The Reticular Activating System (RAS for short) is a tiny part of the brain with a big and important job. It controls consciousness and acts as a filter. At any given moment you have approximately 2 million bits of sensory information available to you. You’re only capable of absorbing about 150 bits per second. All the other bits are there, but you literally don’t know it, because the Reticular Activating System doesn’t let them in.

So you don’t actually perceive reality as much as your RAS “selectively sifts” what you perceive. Think about walking through a crowded airport. It’s very noisy, people are talking, announcements are coming over the speaker system, and perhaps you’re focusing on your child, making sure he stays close. You aren’t picking out any details about other conversations, or announcements, until you hear your name over the loud speaker. You immediately focus your attention on that announcement, although you didn’t hear a word of what went before.

That’s your RAS at work-it has an instruction that says ‘Pay attention if you hear my name.’ Your belief system is also controlled by the RAS. What makes your belief system so important is that your RAS is programmed, not by your conscious mind, but by your subconscious mind. So a host of old messages, limiting thoughts and disempowering beliefs that have gotten into your subconscious are still there, controlling your RAS-and by extension your perception of reality. Worse than that those old hurts and fears blind us to what our reality can become, closing off our ability to change and forcing us into futures that exactly mirror our pasts.

For example, if I believe that I can’t have what I really want, it is probably because when I was a child I was told many times by many adults that I couldn’t have what I wanted. The message was well meant, to be sure, because we have maintained a cultural belief that you can’t always get what you want (the Rolling Stones even wrote a song about it!). However, it’s simply not true. And yet whenever we have any negative emotion, there is some element in our belief system feeding instructions to our RAS to bring it into our consciousness. The negative emotion will, in turn, cause us to act in ways that create additional situations that once again reinforce our false programming.

And so, since the RAS acts as our “gatekeeper,” the first step toward sending it a new memo about its job it is to figure out what instructions it has received before. So think about it: What are the stressful thoughts that keep you up at night? With a little investigation, you’ll find that the RAS is working on faulty or outdated instructions, and you’ll know better how to target your re-training efforts.

The good news is that, over time, information from your conscious mind filters into your subconscious. This is why choosing “better-feeling” thoughts and affirmations (practices I’ve recommended in previous articles) help change our perceptions over the long run. If you’ve had some resistance to using these tools in the past, now that you understand the brain mechanics behind them, I hope you’ll give them another chance.

With new thoughts and beliefs everything changes. Negative emotions vanish. Opportunities appear that just weren’t present before and it becomes far easier for us to accomplish whatever we want. Our relationships with others (and with ourselves) improve because our mindsets completely shift. So let’s get back to the best way to re-train our RAS. Your beliefs affect what you perceive, and what’s possible for you-and they are completely under your control. Again, I think finding a better-feeling thought or affirmation that you repeat frequently to yourself is the best way to do this.

You can find the perfect affirmation for you simply by “turning around” your current stressful thought. For example, if you believe that you don’t have enough time to do the things you really want to do, your affirmation would be “I have plenty of time to do the things I want to do.” (Or if that sounds too far-fetched, “I am creating plenty of time to do the things I want to do.”) When you find an affirmation that works for you, you become happier and healthier in every sense. While happiness is great, it doesn’t end there. You become able to do things that you’ve never done before. You feel good and do good at the same time-and that is true success.

As a psychic medium who's proud of her work, I get disgusted and angry whenever I hear about phony clairvoyants whose only aim is to hoodwink people out of their money or, worse, their sense of power. I hope you never fall prey into a spider web cast by a devious intuitive. And to make sure you don't, here's how to spot a psychic scam artist.

1. The scammer says you're cursed, and only they can remove this curse.

There is no such thing as a curse. No one can give you the evil eye unless you believe it. And when you believe someone has the power to make bad things happen to you, your belief system turns your fears into reality. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel bad without your permission."

2. The scammer wants a ridiculous amount of money for a session.

Many psychics base their rates on their notoriety. Expect to pay The Long Island Medium or John Edward several hundred dollars for a session. Don't pay that kind of money to an unknown psychic with a neon crystal ball in the storefront window.

