Believe in yourself and visualize your goals to see how small your problems are

Hello Readers ! Welcome back to my blog ! Today I would like to give you the same discussion just like my previous post, I'm going to to continue my book summaries or highlights of 'The Power of Positive Thinking'. I'm going to review the eighth chapter until twelve chapter. So, stick around to my reflection.

Chapter 8: I Don’t Believe In Defeat

 

    Peale informs us in this chapter that sometimes all that is required of us is that we simply just stand up to our obstacles. He tells us that if we stand up to them and let them break over us (so to speak) we will have destroyed them. This will leave the path ahead to our goal quite clear.

    Even the very words we say can impact our attitude towards our self and what we believe we can accomplish. For example, “I’m probably going to be late”, stated in general conversation enough times on a regular basis will more than likely cause we to be late to a lot of our engagements.

    Obstacles are more or less mental. Peale tells us that it is true that there may be real obstacles in our life. But he also says here that because we have to mentally process them it is your attitude combine with faith that determines whether or not they stay permanent.

Chapter 9: How To Break The Worry Habit

 

    Worry will certainly shorten our lives if we are in a constant state of it. Medical professionals are well aware of this fact. It causes more than just failure after failure in the lives of many who seem to be unable to let go of their fears and ill will towards others. It also can be traced right down to the source of physical ailments and disease.

    Peale tells us that the best way to live longer is to learn to stay calm, go to church and eliminate worry. He suggests that couples live longer than single people because when you are a couple the worry is divided but when you are single you are trying to manage it alone. Other factors that seem to contribute to living longer are things like getting to bed early and being early to rise, having a serene mind, getting a lot of fun out of life, doing all things in moderation, keeping busy, having faith in God plus eating lightly and simply.

    The first step to breaking the worry habit is pretty simple. This is according to Peale, anyway. Believe that you can! Other steps to breaking the worry habit include practicing emptying your mind before you go to sleep. This is so that you don’t have your mind embedding your worries and fears more deeply into your subconscious. That impedes mental and spiritual flow. The last five minutes before falling asleep are said to be the most critical. During that time the thoughts you have will be carried into the subconscious. The thoughts you have in your mind during that time will solidify their power over you as you drift off if you allow them to persist.

    Peale recognizes that we all won’t just stamp out all thoughts of worry and fear so easily. So he suggests starting with the little worries and fears first. Remove the little stuff first by positive affirmation. If you take care of the little stuff first this will give you enough practice to handle the removal of the bigger worries and fears.

    For example; if you currently think “I’m going to be late for the bus” replace that with the positive thought, “I’ll leave early enough to catch the bus on time!”

    It is advised here that if you want to stay worry-free that you do your best to avoid worry-based conversations. If you find yourself stuck in one, than inject positive thoughts and ideas into the conversation. Turn it into something more positive!

Chapter 10: Power To Solve Personal Problems

 

    In this chapter this is exactly what Peale suggests that we do. Look at the Lord your God or Higher Power as being with you always in the same way that you would see your husband, wife, family, friends and even business associates as being with you!

That’s right! You did just read that!

    Talk to your Higher Power or God in the same manner about the things going on in your life as you would to a friend, business associate or life partner. Hey, don’t knock it until you try it! You just might find out that it can work!

    Of course, as you talk to God you have to have faith that God is hearing your words and that he will respond in some way. Your faith should be such in using this method that you expect a response even if it is simply through ideas for a solution coming into your own mind. Otherwise, it is more than likely not going to work.

    You don’t have to be the only one talking to God. In certain situations you may wish to do this as part of a group. This can actually have more powerful effects under certain circumstances, if the situation affects all of you. But none of this will work unless you believe it will. Part of getting divine intervention is being able to believe that it exists!

    If you believe that every problem has a solution you can stay calm and relaxed mentally and physically regardless of the situation. How does this work? If you’ve never done this before Peale tells us that the process basically goes like this.

    Impartially assemble all the facts about a situation or problem you are experiencing. Take care to write down the facts on paper to clarify what they are. Pray about the problem or situation you are experiencing. Believe in and seek God’s guidance. Trust your intuition. Do all this with an attitude of faith and the final solution is yours to experience!

