra exposure you can get by adding offers and events!
If you’d like help with ideas on what to write or you’ve got the articles but either struggle to or don’t have time to get them added to the website then please send them to us and we will be happy to help!
You can contact us at support@theholisticdirectory.co.uk Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing lots of lovely articles from you soon 🙂
I was having dinner with friends recently and we got on to the conversation of focus for marketing (we’re all business owners) and we had some of the classic responses come up. Perhaps some of these will ring a bell for you when you consider the possibility of focusing on just one type of client for your upcoming promotional activity:
But I don’t JUST do that, I do so many other things too.
That is only a part of our business, we can offer the full package.
We have 3 main things we offer but we can also look after the whole lot for a client, meaning they don’t have to think about it.
Why would I want to pick just ONE when I do so much more than that?
If you’re resonating with these comments then you are not alone – you are in fact among the majority of businesses.
BUT this is where you can step up your game, be different and make some big differences for your business.
My suggestion is that when you answer as above, then you are in a fear state. What do I mean by that? I mean that you are in a mindset that is fearful of possible negative outcomes and so you are not thinking as rationally as you would if you could step out of that fear feeling.
The funny thing is that you probably don’t even think that it is a fear response… surely it’s logical to supply a service to lots of clients? That way you get a bigger piece of the pie?
To a certain extent I agree with you, but this is not going to be useful to you when it comes to getting your message out and attracting lots of lovely new clients.
Consider this:
+ You’re getting married. Do you feel that you’d be drawn more to the person who’s website shows that they do photos of everything under the sun and has no main specialism or would you be attracted to the photographer who specialises in weddings and creating the best wedding photos, albums etc?
+ You’re wanting to lose weight and are looking for a personal trainer to help you. Do you think you’d choose the trainer that specialises in muscle building or maybe is a pretty general PT or would it in fact make much more sense to find someone who specialises in weight loss and has a stream of testimonials from happy clients who have achieved what you want to with this person.
It’s a total no brainer. Unless you already have a relationship with another provider, you are going to go with the ‘expert’ or ‘specialist’ every time because you know that they are the most likely to deliver the results that you are looking for.
The Cornish Pasty Co – funnily enough specialise in Cornish pasties
Millies Cookies – cookies
Pandora – jewellery
I could go on, and on! All of the companies above offer lots of different products but you’ll find that they have one thing that they are known for predominantly and this is what draws people in. Once you’re in the store or website you can see the other offerings and buy them if you want and you will also remember what else is on offer and be able to go back again later to get more when required.
Each of these businesses will attract a different type of person. You can get pizza from Carluccio’s and you can get pizza from Pizza Hut – both deliver the same item and are an eat-in restaurant, but they do it in different ways and the marketing for each is completely different, as is the experience in the restaurants.
Your customers are just the same. If you own a hotel with a golf club and spa then you will need to have different adverts in different places for each aspect of the business. For example:
Advert 1 – golf breaks – in golf break magazines
Advert 2 – golf memberships – local adverts in local parish mags etc
Advert 3 – spa breaks – in women’s magazines and online spa directories
And you can go even deeper:
Pamper days can be broken down and advertised in specific areas:
Pregnancy pamper day would be in pregancy magazines, online forums and posters in local cafes, Doctor surgeries and other places pregnant mums congregate.
Mother and daughter pamper day – this could be a big push for Mother’s Day with an offer (a great reason to BUY NOW)
Bride to be pamper day – you’d advertise this at wedding fairs, in wedding publications and online wedding groups etc
And so you see, this is just a small example of focused marketing and I’m sure you can agree that a specific advert, as above, would be much more effective, when placed in the right location, than a generic advert promoting ‘golf, golf breaks, spa days and more’ in a generic publication.
If you look hard enough at your business (this is when being the ‘Queen of Your Brand’ comes in) you will find ONE thing that you want to be know for and this should be at the forefront of all your promotions. It might well be an alien concept for you at this stage but it will be the making of your brand when you make a start with this.