3. The scammer says you need more sessions with them to clear away your problem.

Bogus mystics often offer a free first reading, or charge just $ 20 to lure you in. But then they'll tell you you're cursed and need to come back again – and again – at $ 100 a pop.

4. The scammer says you need to give them your money "to clean."

Don't laugh. I've heard stories from doctors and lawyers who have handed over tens of thousands of dollars because they were told their money was cursed and unclean. And once that happened, their money was gone with the wind.

5. The scammer says you must buy their "mystical trinkets."

I've given readings and suggested to clients they might want to carry a certain stone on their person to help ground them. I've also suggested books for clients to read, like Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life. But there's a world of difference between a $ 5 stone (I don't carry anything for sale in my office) or a book that you can also get out of a library, and $ 150 candles scammers sell that, after burning, will "clear away negative energy. " Believe me, you feel plenty positive after burning a $ 2.50 vanilla-scented votive available just about anywhere.

6. The scammer tells you that you have no power.

You are the most powerful person you know. Why? Because you have the strength to say "No!" Never give your power away to anyone – especially someone masquerading as a psychic.

A psychic is supposed to advise, not give you a lucky spell to fix your life or make doom-and-gloom pronouncements. People who want their problems to be magically fixed are in danger of becoming victims – because they give away their hope and power. Believe me, working to improve your life is just that – work. Lucky Charms should only be for breakfast.

It has been proven that the way you think affects every aspect of your life, including your relationships to your health. The way you think is strongly influenced by your belief system. Your beliefs are usually influenced by the things you were taught growing up. Most people have a difficult time shedding their old beliefs and replacing them with newer, healthier beliefs. Fortunately, with a few simple techniques described in Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life by Nick Hall, Ph.D, it can be done.

Your beliefs influence the way you feel on a day-to-day basis. Do you find yourself overwhelmed with feelings of tiredness, stress, worry, and anxiety? Probably so, and if you do, what it is that has made you believe that you should feel this way? This audio guide teaches you to question every negative belief you’ve got and transform them into something that works for you.

Are you feeling as if you’re stuck in a rut? Almost as if something invisible seems to be holding you back, but you cannot quite put your finger on what it is? The thing that is holding you back is your current way of thinking. Not everyone is psychic, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out life’s patterns. If you continue to do the same thing you’ve always done, you’re not going to get anywhere other than where currently are.

Everyone wants to feel deserving of love, wealth, and overall happiness. Any source of negativity in your belief system may potentially block those positive desires from entering into your world. As soon as you remove your old beliefs and replace them with more positive ways of thinking, you ignite the power within your own mind to send out the energies necessary to attract the things you want.

Unconsciously, Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life by Nick Hall, Ph.D helps to reinvent you as a person, replacing almost every self-defeating part of your personality with something better. You may haven’t ever realized that you were the one who was preventing yourself from getting that job that you’ve always wanted or making the money you’ve always dreamed of. It isn’t any particular thing about you that prevents you from obtaining what you want in life, but the beliefs that you possess.

Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life by Nick Hall, Ph.D is about changing your vision. As your outward vision changes, your inward self also goes through an intense transformation. Have you ever met someone and then ran into them years later and realized that they seemed like a completely different person? That is because change begins on the inside.

There is no way that you can begin feeling differently about your everyday life unless you do something about it. Unfortunately, nothing can be done until you know what to do. Change is necessary in a world that is full of disappointment and failure. With Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life by Nick Hall, Ph.D, you’ll learn how to change everything about your current state of mind and harness the power within to effectively build a life full of peace, security, love, and fulfillment.

Attitude is everything. Johnny Wimbrey said “Your attitude determines your ability to succeed” Wow! that is powerful. Do you know what I interpret that to mean? We have the choice and the power to determine our destiny.

Our success or failure is a choice we make by design or default. Every decision we make daily is creating our future.

I think it was Earl Nightingale who said that all of us are self made, but only the successful is willing to admit it.

Whether we like it or not, our attitude will either make us or break us, make us rich and famous, or make us poor and needy, drive people away from us, or attract people to us…

ATTITUDE.

Attitude is a frame of mind that affects how we think, and how we think determines the words we speak, how we speak determines how we behave, how we behave determines the habits we form, the habits we form determines our character.

