Expand Your Vision

"God is not found in places. God is found in consciousness."

-Joel Goldsmith

You've heard of thinking outside the box, right? When you think outside the box you open yourself to innovative ways of approaching problems or situations and you can look at things from a new perspective. But when you are stuck in a rut feeling like there's no way out of your situation whether it's mental, financial, emotional or physical it's hard to think outside the box because you're stuck inside of it!

I often hear people say things like: I'll never meet anyone again, I'll never get out of debt, who would want to hire me, I guess I'll be alone forever, who would want to marry me, why doesn't anything ever good happen to me? And on and on.

So, what is it that you think is missing for these people? What is the one thing that they can't see because they are lost in the darkness inside their own mind and their old ways of thinking? What if this darkness that occupies Mind Street was replaced with hope, belief and trust? Then would they have a different view of things?

When you open your vision beyond your own little inside world filled with fears, doom and gloom, woe-is-me, limited thinking you will begin to see what's beyond the inside of the box. And, when you allow yourself to open up to a new way of thinking or a new consciousness; what is outside of the box is a world filled with infinite possibilities.

Instead of being locked down by your thoughts, your thoughts will be the very thing that can set you free. It begins with trusting that life is working out the way it's supposed to on your unique journey.

Let's just pretend you have a barometer that can read your "trust level." It goes from 1 to 100. Now throughout the day you're going to check and see what your meter reads. If you trust in God/Your Higher Self/Allah/ or whatever and you truly believe that you are being guided; your trust level is high. But if you don't believe things will work out for you and you have no faith, where do you think your trust level will be? The best part is you can adjust your trust level by what you choose to believe in.

When you can learn to expand your vision to connect with a higher consciousness, this connection is the essence of who you are and who you are connected to. And it is through this connection that you raise your mind to a new level that is out of the box and you will be well on your way to experiencing life the way you were meant to.

Many people seek out this connection through meditation, and prayer which helps you become aware of who you really are. Too often what happens is we identify who we are with our human experience, our mind or ego, i.e. who we are, what we drive, where we live, what our story is, what is happening to us and all of the superficial stuff.

But when you become more "consciously aware" of who you really are which is your soul and you connect with your soul, i.e. a higher consciousness, you will look at things with new eyes, a new awareness. Begin to look at life through your spiritual eyes; it will stretch your faith and your vision so you can get rid of the old negative mind-sets that hold you back.

And when you understand this, you will have expanded your vision and how you look at life. It's worth the view!
 

Love Yourself And Build Your Self Esteem

It might seem that life is just a matter of dealing with what is thrown at you.  However, if you want to take control and create the life you want, the best place to start is to love yourself.  Psychologists have said for years that people who value themselves and have high levels of self-esteem are happier in general and have better coping skills than people with negative feelings toward themselves.

Affirmations Work Wonders

Affirmations are sayings you often tell yourself.  For many people stuck in negative thought patterns, affirmations seem trite and false, since they are more comfortable with the negative messages they tell themselves.  However, turning negative thought patterns into positive ones can make a huge difference in how you see yourself.

Affirmations are messages that are heard and understood by the subconscious.  The subconscious functions without a filter.  It does not differentiate between what is accurate and what is false.  Instead, it simply listens to what it is fed and integrates it into your thought process.

There are many ways to use affirmations to build your self-esteem.  You can start by writing up a list of affirmations for yourself that confirm the message you want your subconscious to absorb.  Here is a list of examples:

- I am a valuable person.

- I am a loving person.

- I love myself.

- I am generous.

The primary goal in writing affirmations is to help you identify the qualities in yourself that you value and ways you can build your self esteem.  If you have problems coming up with a few of these qualities, think of characteristics that you value in others.  One of the wonderful things about affirmations and the subconscious is that by telling yourself you have these qualities, you begin to exhibit them in your behaviors.  Remember, the subconscious does not have a filter and absorbs what it is repeatedly told regardless of the accuracy of the statement.

Using Affirmations

When you have your list of affirmations that you want to integrate into your subconscious, you can begin to use them.  Often, you will need to use affirmations for several weeks before you begin to feel a shift in your thoughts.  However, once you begin to see positive changes within yourself, you may decide that affirmations can help you in other areas of your life.

Affirmation Method #1 - Make an audio file of your affirmations and listen to it several times a   day.  The best audio files are ones you do yourself.  Hearing your own voice is more effective than listening to someone else's voice because your subconscious immediately recognizes your personal authority.  One of the best times to listen to your audio file is right before you go to sleep, when you are relaxed and you mind is receptive.

Affirmation Method #2 - Write your affirmations and place them where you can see them regularly.  You can write your affirmations on sticky-notes and place them around your bathroom mirror and repeat them to yourself as you go through your morning and nighttime routines.

Affirmations are a great way to increase your self-esteem.  The more often you repeat positive messages to yourself, the better you will feel about yourself.  You will find that you love yourself more and you will begin to behave and act in positive ways that reflect the loving messages that you are sending to yourself.  By using affirmations, you can take control of what you think and feel about yourself instead of being at the mercy of what others tell you