Look at Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Coke, Pampers…. they ALL do it! So why on earth would it not work for you too? These are companies that spend millions and billions in brand strategy and marketing and are at the top of the business food chain. You don’t have to spend the same money to learn from what is working for them and tweaking it to work for your business too.
‘Modelling’ like this applies in all aspects of life. If you want to be an olympic athelte then you need to think and act like one. And there’s no better way to do that than to find an athelete you want to be like and to copy what they do until you’re great like them too.
In business we have inspirational business people like Richard Branson, Anita Roddick, Coco Chanel, Oprah, Tony Robbins and many more – all of which you can read their books, listen to their audios, watch their videos and learn about how they live their lives and so ‘model’ (copy and incorporate into your life) them and their behaviours and by default become more like them along the way.
So as you would model people for your own development, you can model successful companies to achieve bigger and better things for your business.
Getting back to the focus part. There’s a great saying that ‘where the focus goes the energy flows’ and it is so very true. Whatever you focus on in your business, you will get more of. So if you’re focusing on attracting a real mishmash of customers because you have no focus, that’s what you’re going to get.
If you take a bold step and focus on the one type of client that you would love to work with every day then you will attract more of those clients.
I would ask you this: Why would you want to attract clients that you don’t really want, when you can attract the clients you dream of in a much more effective and fun way!?
With your sensible hat on you just wouldn’t, right?
Yet, when you have your fearful hat on, the panic kicks in and instead of focusing on the positive, you instead focus on the negative ‘OMG, what if I then get NO ONE!’ – which of course is nonsense, as you’ve already agreed above.
Do you know what’s EVEN BETTER about all this?
You don’t have to do anything drastic to test it out!
You can dip your toe in the water and see if it’s the temperature that makes for a good swim. Try it with the next advert that you do, or flier that you print.
Consider the following:
Who am I aiming this at SPECIFICALLY
What PAIN am I taking away OR what SOLUTION am I providing for them?
What do I want them to DO next (Call To Action)
If you do the above and then, and here is the crux of it, distribute them WHERE YOUR CLIENT ACTUALLY IS (another huge benefit of being specific is that you know where to target), then as long as you have used wording and design that will be attractive to your Ideal Client and you’ve clearly told them what action steps to take, you will find that the people who you’re aiming at will get in touch.
This is just touching on this subject, but hopefully you get the idea and will start trying out being SPECIFIC and being FOCUSED in your own business and with your marketing.
Once you start you’ll kick yourself for not doing it sooner! : )
Let me know how you’re getting on and your thoughts on this below.
Chakra meditation involves focusing on the different energies that lie within our bodies. There are 7 known chakras and they are known to be our energy vortexes; opening for life energy to flow into and out of our aura. These vortexes vitalises the physical body and to bring about the development of our self-consciousness.
The reason why one needs to unblock their chakras is that a blocked or improperly aligned chakra will prevent your energies from flowing all throughout your body, causing disharmony and resulting in a very pessimistic or negative mood. In the process, you will regain a life balance which is critical to healing of both physical and mental. The steps involved to performing chakra meditation are fairly simple and focus should be given to one chakra at one time.
In general, 5 techniques to unblock chakras are:
Visualization Through Meditation
A very effective technique, simple in execution where you will need to meditate and clear your mind, allowing you to focus on the chakra and visualize its associated color. You can then focus on the goal that you intend to achieve.
The Crystal Method
As the name suggests, this method requires the use of crystals, held directly on the chakra or right over the chakra for at least three minutes (but not longer than five).
Sound Therapy
Music bowls are used in this technique, which can be purchase at metaphysical stores along with a set of detailed instructions.
The Soothing Massage
A full body massage is an effective way to unblock all 21 chakras in the human body. Besides that, it helps stimulate your vital systems and promote healing.