This whole matter of character is where its at. Character is an ever evolving process, right at this moment as you read these words, you are in a character building state. You cannot stop the process, however, you can control what is building your character.

I quote Mr Wimbrey again who said “Your character is developed according to what you consume or what consumes you.”

Our attitude, simply put is our mental position on the facts of life. The way we view life, our degree of likes and dislikes, our opinion, beliefs and feeling about the world in which we live.

If we are going to develop a positive mental attitude, we have to do the following:-

[] Believe in our God-given ability,
[] Set ourselves dreams and goals to stretch our minds,
[] Develop a tough mental attitude and never allow failures and challenges to make you quit,
[] Go back in our past, but only to bring someone out with us,
[] Get ourselves an accountability partner,
[] We should never think we have arrived, that is the moment you we start to regress.

Our attitude affects our belief.

Belief is rooted and grounded in faith, which is the ability to see or receive something invisible or intangible. That is more powerful than you are able to grasp in this short article, especially if it is a new concept to you.

One reason the majority of people live from one pay check to another, is because they lack the ability or willingness to see the invisible, hear the inaudible and touch the intangible.

If you are waiting to see it before you can believe it, then you are going to remain in your ordinary life of quiet desperation, wishing and hoping for things to change, but doing nothing about it.

If you fit that description, then according to Albert Einstein, you are bordering insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We are where we are today because of what we believe. Our belief will take us as far as we permit it. There is no limit to what we can accomplish in life. But we must believe it first, we must see it in the spiritual.

Everything exists in the invisible realm before it become a physical reality. But only those who can dream it, feel it and see it will have it. William Shakespeare said, what the human mind can conceive and believe, that same mind can achieve and receive.

If you are to achieve greatness and live life on your terms, then you must believe it to achieve it.

And it is easier than you think.

All you have to do is change your belief system. To do that you have to change your attitude.

If you are going to change your attitude, you have to change the way you think, and if you are going to change the way you think, you have to reprogramme your brain to think a certain way.

Our brain controls our success or failure, our happiness or sadness, our beliefs or doubts, in other words our brain controls our life.

There is a small section of the brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS), which acts as a filter to determine what we accept in our conscious awareness, and the things we focus on will become more acute in our conscious awareness.

The truth of the matter is, we don’t see reality, we see what we believe reality to be.

Here is where we have the ability to will ourself to success in anything beyond our wildest dreams.

Believe it or not, you can programme yourself for success.

What you filled your mind with is eventually translated into words, and your words are put into action. In other words, your success begins in your brain where you have to see it and touch it before it is created and become your living reality.

If you think you can or you can’t, you are right both ways. How do you see yourself three months, six months, one year, five years or ten years from now?

As Steven Covey said, you must begin with end in mind. You must have a clear picture where you want to go and how you plan to get there.

Your success or failure is a direct result of the attitude of your belief.

Attitude is everything.

I close with a quote from Charles Swindoll: “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.

It will make or break a company… a church… a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

I will open this article with a simple quote by The Talmud: “We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.” We are the product of our environment, which creates our belief system. Our thought constellation is the product of our environment, which in turn feeds into our perceptual development. This system creates our perception of the world around us. How we perceive and deal with one another is the result of this process. Most of the time and for most of us, we operate from a False Self (Ego base relationship), which we live our lives as though we are separate from every other human beings on this planet. This is a false idea and a dangerous way to live our lives.

To live a more harmonious and happy life, we need to make a simple perceptual shift. Let’s make a shift from living our lives from an Ego based relationship to a more loving Spiritual based relationship mentality. Let’s get away from living from Fear to living from love and this requires a perceptual shift. We have to come to an understanding that what we see in others is an extension of our inner self. Our perception of our spouses, our friends and our co-workers are mirror images of our thoughts and feelings. We project who we are on to others around us every day. An example of this would be, “if you feel that your spouse is being overly critical of you, you should examine your thoughts about your spouse earlier that day.” Most likely, you will find that you had been thinking critical thoughts about your spouse prior to your perception of being criticized.” You may notice that when your spouse walks in the door that you are waiting to hear a complaint or a critical comment and you are ready to counter attack. You get what you put out there, so guard your thoughts carefully.

