thoughts Archives - Lightwords - Life Coaching, Healing, Wellness

11 Oct

Words Of Inspiration

louis-hay-quote-1-words

Sometimes all it takes is a few words, an inspiring statement that has the power to change our perspective and improve our mood.

One of my favourite authors, Louise Hay, celebrated her 90^th birthday this month. She is ‘the queen’ of affirmations—positive statements—and for decades her words have inspired people to improve their thoughts in more loving ways.

This month, I’ve decided to share some of Louise’s words, affirmations and one-liners that promote positive change. I believe in word-power and the magic they perform in helping us to lift our moods and mind!

Here are some of my favourite words from Louise, ones that have guided me over the years…

Thoughts

The thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives.

Just because you believe something doesn’t mean it’s true.

You are not a helpless victim of your own thoughts, but rather a master of your own mind.

Stop scaring yourself with your thoughts.

Set yourself free from other people’s opinions.

When you’re having a tough day, reach for a good thought.

You are the only person who thinks in your mind! You are the power and authority in your world.

I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves.

The past

Learn from the past and let it go. Live in today.

The past is over and done and cannot be changed. This is the only moment we can experience.

Love

Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.

Allow the world to love and accept you.

Gratitude

The more grateful you are, the more you get to be grateful about. It’s that simple.

Self-worth / self–love

You will be with you longer than anyone else on the planet so make it a good relationship. (I really enjoy this one!).

Healing

To support the body in healing, we must believe we are worthy of being healed.

Your mind is a tool you can choose to use any way you wish.

Inner-spirit

We are far more than our bodies and personalities. The inner spirit is always beautiful and lovable, no matter how our outer appearances may change.

Aging

Know that you are the perfect age. Each year is special and precious, for you shall only live it once. Be comfortable with growing older.

Power-words / Affirmations

I am in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

Each day is a new opportunity. I chose to make this day a great one.

All is well. Everything is working out for my highest good. Out of this situation only good will come. I am safe.

I am willing to release the need to be unworthy. I am worthy of the very best in life and I now lovingly allow myself to accept it.

Call to Action

Print this list and keep it handy. Then, the next time you are feeling out of sorts, you will have a list of positive statements that have the potential to help you.

And, if you have a favourite saying of Louise Hay, contact me and I’ll post it on my website so others can benefit from her words too!

This Month’s Video

In this 10 minute video Louise Hay talks about how words and thoughts create our future. It’s a great to listen to so grab a cuppa, sit back (with your headphones on if you wish) and enjoy!

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09 May

Good Food For A Healthy Mind!

Have you ever thought about the food that you feed your mind daily; food in the form of thoughts? Peaceful, happy and kind thoughts are excellent food sources for a healthy mind and research shows ingesting these thoughts daily has a positive effect on our health.

Unfortunately, many of our daily thoughts are unhealthy—with stress and worry forming the main source of our diet. Whilst it’s difficult to eradicate troublesome thoughts altogether, it is possible minimise them.

Here’s how: Firstly, consider that every thought you think feeds your mind—so, in order to feed it well, a balanced diet is needed.

Each day:

Increase positive expressions as you converse with people. For example, thank people more often for the help and the services they provide. Gratitude is a healthy food source.

Reduce the habit of complaining and blaming. Both are energy-depleting. Also, reduce negative influences that keep your thoughts focused on ‘life’s dramas’ – media news is an example. If your senses are constantly bombarded by negative information, it is more difficult to generate positive thoughts.

Introduce positive statements into your diet such as, “Today I will worry less.” “Today I enjoy being happy.” “I feel good about myself today.”

Add supplements such as joy and laughter to your day. These essential tonics generate happier thoughts.

Assess all of the kindhearted actions that you engaged in throughout the day. Recalling them to mind generates both good thoughts and feelings.

If you catch yourself in ‘worry mode’, here’s a little trick: Liken ‘stressful thoughts’ to ‘fat’ in a diet. As with too much fat, too many worries will clog your system and weigh you down!

To stay in great shape, pay attention to the food you feed both your body and mind. Ensure kind-hearted thoughts are part of your daily diet!

Here is a fun video clip that that provides positive food for the mind! Enjoy.

01 Sep

Master Your Mind

Our mind is powerful. What we think and how we think affects our health and state of wellbeing.

Thoughts that come and go, like passing clouds, have little effect on our body. Thoughts that we repeatedly stew over—worry about and can’t let go—lower our mood and vitality.

Take charge

It’s not always easy to maintain a calm and healthy mind but a step that can improve the quality of your thoughts is to tell your mind … “I want to take charge of the way I think!”