The Right Mix Of Exercise And Nutrition
Proper nutrition and sufficient exercise is needed to keep healthy and have a energised body, especially in your chakras and aura.
We had quite drama in my local town last night and sadly we we part of it.
My partner and I were just falling asleep when the phone rang and it was a friend of ours calling to let us know that the shop next to my partner’s shop was seriously on fire and that we probably ought to get down there right away.
So he was up and out of bed and off to the shop. When he first got there, the flames were high and there was so much smoke that he called me and said that it may get all the businesses (it’s a little precinct with around 15 businesses in) and that he’d keep me posted.
Thankfully he then called again 30 minutes later to say that the 60+ fire crew had managed to contain the blaze and it only one of the shops was completely burnt out, with another couple of buildings having water, heat and/or smoke damage.
He arrived home again about 1am and we got to sleep, ready for a reasonably early start and him going off to assess the damage and start helping with the clear up.
During the time he was at the fire and not in communication, it got me thinking how much ‘stuff’ there actually is at the shop. Sure there’s the stock but there’s also the computer systems, there’s the things you build up after being in a place for over 15 years, there’s the few things we have in the store room as it’s handy to get at and yet still out of the way.
But then there’s even more than that. There’s 15 years of customers, of memories and of people interacting. Friendships made and many sales done.
A shop, as with all in our lives, is so much more than what it is on the surface and we all could do with a close call every now and then to make us realise that and then re-think how we’re doing things and so make changes to improve.
There are of course changes that include making sure your insurance is up to date, checking your data is backed-up off site somewhere safe and other such things. But there’s also the question of, what would you save if you literally had just a moment to decide?
Lots of people have faced this same question with the floods that have impacted in the UK, not forgetting of course some of the horrendous things happening across the world with typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes etc.
So perhaps you can take a moment to really think.
What would you want if you had just a moment to leave your home and your life and is it accessible should the need arise? If not, why not?
Where would you go? Who would you call? What would you do?
Now you can’t answer all these questions now, but you can think about your life and what is most important. Look deep inside and find what you care about most.
Are you spending enough time and giving enough positive attention and love to the ones you hold dearest?
Are you doing things that you love every day in your life?
Are you fully living in the moment?
What can you change today to ensure that you’re on the path to the tomorrow that you dream about?
Take 5 minutes to just consider these things and then take action to ensure that you are doing what you love, with who you love. Life is too short and too unexpected to do otherwise.
Get out there and give of and to yourself for the betterment of life.
So yesterday I joined 6 other entrepreneurs who were all speaking at City College Norwich to a group of 100+ students, as part of the ‘Positive Image‘ campaign, created by Sarah Harding to help empower young people.
We each had a 30 minute slot to speak and in total over 550 students attended talks during the day and gave fantastic feedback afterwards.
So what did I speak about?
Well I shared with my journey from teendom through to where I am today, including lots of the good and bad times that got me here. I then went on to speak about values and how important it is to live your life in line with your values, those instinctive ideas that tell you what is good, bad, right or wrong in your life and the essence of who we are. These are pretty much hard-wired into us and if you’re not working in line with them you’re going to end up pretty miserable!
Then I went on to speak about beliefs and how we create so many beliefs all the time that we think are true. That we believe are part of who we are. That in reality are nothing but generalisations about experiences that we’ve had, that we’ve chosen to make into a belief (consciously or unconsciously).
I gave an example of being bitten by a dog as a small child and how that child might then create a belief that all dogs are bad and carry this belief through their whole life. This belief then may morph into a strong phobia of dogs that has a huge impact on their life, until death.
Now, most of us know, rationally, that the majority of dogs are lovely and it’s just a few you need to be careful of. Yet fear and phobias don’t work on a rational level and if we create a negative belief and we then build on that it can have far reaching consequences.
