Positive energy will bring balance to your life!

It’s 5:30 am and you wake up to your iPhone’s BLARING alarm.

As you jolt out of bed and scramble to silence the devilish sound, you try to remember the last time you had a restful night’s sleep.

You can’t recall. It’s been too long.

After struggling to open your eyes, you finally muster up some energy to trudge your way to the shower.  While stripping down, you happen to catch a glimpse of your naked body in the mirror and instinctively grab at your trouble spots. Your mind becomes swollen with negative and self-deprecating thoughts. You feel unworthy and unlovable unless you have a perfect figure like the models in the magazines. This moment has defined your attitude. For the rest of the day your mind will be bombarded with negative self-talk and “fat thoughts.”

As usual, you’re running late and now you don’t have time to make that healthy, nutritious lunch you were so looking forward too. As you hurry out the door, you see your bus go flying by. Looks like you’re going to be late.

When you finally do make it to the office, you are greeted by an inbox full of angry e-mails, demanding requests from your boss, and endless customer complaints. No one seems to be happy today.

By the time noon rolls around, you have too much work to catch up on, so you either skip your lunch altogether and down an extra-large coffee instead, or chow down on a couple of energy bars and energy drinks at your desk to keep things going. By 5:30 pm, when it’s finally time to head home, you race to the gym to get in a mediocre workout, but you are far too tired to over-exert yourself.  The lack of a nourishing lunch is wearing on you.

Once home from the gym, you scarf down a quick dinner while paying bills online and watching television. Your mind starts to race and panic sets in when you realize rent is due in a couple of days and you are behind on your credit card bills. That night, you fall asleep feeling stressed, anxious, and worried. Tomorrow, you’ll do the same routine over again. No wonder you wake up so tired every morning!

Not too long ago, this was a typical day for me, as I’m sure it is for many. But the important detail is, I’m not willing to allow negative energy define my life anymore and neither should you. Once you turn a blind eye to the negative, your life will immediately begin to improve and change in ways you can only imagine. Trust me!

But first, close your eyes and take a moment to ask yourself these questions:

• Where do your days go?

• What do you spend your time doing?

• When do you take time just for YOU?

• When are you happy?

Chances are, if you find yourself simply going through the motions of your daily routine, without putting much thought or love into anything that you do, you probably can’t find suitable answers to these questions. I’ll even go as far as to say that you’re probably not as happy as you’d like to be.

The good news, however, is that YOU alone have the power to attract happiness, love and satisfaction back into your life. You have the opportunity to turn your life around. I know this probably sounds crazy coming from a normal person like me, especially if everything in your life seems to be out of your control and going so wrong, but there is plenty of research that backs this up!

And it all starts with a little rule called the “Law of Attraction.”

If you have not heard about the Law of Attraction until now, Google it! And if you haven’t read Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret or The Power, or Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s The Power of Intention (or any of his books)…I suggest you do. (Please note: there are many other wonderful books about the Law of Attraction out there, but these were the first books I ever read about it. They had such an amazing impact on my life I’d recommend them to anyone. They will also clarify my explanations further). These quick-to-read books will not only teach you how to benefit from the Law of Attraction, but they will open your eyes and help you understand how to achieve a happy, successful, and fulfilling life step by step.

The concept is simple– everything happening to you, whether it’s positive or negative, is being attracted into your life by YOU alone. This means you have the power to attract only good experiences and diffuse bad ones depending upon the direction of your thoughts.

In short, you can manifest what you desire with positive thoughts!

The easiest time to start employing the Law of Attraction is first thing in the morning. The moment you open your eyes, you have a choice to make. You can face the world with a positive, loving attitude of gratitude, or you can dwell on all the things you lack or wish you could change. When you think positively, you can be certain that positive, happy things will be attracted back into your life, but when you are consumed by negative thoughts about what you don’t have, you can be sure and abundance of negative experiences to match those bad thoughts will come your way.

According to the book The Secret, the proof is based upon the idea that “Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think, those thoughts are set out into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source. And that source is You.”

Now, I’m sure you are thinking this is easier said than done, and I agree! It’s challenging to be happy all the time. Bad things happen and people get upset. The world isn’t perfect and neither are you, but that’s okay! You don’t have to be! You’re human! And because everyone IS human, you can bet you’ll be surrounded by some degree of negativity each and every day whether you like it or not.

You may not love your job, you may feel bad about your body, you may have friends who bring down your mood, you may be worried about money or you may be unhappy in your relationship, but you MUST know…dwelling on what is bad NOW isn’t going to change anything for the better LATER. As explained in The Secret, if you focus on the negative, you are sending out a frequency to the Universe that essentially is asking for more negative situations and feelings to enter you life. On the other hand, choosing to embrace the positive, love life, feel great, and reject the negative will draw more happy situations and events your way. You will know whether the law is working because if you think positively, your reality will reflect your positive thoughts.

You may not be able to control everyone else, but you CAN control how you choose to live your life and react to negative energy and difficult situations thrown in your path. Your thoughts, feelings, and actions will ultimately determine what manifests in your life.  Therefore, you just need to train your mind and make the conscious effort to direct your thoughts and reject your thoughts accordingly.

Something important to keep in mind is that the Law of Attraction doesn’t recognize whether you think of something as good or bad or whether you want it or don’t want it. Author and Law of Attraction Specialist Bob Doyle explains, “It’s [The Law of Attraction is] responding to your thoughts. So if you’re looking at a mountain of debt, feeling terrible about it, that’s the signal you are putting out into the Universe…You’re just affirming it to yourself. You feel it on every level of your being. That’s what you’re going to get more of.”

In the wise words of Buddha, “All that we are is a result of what we have thought.”  This couldn’t explain the Law of Attraction any more perfectly. When you focus on things like your dissatisfaction with your body, job, relationships and money…you are only going to draw more things your way that affirm these frustrations. You will unintentionally remain unhappy with your appearance, work, love life and financial status. Nothing will change. But, when you play a game with yourself and flip your thoughts, the opposite actually happens.

So what are you waiting for? I challenge you to try conquering your negative thoughts today…and then the next day, and the day after that! As soon as a negative thought creeps into you mind, acknowledge it (don’t beat yourself up over it!), and then turn it into something positive or change your train of thought completely and just focus on something you enjoy until you feel good inside. Dream big, dream often, imagine all the things you love and forget about the things you don’t.

Remember…positive thinking is accessible to everyone. It is the key to a happy life, and is the gateway to all of your wildest dreams!

If you’re hungry for a little more “Food for Thought,” check out the health benefits of positive thinking (see below) and more according to this Mayo Clinic article.

Researchers continue to explore the effects of positive thinking and optimism on health. Health benefits that positive thinking may offer include:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress
• Greater resistance to the common cold
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

Healthfully yours,

Ashley Michelle