Chapter 11: How To Use Faith In Healing

 

    Peale points out that since religion deals with how one feels and the thoughts they have, it is only natural to assume that religion and health should be closely related. Does the phrase, “mind-body connection” have any particular meaning to you? If it does than we are in luck because that’s a pretty big part of what we are talking about right here!

    Harboring feelings of hate and bitterness can have a serious impact on your health. This can lead to some serious medical complications and issues that cannot be corrected by medical science alone. However, Peale talks about instances where folks made the decision to let go of their feelings of hate, bitterness and anger. They replaced them with feelings and thoughts of forgiveness along with understanding and their conditions improved dramatically. Yes, they healed because they did this!

    Some doctors have already come to understand that a lot of their patients do not need medication to heal their body but do need to change the way they think in their minds. He tells us that there is evidence to suggest that high blood pressure is actually caused by a person’s fear of the future. According to Peale; there is also evidence to suggest that diabetes is caused by a person’s inability to let go of the disappointments of the past, along with the past itself.

    If it is the plan of God that a person shall continue to live than the formula of medical, psychological and spiritual administrations together will prove to be highly effective. We’re all going to have to leave this place called Earth sooner or later. Someone’s time here may come to an end whether we are ready for them to go or not.

    Factors present that seem to bring about healing for many people who have experienced it through faith are; A willingness to surrender themselves completely to their God or Higher Power, a desire to be cleansed in their soul of all errors, faith in modern medical science plus the healing power of God, a willingness to accept the final decision of their Higher Power or God without any anger or resentment of God’s will and a unquestioning faith that God can heal them. These people who have experienced a healing through faith have reported a sense that a positive physical change occurred within them and described feelings of warmth, joy, beauty, plus a sense of release or light passing through them to accompany this sense of having been healed.

    It is important to pray not only for ourselves, or perhaps even a loved one we wish to be healed with all of our heart, but for the physician providing care for us or our loved one. Why? Because God works through them on our behalf, too! From this we can easily conclude that God, or Universal Higher Power, can work through other people to bring you answers to questions, help when you need it and even healing, in part or full.

Chapter 12: When Vitality Sags Try This Health Formula

 

    Peale explains to us that these things are a result of holding on to negative feelings of ill will or even guilt over misdeeds we’ve performed. He tells us that the only real solution is to be honest with our self about what it is that we are really feeling and to cast the negative stuff out. He tells us to ask God, or Our Higher Power, for assistance and even forgiveness if you feel you need it during this process of letting the negative thoughts and feelings you are harboring go.

    Peale offers some really good recommendations about how to manage anger. He explains the physiological symptoms that can happen when we become angry – the tensing of the body, hands curling into fists, the raised tones of voice and the adrenalin that shoots through our body. Yup, even in modern times the good old caveman survival tool of fight or flight kicks in!

    To counter balance anger our action must be deliberate. He didn’t say it would be easy. However, he contends that if we make it a point to keep your fingers extended, our tone lowered to a whisper (if need be) and your overall body relaxed than you can maintain control over your anger, minimizing the negative physiological side effects. Also, telling our self that it is pointless to get angry and to skip it can contribute to our being able to override the emotion of anger, especially if we tell our self these things out loud, too.

    Counting to ten works for some folks. Saying out loud the first ten words of the Lord’s Prayer may prove more effective for others. Holding a mental image of someone we know who never gets angry no matter what and trying to picture that individual as being angry may work best for others. Because we’ve never seen that person angry we won’t be able to picture it. This in turn can put the brakes on our own feelings of anger.

    Writing a list down of everything that irritates we can help to control our anger. We can then take each item on the list and pray or meditate on it so as to neutralize the item so it is no longer an irritation to us. He explains that we will have better chances of controlling our anger if we pick away at it a little at a time.

    Take time during the day to affirm to our self that anger is not worth the damage that it does to our self. He is not saying that, if a problem arises not to do something about it. He is suggesting that the resolution to a problem or conflict is far more achievable from a position of calm objectiveness rather than one of anger.

    Also, when problems arise, do something about them! Peale tells us that if we do not take swift action to resolve the problem we face than it will cost us more emotionally and physically than it is worth because it is on our minds for longer than it needs to be.