Then we flipped it and looked at positive beliefs and how we are in control of what we believe, whether we believe it or not! That we have the power to pick up or let go of beliefs as and when we choose. We just need to make that choice and take action towards achieving it (i.e. see an NLP/life coach/hypnotherapist etc or make small stepping stone changes daily yourself).
So how great would it be to choose positive beliefs instead of negative ones?
How great would it feel if you truly loved yourself and whenever you were faced with a decision, you chose the positive belief over the negative?
Just imagine how such positive choices could affect your life and not only your own life, but the lives of the people around you too.
So what can you choose to believe today that is positive?
After beliefs I spoke about Law of Attraction (LOA) and that by giving off positivity we attract it back to us.
Now I was pretty amazed when I asked the room who had heard of LOA and not one hand went up. So this was potentially the first time the these 100+ students had heard about this powerful mindset.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a great believer in LOA and have seen it in action time and time again. So I was in my element explaining how it can be used to benefit life.
I gave a few hints and tips about choosing to be nice to people. To compliment instead of insult. To remember that you do not have any idea what is going on in someone else’s’ life or mind and that your words might have a massive impact on their day, week, month, year, or even life! It is that important. Your snide remark may stay with that person for their whole life (see beliefs above!). You just don’t know. The world has enough problems and we need to be empowering others, not dragging them down. So choose your words carefully and empower rather than degrade whenever you can.
Remember:
Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
If it is none of the above then why say it? Think what your agenda is by saying something that could hurt. What is happening inside you that makes you want to make others feel pain?
They say that perception is projection, in other words, what we see in others is what we dislike/want to change about ourselves. Perhaps next time you feel the urge to say something less than positive, take the time to ask yourself what it is in you that makes you feel that way about the person you are speaking to. It can be very enlightening, if a little uncomfortable at times!
And it didn’t end there (yes they were still engaged with me, for which I am hugely thankful).
I then moved on to goals and goal setting. One of the teachers said they had ‘tasks’ they were used to setting but not SMART goals.
I wanted them to think outside of the school box and look at long term goals that were in line with their values – and of course a little Law of Attraction doesn’t go amiss in this potent mix either!
So we looked at powerful goal setting:
S = Specific M = Measurable A = As if now R = Realistic / Relevant / Responsible T = Timed
and how they could use this for when they’re job hunting, planning grades etc.
Of course I had to mention that it’s all very well using these techniques and thinking, for example, I’ve set a goal to get a great job, and then doing nothing and thinking it will manifest. With the best will in the world that just ain’t gonna work! Or at least the likelihood of it is greatly reduced.
If you set a goal you then have to take MASSIVE action towards achieving it. You want that great job? Set your goal and then get out there. Network, send off applications, get on LinkedIn, JobHop and other online agencies. Take action and you will active your goal. I’ve seen it happen many times and it is always an amazing feeling when you get it!
So we had to wrap it up at this point and I kept thinking on the way home how many things I could’ve, should’ve said but there just wasn’t time – I spoke for 35 minutes in the end and it’s amazing how short a time that really is.
It was so lovely to have some of the students come up to me afterwards and say that they found it inspiring (what is a better compliment than that from a 16-18 year old!). We even had a lull between me and the next speaker and a few said I could continue as they were enjoying it – it’s so nice to be wanted! 😉
There is something quite magical about working to empower other people, especially the next generation. If we can empower them when they’re still young, just think what they could achieve!
Life is too short to be riddled with negative beliefs and surrounding yourself with negative people.
Get out there and LIVE!
Be around people who support and empower you and you you can in return support and empower them too.
Enjoy life – it’s there to be lived and enjoyed.
Climb out of the box and inject some serious positivity into your life – you just never know where it may lead you!
I could get used to this inspirational speaker malarkey!
Hypnosis is the original mind/body medicine. For centuries it has gone in and out of vogue. Now, in the twenty-first century, there’s finally sufficient scientific evidence, real hard data, that proves its effectiveness.