We need to operate from love instead of fear and this is a perceptual shift that will help us to get along better with our spouses and everyone around us. There are only two basic emotions available to us and they are love and fear. We either express love or act out of fear appealing for love. “Without exception, whatever is not love is fear, and is an appeal for love and for help.” Our True Self is love and we can benefit from a perceptual shift of seeing any attack or criticism as an appeal for love out fear. In any interaction with our loved ones and friends, we need to step back and think where is the person coming from. Is it an appeal for love or an extension of love? If someone seems to be attacking you, avoid reacting from your False Self (the Ego), which is to attack or flee, but analyze your previous thoughts to see if you extended some critical thoughts to that person prior to your current situation. If you make a perceptual shift, then you will extend loving thoughts to your loved ones and everyone around you and this cannot happen if you are not the essence of love (your True Self). You cannot extend what you are not. You can only extend what you are. You can only give what you have and it cannot be faked. So, if you can see others as mirrors of your True Self, then you will see that your perception of any conflict or any imperfection is your own projection of your inner self. Again, if we are loving and compassionate, we will project what we are and if we are negative, critical and hateful, we will project those attitudes to people around us. If we experience our spouse as being controlling, we might ask ourselves, “Have I dealt with my own needs to control?”

A perceptual shift is a must if you want to have a good relationship with your spouse, friends and the world community.

The most often asked question I get when people either see me read or when they submit a question to my website goes like this: "Does it really work?" Or, "Can you really comprehend when you read really fast? These questions demonstrate an assumption that it is not possible – an underlying belief that will constrain the well intentioned questioner. The short answer is yes! This article will explore the question behind that question .

Because I've been using the skills so long, I've been perplexed about why this question is so often asked. In my mind, if you're not understanding or comprehending the material, you're not reading! You must be doing something else. Perhaps your mind is wandering – a common problem with untrained readers. Or, perhaps, you are struggling saying all the words to yourself (sub-vocalizing) to hear them in your mind before you believe you understand them. This is surely a block to effective speed reading because you can only read as fast as you can hear and understand the words. In fact, you can understand without hearing.

Reading is defined as the mind's response the printed symbols. With this definition then, you can only read as fast as your mind can understand (decode) the symbols. It is a visual process, not a sub-vocal process. Did you know that some cognitive researchers estimate that our mind can compute between 80,000 to 100,000 words per minute? That's the speed of your brain when both the right and left hemisphere are engaged! Do you believe your brain is that powerful?

However, the untrained reader does not utilize both right and left hemispheres when reading. This can be verified by using an EEG monitor. Because of the way most people have learned to read, reading has become an offshoot of processing language – a left hemisphere function. Also, because the untrained reader usually reads word by word, by nature the approach is left hemisphere dominant. Traditional forms of reading are literally half-brained!

How many years have you been reading? If you're reading this article, you have probably been reading for at least 10 years, if not much longer. That's a long time of ingrained habits. Because these habits are so ingrained, you have developed a belief system that tells you that's how to read. Your mind can not comprehend there are other possibilities without conflicting with your ingrained beliefs. You have a difficult time imagining doing it any other way.

Another part of the speed reading vs comprehension belief system has to do with your own self-image of yourself as a learner. If you've been struggling as a learner for many years, that defines your capability in your belief system. On one hand you may desire to become an effective speed reader who can comprehend anything, on the other hand, since you don't have the personal experience of having done it yourself you won't believe it's possible, or you won't believe it's possible for you.

But beliefs are subjective. They are not facts. Therefore, you can change your self-limiting beliefs to ones that nurture your growth and development.

Beliefs do shape our thinking and actions / behaviors. Many of the beliefs we hold in our mind are self-limiting and will hold us back until we try new ones instead. However, your self-limiting mind will initially cause you resist the new patterns of thinking.

Perhaps one of the most-told stories about the power of beliefs was provided by the great psychologist Abraham Maslow. A patient refused to eat because he believed that he was a corpse. In exasperation, the psychiatrist finally asked him if corpses bled. The patient said that he did not believe so.

The psychiatrist then proceeded to prick him with a pin, after asking the patient's permission to do so. At which point, the patient started to bleed. In amazement, he declared, "Wow … corpses do bleed after all!"