Most of us don’t do this. We simply give our mind ‘free reign,’ allowing it to generate thoughts about ‘whatever’ and ‘whenever’ it wants. Consequently, throughout the day, our thoughts roam all over the place often focusing on the negative aspects of our lives.

Our mind needs direction; it needs watching and guidance. Good management skills help to maintain a healthy mind and these skills need to be engaged frequently and consistently.

Good mind-management includes:

Telling your mind how you prefer to think: positively.

Directing your mind so that your thoughts mainly focus on what is happening in the present moment—as opposed to the past and future.

Initiating ‘peace’ moments—creating downtime from the mental stresses of the day.

Listening to your thoughts and, when you catch them wandering off track, taking action that lifts your thinking.

Support yourself

In order to take charge of your thoughts and keep them headed in the right direction, apply the following practices:

Imagery techniques that support and promote positive thoughts and feelings.

Draw on your creative mind and visualise scenes that are positive. Here is an example of a visualisation that can assist to let go of worry …

Imagine yourself standing next to a gentle flowing stream. As you admire the beautiful scenery around you, gather all of the troublesome thoughts and feelings that you have been holding in your heart and mind—gather them into a ball. Now place the ball into the gentle stream and watch it drift away … slowly … slowly disappearing.

Now see a majestic bird soar and glide over the stream. Watch the bird flying gracefully above you and, as you do, feel the freedom—the feelings of peace that envelop you.

Each time you catch yourself in worry mode think of the above image or, alternatively, create your own. Imagery is a powerful way to release and transform negative thoughts into positive ones.

Spiritual practices that bring peace to your life and improve your sense of wellbeing.

When our soul is nourished our mind feels calm and peaceful. Practices such as meditation, mindfulness, reading spiritual material, listening to uplifting hymns or songs, guidance through inspirational cards—all support our goal of maintaining a positive frame of mind.

Service activities.

Sometimes the fastest way to shift and lift our moods is to reach out and help someone else. The joy derived from helping another raises our heart and lifts our mind!

Take the challenge

Limit the time you spend worrying each day by choosing to be in charge of your thoughts.

You are the master of your mind and you can choose to think positive, life-affirming thoughts.

One thing is true … if you don’t take charge of the thoughts that occupy your mind, the thoughts will take charge of you!

23 Jun

Mindful Thoughts

I’ve had a busy time over the past two weeks, studying and attending a nine-day course in Melbourne, which enabled me to complete my advanced diploma in hypnotherapy. Consequently, my time has been limited, so I thought that it may be opportune to re-visit a blog which I wrote last year on being mindful of our thoughts. Here is the article….

“It’s time to think about what you think about!”

We are all well aware of the benefits of positive thinking to our wellbeing.

It’s easy to be positive when we are feeling well and when things are going smoothly in our life but what about those times when they’re not. What can we do to recover that well feeling again?

Each time you catch yourself over-thinking, stressed by worrying or anxious thoughts, put the following stop-caution-go formula into action. It will re-train your brain and lift you back to feeling brighter – sooner.

Stop: When negative thoughts take over, imagine that you have a red emergency stop button in front of you. See yourself forcibly pushing the button and as you do, mentally say the word ‘STOP’.

This visualisation rapidly halts the habit of rehashing adverse thoughts.

Caution: Ask yourself if the repetitive and troublesome thoughts are helpful to your wellbeing. Do they improve your health? Do they make you feel good?

Reminding ourselves of the effects that negative thinking has on our body is an effective way of preventing further self-harm.

Go: Take action by engaging in positive activities that redirect your focus of attention. For example, listen to good music or an uplifting podcast; read words of inspiration; engage in physical exercise.

Taking action helps shift negative thought patterns.

To easily recall the 3 step formula simply think of a set of traffic lights – Stop; Caution; Go.

This imagery will reinforce the steps and prompt you to improve the thoughts that occupy your mind. Being aware of our thoughts and being persistent in reducing those that are not beneficial to our health is important to our wellbeing.

In the words of Dale Carnegie, “It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”

02 Dec

Judge Less And Love More

Recently, I was feeling out of sorts. When I took stock of ‘why’ I was feeling this way, I discovered that my ‘mind-chatter’ was forming opinions and judgements about myself and others. For a few days, my mind stayed off track but thankfully White Eagle—a magnificent, illumined spiritual teacher on the other side of life—came to my rescue.

My husband, Tim, was the medium through which the message from White Eagle was conveyed. Tim received the message during one of our group meditations. The words were timely for they reminded me that our purpose in life is not to judge others; it is simply to love.