Hypnosis is a bridge to the subconscious mind, which houses the emotions, imagination, memories, habits and intuition. It also regulates our autonomic body functions and is the part of the mind that dreams.
Within a therapeutic setting, hypnosis is often induced through various methods of relaxation. As a result of this process the critical factor of the conscious mind is bypassed, giving the hypnotherapist and subject direct access to the deeper mind, the subconscious, which has been called the other 90% of the mind. Hypnosis is essentially a way of relaxing and setting aside the conscious mind while at the same time activating the subconscious, enabling the subject to act on positive, life-affirming suggestions with ease and efficiency. Generally the most well-known characteristic of hypnosis is increased suggestibility.
Within the field of hypnotherapy, there are a great variety of ways to harness the power of the subconscious mind to affect change. It is used in areas such as chronic and acute pain control or affect the psychological associations of pain. It can be effective to improve confidence, concentration, motivation, achievement, recall, focus, health and stress management. Hypnosis can help overcome addictions, habits, eating disorders, insomnia, fears, phobias and negative thought, emotional and behaviour patterns. It can also tap people into the utilization of their full potential in endeavours like work, sports and art.
In 1958, the Council on Mental Health of the American Medical Association formerly accepted hypnosis and recommended its inclusion in the curriculum of medical schools and post-graduate residencies. The British Medical Association had previously recognized hypnosis for psychiatric and surgical use.
Today, thousands of dentists, physicians, psychologists and other health professionals receive training in hypnosis. Hypnosis has emerged as a valuable tool in medicine and psychotherapy and is fully recognized and utilized by many scientists.
Article by: Frederick Stander CHT Holistic Hypnotherapist & Wellness Counsellor at NewAge Center http://www.newageshop.com.hk/
When doing past life regressions, one can never be sure exactly quite what to expect. One thing I do know is that no matter what occurs in a session there is always a positive benefit for the client. It may not be immediately obvious or it might be right in-your-face, but there is always a benefit.
I was working with A., a female in her early 40’s who has been working on a weight problem for most of her life & has tried all the usual methods to it. After several conversations with her, she wanted to try PLRT to see if it would be helpful to her in reducing weight. The method I use most frequently when regressing clients is taking them back to a childhood memory prior to a past life. As I was working with 2 clients at the same time I was unable to do more than direct them in a general way but the results for A. where dynamic.
In our discussion after the regression, she excitedly recounted her childhood memory. She was again a young child of about 7 or 8. She saw her step-father approach her & grab her arms from behind to pin them to her sides. She talked about the feelings of helplessness and pain that overcame her (this apparently was a frequent occurrence in her childhood) and she suddenly became very angry. And in her anger she found the strength to elbow him in the chest, forcing him away from her. She then turned and with a huge shove pushed him through the plasterboard of the wall behind him and shouted “You will NEVER hurt me again”.
As we discussed her memory and what it signified for her, she told me that she had tried hard, in may different ways, to release the hold the abuse from her step-father had over her, but until now had never been able to do so. She said that she felt wonderfully free & that she didn’t think the old memories would ever have a hold on her again, as she realized that she had taken her freedom and power back, that she had done it – it had not been done for her. She was exuberant to say the least, and has been reveling in her freedom since then.
We also talked about the past life she remembered which was not quite as dramatic but still significant in the fact that she had, had an experience of one. I say this, as there are a certain percentage of the population that don’t have a past life experience on the 1st regression. I will continue to work with A. to see if this breakthrough will be the nadir to starting her journey to permanent weight loss.
(Please note I make no allegations the PLRT is a weight loss program!)
Article by: Ruth Coxall, RN, RM, DC, Past Life Regression Therapist Location: Collie, Western Australia Email: ruthlcox@msn.com
Weight loss is all about burning more calories than we consume. Right?
So why is it so difficult?
And why has weight been on my mind all my life?
Why is it a constant struggle for me and for others?