This story illustrates the difficulty you might have when you think about changing a particular behavior or belief you may have. On one hand it's simple. On the other hand it's hard to change those habits of your thinking. What limiting habits of mind / belief do you suffer from? Are you willing to confront them for your own best interest and self-development?

In my live courses, we begin the program with the participants filling out a simple form asking them about their beliefs and experiences as learners and what they believe about accelerated learning. During the training if someone appears to be struggling, I look at the form they filled out. Inevitably, the ones who are struggling have written negative beliefs about heir own abilities or the possibility of reading / learning in an accelerated manner.

The great industrialist Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't, you're right!" In other words, your mind will rally to support what you hold to be true.

Towards a positive self-improvement direction, the popular psychologist, Wayne Dyer has said, "You'll see it, when you believe it!" What do you want to be true about your learning to successfully read faster, comprehend better, and recall more? Your strong belief will make it happen so much easier. Perhaps you have no role models around you. That can be dis-heartening. But the fact is there are many thousands of speed readers who read fast with good comprehension that I have trained. There are probably millions worldwide.

In closing, then, speed reading doesn't work. You work it. The road to comprehension is built as a system, or method. The speed is merely part of the process. Learning the process may get bumpy at times. So, I'd like to ask you: What do you believe about your learning abilities? What do you believe about accelerated learning / reading and you abilities? What do you believe is possible for your mind's abilities? What could interfere with your learning these skills, and how can you overcome these obstacles? As a user for 32 years, I can say, without these skills my life would be much poorer. I am a believer. I am a user. You can be too! I'd like to invite you to learn more about reading faster and comprehending better at http://speedreadingtactics.com/speed_reading_newsletter.html .

According to researchers, nothing can accelerate the process of ageing than stress. More than 85% of the diseases are a result of excessive pressure. An individual's state of well being IS definitely hampered because of this. This is the reason why doing away with stress is absolutely necessary. However, stress can be managed with the help of effective massage therapy.

There are various ways in which this treatment helps to do away with stress. They can be enlisted as follows:

• With the help of this one you can reduce fatigues, aches, tension and pain.

• This will correct your postural imbalances and improve your range of motion.

• The therapy will assist in pumping nutrient-rich blood into the vital organs and tissues.

• It helps reducing back pain, shoulder pain and lower back pain. Thus, with the help of this, you will be able to improve your blood circulation.

• With this, you will be able to decrease your anxiety and depression.

• After you have adopted this technique, you will be able to concentrate much more on this.

• You will be able to handle your anxiety and depression in a much better way after you have taken this therapy.

• The release of endorphins that are the natural endorphins of the body will be regulated with this type of treatment.

• You can enhance the quality of sleep with the help of regular practice of this.

• The lymph flow of your body will also be regulated as a result of which your immunity will be enhanced because of this.

The above are the various benefits that this kind of treatment is capable of providing you with. The negativity and stress that arise from the pressures and changing situations of family, work, relationships and life often lead to distress and despair. The level of stress varies from person to person depending on the way they react to the different situations.

Your level of stress depends much on your faith and belief system that you have grown up with. At times, it is what goes on inside your mind that determines how you react to a particular situation. Taking some time out and going through this therapy will help to relax stretched muscles and act as a natural painkiller for you. A relaxed body will help you to confront the challenging situations in a new way and handle it more calmly.You will be able to deal with any situation with relative easy.

Being born to a privileged family or in a certain country is no merit. You did nothing to deserve or choose it. Why, oh why, do so many feel superior just because of that!? Others are born into limiting situations such as poverty and are thus given less choices to start with. But they didn’t choose to be born there, either, did they? Why, then, do we judge them? Why do we look at them as lesser beings? Why do we glare at them and feel like they deserve less than we, lucky ones, deserve?

Being born in a certain place entails being exposed to the culture and belief system of such a place. If you’re born in Europe, you’ll learn certain things at school; if you’re born in Kazakhstan, you’ll learn others, and if you happen to be born in a little village in Gambia, you’ll learn something different as well. What family you’re born into will also give you certain opportunities or lack of them. You’ll hear or see certain things. You will know nothing else but that, in particular during your first years of life. If you’re born to a wealthy family, you might have a lot of people taking care of you, so your time might be devoted to having fun or to learning to behave in society. If you are born to poverty, you might have to devote your time to learning how to find food or something as basic as that. And still, it was no choice of yours.

