First, let’s dispense with a few myths. Many men and women, particularly think that they have to look beautiful or own something to feel wonderful. Others think they have to be wealthy and or powerful to feel wonderful. These ideas are partially the result of savvy advertisers that promote this ideology to sell products.
How the Ad man scores a homer.
Think about how this happens. If you are a guy, an advertiser shows you a beautiful woman hanging on the arm of an awesome looking guy getting into a car that’s being promoted. The idea is you’ll somehow be wealthy, powerful and awesome looking if you spend the money on the car.
The cosmetic industry has capitalized on the exact same concept. They show an ad with a beautiful woman promoting a cosmetic or personal care product. They are telling you on the idea that you too will be beautiful and consequently happy if you will only buy the product they are promoting.
The sad fact is that this tactic works. We buy the cars and spend too much money on the cosmetics. Unfortunately, the wonderful feeling we have when we spend our money on the product disappears almost as quickly as the money in our bank account.
What’s feeling wonderful really about?
Now that we’ve identified what feeling wonderful isn’t, let’s see what it is. It’s really about health and well-being.
Yeah, yeah I know. You’ve heard all about the health part a zillion times. Get plenty of exercise and sleep and eat lots of fruits and veggies (preferably organic). So, we’re not going to discuss that. What we’re going to discuss is the well-being part.
Imagine this. You wake up every morning excited for the day to begin. If this isn’t how you wake up, what you can do to make it happen? It’s simple, tweak your thinking habits. How do you change your thinking? In part, by being aware of your thoughts as you go through the day. Be warned, this exercise will make you tired, but it will change your life.
When you wake up in the morning, you will have a thought pop into your head. It might be a neutral thought like; I think I’ll have a glass of orange juice instead of apple juice this morning for breakfast. There is nothing wrong with that one, but what if the first thought is; I really hate my job and wish I could find something different. Maybe it’s about a financial difficulty you’re having like: There’s no way I’m going to be able to pay the power bill this month.
It’s important for you to be aware of the thought. Don’t try to change it, simply be aware of it. If you do this for three or four days, your awareness of all the negative thoughts will automatically start to change your thinking habits. I don’t expect you to believe me, but I think if you really give it a try, it will change your life like it did mine.
The Results of my experiment
When I did this exercise, I was amazed at how many negative thoughts made their way into my mind every day. By the simple act of recognizing the negative thoughts, I automatically averted them. Don’t know why. Don’t care. The only thing I know is it worked for me and I believe it can work for you too.
Don’t get me wrong; I still had all the challenges in my life as before, it was the way I dealt with them that changed. By coming from a position of strength rather than weakness, I was better able to see and implement solutions. I learned new ways to deal with specific problems that would crop up.
For instance, when I encountered someone who was irritable with me, I viewed them as temporarily crippled. My previous anger toward them then changed to compassion. I viewed their anger as the result of some misery in their life and felt sorry for them. By looking at it this way, the problem remained theirs instead of becoming mine.
After a few weeks, I noticed that wherever I went, people were attracted to me. I didn’t ask for the attention, it just came. When I walked in a room full of strangers, I would soon have a crowd around me wanting to converse with me. If I went into a store, I would have clerks vying to help me.
I believe it was because my new way of being was perceived as a source of strength and human beings are attracted to people whom they feel are strong.
It’s okay not to be perfect
I have to confess that this transition wasn’t permanent. Occasionally I catch myself slipping back into my old thinking habits. When this happens, life goes back to being not so great. My inner strength is gone and with it my sense of well being. I no longer feel wonderful. Instead, I felt weak and unable to handle the many challenges that life sends my way.
When I slip, I just start over from scratch. And Within a few days, I am back to feeling wonderful every single day again. Give it a try for yourself. I think you will be amazed at the results.
Now go have fun and relax.