I used to say that I was born overweight, but the reality was that I was a normal healthy weight but I grew into an overweight child. A tubby child. A child who had the mickey taken out of her at school and a child that hated sport and any form of exercise or physical activity. And it’s true to say that my hatred of sport and physical exercise has continued. To this day I don’t get that ‘buzz’ that people talk of after a gym session or a run, or the increase in energy that others talk about.
But I do get that ‘buzz’ when I lose weight!! But the thought of eating vegetables and salad (I was never a big lover of these foods) and depriving myself of the foods that I love fills me with dread and makes me grumpy. I used to go to endless lengths to hide the foods from those that I didn’t want to eat (I used to hide vegetables in the cheese plant at my mum and dad’s as we didn’t have a dog!) to those that I ate in secret (a chocolate bar hidden amongst my underwear – after all if no-one saw me eat it then it wouldn’t matter!)
When I went on a diet food was always on my mind and occupied my every waking moment! And if I ate something that I shouldn’t have done then I used to chastise myself and tell myself I deserved to be this way. If I couldn’t have what I wanted or was faced with a plate of unappetising food, again the self-hatred would drown out my reasons for wanting to be slimmer. And the scales each week became my enemy. The dial seemed to be stuck or only ever went up!
Since then I have learnt to accept myself for who I am. I am no stick insect and never will be. But I have learnt to understand my relationship with food. I eat when I am bored, I eat when I am lonely, I eat when I am upset and I celebrate with food when I am happy. I eat when I am stressed, I reach for calorie laden (nice tasting) foods when I am tired and I HAVE to clear my plate (even when I am stuffed) just so that I can have a pudding. The list goes on…
The Solution
Yes the key to losing weight is burn more calories than you consume. But unless you understand your relationship with food and change these habits as well it will be an uphill struggle.
So to be more successful at achieving your ideal weight look at the issues that have prevented you from getting there (and staying there) in the past. For example, if you eat for other reasons besides being hungry then visualise your stomach as a balloon, and ask yourself how inflated this balloon really is. Is it completely empty or so full that one more breath of air will cause it to pop. Visualising your stomach in this way during a meal can also be used to signal that it’s time to stop eating.
Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool to help you change your relationship with your food forever. By working at an unconscious level you can literally change how you think. When you have your first session with a hypnotherapist you are taking the first step on the road to having a healthy relationship with food and increasing your own self confidence. Leading you to a life where ‘diet’ is not part of your vocabulary.
Article by: Lisa Williams Stockport Counselling & Hypnotherapy Online and face-to-face counselling and tailor-made hypnotherapy packages www.stockportcounselling.com
I found this today and thought it was lovely so wanted to share it on here:
1. It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return. But what is more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that person know how you feel.
2. A sad thing in life is when you meet someone who means a lot to you, only to find out in the end that it was never meant to be and you just have to let go.
3. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.
4. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.
5. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone-but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.
6. Don’t go for looks, they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth, even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.
7. Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be. Because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.
8. Always put yourself in the other’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the person too.
9. A careless word may kindle strife. A cruel word may wreck a life. A timely word may level stress. But a loving word may heal and bless.
10. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
11. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, ends with a tear. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.
I woke up this morning feeling a little down in the dumps – no particular reason why (although it could be good old fashioned hormones – who knows!?) so I decided to ask a question on my Facebook: “What are you really happy/excited about in your life right now?” and within just a couple of hours I had over 15 lovely replies with answers from “Fresh starts!” to “The arrival of Spring!” and “My horse” to “The morning with my son :-)” plus many others of course about work, life, spiritual development and more.
Not only did this barrage of happy thoughts do wonders for my mood but it also had me thinking about gratitude and how important it is in one’s life. On January 1st 2012 I started a ‘gratitude diary’ and ever single evening since then, without fail, I have written in there at least one thing that I am grateful for from that day. I have to say it’s more than a little satisfying to be now in my fourth month and able to see so many different things I written. Pages and pages of lines and lines of specific things that I am grateful for.