We feel entitled to judge others just because they happened to be born in other places, in other homes, into other cultures, into other belief systems.

Then you acquire the beliefs that you’re exposed to. You learn from your elders. You see and hear whatever surrounds you. You’re exposed to nothing else. You’re given no choice. And still we judge you.

And equipped with your learnings, your experiences, your view of the world, you start growing into the person you are. Your luggage carries what you could take from your journey so far, what you learned, what you saw, what you were exposed to. But your luggage can only include what you found on your way. It can’t include what you didn’t learn. It can’t include what you couldn’t see. It can’t include what you never heard. And still, we judge you for your luggage.

We feel entitled to judge others on the basis of their luggage and forget that they often were given no choice at all.

We judge others based on our own experiences and learning; we have no other. But we often neglect to consider what their experiences and learning might have taught them. We judge them based on our views, views that we didn’t originally choose; and we judge them for theirs, which they didn’t originally choose, either.

We often forget that our beliefs and the way we see the world are the direct result of our experiences and learning and feel superior to others to the point of granting ourselves the right to judge them, when the truth is that we, also, were given no choice.

Only when a person grows up and can hear or see other realities, can that person question his or her own beliefs and decide whether he or she wishes to change them. But who can tell when and how that new learning happens? It doesn’t matter, does it? No matter that person’s learning and experience, we still want that person to think like us, to behave like us, to accept our views NOW.

A child born in a small village in the Siberian tundra and raised in an orphanage is not equipped to judge what a child his same age born into a small, loving family in Chile says about his life. An adult who never left his hometown will have difficulties understanding some of the things a person who lived in ten different countries tells him. A woman born and raised in the slums of India will not be able to comprehend some of the ideas a Norwegian female lawyer speaks about.

And still we judge them.

Next time you judge another child, another woman, another man for their appearance, their beliefs, their life, their behavior… remind yourself that maybe that human being knows no better as a result of his or her own personal circumstances and refrain from feeling better or superior than him or her. Who would you be, had your circumstances and experiences been like those of the other person? Answer this question in honesty from the depths of your heart. And see the human being behind the circumstances.

A couple of days ago I was telling you here that life is made up of moments, one after the other. Many of those moments include human beings. Next time you find yourself judging someone, why don’t you instead choose to devote that one memento to sharing some of your experiences with them, so they can understand where you come from? And, while at it, why don’t you ask them to tell you about theirs, so you can also understand them a bit better? If we all had more of those moments in our lives, our worldview would be undeniably wider and deeper and we’d be able to grasp other realities and other beings better. I encourage you to try.

Enjoy life, ALL of it,

The concept of laws of attraction means like energy attracts like energy. Since our thoughts create our reality, look at your life and see what your belief system has created for you. What is your lifestyle like? What kind of car are you driving? Do you get to travel, what is your home like? This will give you a clear picture of what you feel comfortable with and what you believe you are entitled to.

Our limiting thoughts and belief are responsible for us not attaining everything our hearts desire; we have the power within us to manifest our dreams. If you understand how the laws of attraction works you know ultimately it is you and only you that is responsible for everything you have in your life.

If this current life style is something you want to change you will have to change your belief system. Limiting thoughts are what stand in the way of people creating wealth in their lives. The laws of attraction will only bring to you what you belief you should have.

If your belief system doesn’t support what you want to bring into your life it will not show up. The good news is you have the power within you to change your thoughts which will then change your life.

Change your belief system and take fearless action. That will bring you wealth and prosperity. Wealth is a broad term and to some it mean acquiring a lot of money, others its joy and happiness in their lives. Wealth can represent optimal health. Be specific when asking for what you want to come into your life.

Limiting thoughts and not taking action are the two main issues that stand in the way of us manifesting our dreams. The universe wants abundance and prosperity for everyone. The laws of attraction are the energy fields to bring it to you. You have to be clear with your thoughts and beliefs to make it happen.