So what benefit does that actually give I hear you ask? Well for me it has helped to be much more positive in general. Instead of looking for the bad I am looking for the good and this can be quite transformational in every day life. Yes s**t happens but it’s how you deal with that situation that makes you who you are. Not forgetting of course that we are in control of our own thoughts and feelings so in any given situation you can choose to be angry, depressed, sad, frustrated or you can choose to look for something good and so move forward rather than get stuck.
You may at this point be thinking “I don’t choose to be angry/frustrated/sad, events happen and I feel that way, I would not choose to feel bad!” and I would quote Mahatma Gandhi “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” It’s so easy to forget the true power of the mind and in particular the unconscious mind. Whether you choose to agree, or not, it has been proven that we have the ability to control our thoughts and therefore our feelings just by utilising our powerful minds.
I appreciate that when you’re feeling bad it’s very easy, and sometimes almost enjoyable (in a weird way), to wallow in that feeling when what we ought to be doing is realising that it is just a feeling and that feelings are fluid things and that we have the ability to choose to feel the emotion and then let it go. By holding on to these feelings we are not doing anyone any good and just like anything in life practice makes perfect.
So how is this linked to gratitude? Well if you are aware that you can choose how you feel then you can practice feeling good more often. Baby steps, done often will naturally become big strides and soon you’ll be amazed to see how positive you feel every day.
When you find yourself in a situation where you would normally feel a negative emotion, stop for a moment and remind yourself that you have the power to choose how you feel. Then step back and look at the situation and find something positive from it and then focus on that.
Now this might seem tricky to do at first but the more you use this technique the easier you will find it.
So lets give you a few examples:
You loose your job Positive thought = You are being given an opportunity to find a new path. When one door closes another opens and though the path may not be clear at first it is a time for you to find your passion and go after it. Take advantage of this change to do something wonderful.
You have a friendship/relationship that falls apart Positive thought = What have you learned from this experience and how can you use that learning to take you forward in a more empowered way? There are many connections that you will make in your life and each gives you something different to enrich it. As they say – You meet people for a reason, a season or a lifetime. There is always a lesson to be learned from each person and there will always be something positive that you will take forward with you.
You’ve put on weight Positive thought = you have enjoyed the food you have indulged in to gain the weight and it has given you an opportunity to see what weight you wish to be and so you can create a goal weight and then work towards achieving that goal in the knowledge that you will feel empowered and proud of yourself for the effort you will have gone to to achieve your goal and loose the weight. Focus on the weight you want to be, not the weight you are.
This leads me very neatly into the power of positive thought and the law of attraction. Said simply, whatever you focus on you will create. So focus on good things and good things will happen. Find the good in every situation and you will always be able to find good in every situation.
Have you noticed how positive people are that way, even when they’re stressed, or having a tough time? This is because they are looking for the best in every situation rather than focusing on the bad. By looking for the good you are also focusing on the path that will lead to your goal.
If you are in the dark, look for the light and then take action and walk towards it. If you sit still in the darkness you will never reach the light, despite how much you moan about it not coming to you. In order to reach your goal you need to decide what it is, focus on it and then take action towards achieving it.
For this year my purpose is to write every day something that I am grateful for and already this is helping me to feel more happy and grateful every day, as I am consciously looking for and appreciating so much more than I was.
If you look for the good you will find the good and when you create a habit of looking for the good in things then you will create great things.
Why not start your own gratitude diary and see how wonderful it is to be grateful every day.
Ending with a perfect quote:
“Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows, and the more power you have to use it on your behalf. If you do not practice gratefulness, its benefaction will go unnoticed, and your capacity to draw on its gifts will be diminished. To be grateful is to find blessings in everything. This is the most powerful attitude to adopt, for there are blessings in everything.” Alan Cohen
The Holistic Journal 