The Mind & Thoughts

Your mind (the psychological realm) and your body (the physical realm) exert an influence upon each other. This is known as the Body-Mind connection. The psychological realm relates to your thoughts, emotions and memories. The physical realm relates to your organs, bones, nerves, muscles, glands etc.

Thoughts and Beliefs

Whilst genetics and the environment affect your thoughts it is your belief system that determines how you respond to events and situations and the decisions you make. Many people associate the word ‘beliefs’ with religion, but the term beliefs encompasses all the various views and opinions that people hold towards any of the subjects about life that exist.

Every perception that a person holds is determined by a belief and every response a person makes to a situation is also governed by that person’s current beliefs. Your beliefs get changed when you receive enough new data to give you reasons why you should take on that new belief. Your mind uses its current belief system to interpret and assess the event it is encountering and then it finds possible appropriate responses and puts these into action to respond to what it believes best suits the situation.

We often judge our response to an event as right or wrong however, we simply made the decision according to the information/beliefs we held at the time. You could not have made a different decision because the response was only a result of the information you had at the time. You can later learn from this situation. With the new information which was gained you will then be able to make a different decision next time. This is all part of the way we learn and how we change our beliefs.

Generally, we have some beliefs which hold greater importance than others. For example we may believe that our children’s’ wellbeing is most important. If our children are well we feel okay to go out however if our children are sick we prioritize by staying home. What actually causes us stress is when two beliefs hold equal value within our belief system, e.g., you are faced with the decision about spending Christmas with your family or your partner’s family. So let’s examine what is actually causing the stress and the unhappiness.

Causes of the stress/unhappiness:

1. The fear of making the wrong decision.

2. The ‘should’ statement, i.e., ‘I should know what to do!

3. The expectation (from yourself and others) to make the right decision.

If you can understand that there is no right or wrong decision, this will alleviate some of the stress. You make the best decision you can with the current information you have. If another party reacts to the decision it is simply an indication they need to look at their own beliefs.

‘Should’ statements inevitably cause psychological stress as they imply we must be doing something or must know what to do. If you accept that you learn new information as a result of whatever you experience from your decision, it does not matter whether or not you know what you ‘should’ do because you will learn from the outcome of your decision regardless of what the outcome is. This way you reduce the stress of the decision making process.

Everyone around us is at different levels of development and we only grow and develop through experiences. Every person on this planet is both a teacher and a pupil. We are constantly learning from others and they in turn learn from us. My favorite saying is: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

The beliefs you hold are a product of the events you have already encountered or observed in life including beliefs obtained through your upbringing. Your beliefs are responsible for your actions and your psychological stress.

Your belief system can not only cause psychological stress but it can also contribute to physical stress on your body. Knowing which thoughts/beliefs are in harmony with a healthy functional physical body and which thoughts/beliefs contribute to physical disease is helpful in creating a healthy physiology. Beliefs are all of your opinions, views, values, and attitudes that you hold as to how factors in life need to be. Some of your beliefs are conscious, i.e., you are aware of them, whilst most are unconscious.

Unconscious beliefs are formed as a result of your interpretation of the world; they are ways of trying to explain the world around you. People take on the attitudes and thought patterns of those around them which then become their unconscious beliefs.

We establish our beliefs as very little children and then we move through life creating experiences to match our beliefs. A belief system can be what an individual is willing to accept without direct verification by experience or without supporting evidence.

How did you become unhappy? By continuing with the same thoughts and ideas, which led to the same feelings/emotions, you produced the same actions which led to the same unfulfilling life (results).

The simple diagram below shows how you will achieve the same results if you keep thinking the same thoughts. So changing your thoughts is the first step to changing the results!

Thoughts → Emotions → Actions → Results

Understanding the body-mind relationship is the key to optimal health and happiness. If you continue to replay the same negative thoughts and feelings that have burdened you for years you will continue to have the same physiology and life situations. This means your thoughts can actually create unpleasant feelings and even cause physical illness in the body.

The first step to make positive change in your life is to take action by reading the book FEELING FAB.

For more info on this go to http://www.feelingfabforever.com and get the book FEELING FAB.

Author Yasmin Bartlett