Here is part of the message that Tim received from White Eagle on Sunday 5^th October, 2014. I found it extremely helpful and I hope that you do too.

“…Whenever you come to form judgements—opinions of others—please try and remember these words, dear friends, and instead of forming opinions and judgements, just project love. Speak to Divine Love and ask that that person, that spirit, because afterall it is that they are spirit, ask Divine Love to enshroud, enfold that spirit with love. Imbue them with the understanding of perfect love and allow them to see that whatever they are doing, which is not appropriate, that they should desist and not proceed.

And you might think that in speaking these words to you that White Eagle and White Brotherhood are out-of-touch with some of the events of your world which are reported daily in your newspapers and so on. Dear friends, these events have occurred since man first walked the earth as a conscious being. It is the function of the earth to provide the learning ground for spirits to come to realise that violence towards others is not correct and this violence can take the form of physical violence, it can take the form of violence with your mind by projecting thoughts of hate or dislike.

The word ‘hate,’ should we say, should be considered to be one of the ‘four-letter’ words of your language, which you should not use. It is most undesirable to hate. It is most desirable to love. Is it not interesting that both words contain the same number of letters, yet they are opposites? And this is the world. On one hand you have hate, on the other hand you have love and then there is a necessity for them to balance. It is better that they balance when they are close together so that hate can be absorbed by love, so that in the end, only love exists.

Beloved friends, forgive us for appearing to preach to you but these are the truths of the universe. This is the essence of life—is just to give love. And whatever you perceive to be wrong, whatever you see as wrong in the way people act or speak, just give love. If you do not agree with their religious philosophy, just give love. If you do not agree with their actions, just give love. There is no other pathway but to give love because in giving love, you draw yourselves into the same vibration as Divine Love itself and from the time that you love unconditionally, you become Divine Love. You are divine for all of that time.

Dearest friends, we understand the difficulties of the physical life. We understand that in taking on the physical body and the ego that goes with it, that it is necessary that you should live your life in the way you do. Try and temper all that happens in your life by reflecting upon these words.”

Beautiful isn’t it? If you enjoyed White Eagle’s message, let me know, for I am happy to share more messages from White Eagle through this blog. As always, I look forward to your comments.

24 Jun

3 Tips To Keep Your Thoughts In The Present Moment

“The journey of life covers many terrains; some pleasing, some not.

Dear Ones, we ask that you focus on each day of your journey as the day where you hold your mental attention. Tomorrow’s terrain is unknown; yesterday’s you’ve covered so today is the day of importance. This is the day when you can appreciate all that you are experiencing.

We remind you that in the physical world you can only live one day at a time. Enjoy today. It is precious. It is a day where you can bring out the best strength of character within you.

Often we remind you to focus on living in the present moment. For mental health we always encourage you to place your thoughts in the blessings of today.”

I shared the above quote from Spirit* with readers in September last year and thought it timely to revisit it again.

More often than not, our mind is consumed by thoughts of the past and the future – so much so that we miss the joy of living today.

The following are three techniques that can help keep your thoughts more present-focused. The first two points are based on the work of Eckhart Tolle, a well-known modern day author who teaches how to live in the now. The third point is one which I like to include in Tolle’s work because it helps to develop joyful feelings and it ensures that we draw the best out of each day.

Surrender

Being able to observe your thoughts and surrender them – as opposed to getting caught up in them, is a great technique. Applying this practice reduces the emotional charge that you attach to your thoughts. This means that you should not resist your thoughts – you should not judge, get attached to – or grade your thoughts as being positive or negative. Instead, allow the thoughts to come into your mind and like the ebb and flow of a tide, watch them come … and go.

I use an affirmation which you might find helpful in assisting you to surrender your thoughts daily. “Today, I surrender the thoughts that pass through my mind.” This simple mantra has an instant calming effect and it shifts us away from mind chatter that often prevents us from making the most of the day.

Attention

A great way of stopping mental chatter is to pay attention to each event that occurs in your life—regardless of how mundane or trivial it may be. Whether you are showering, dressing, eating, or working, focus on the task at hand. As you cultivate the practice of paying attention to the now, you will cultivate the ability to stay in the present moment.

Join this practice with the following step.

Gratitude

As you hold your attention on whatever you’re doing right now, create thoughts of gratitude for the experience that is yours right now. Using the examples listed in the previous paragraph, hold appreciative feelings for your body and the water that is cleaning it. Feel gratitude for being well enough to dress yourself. Be grateful for having delicious, nourishing food on your plate and for the skills that you’ve acquired which enable you to work usefully and effectively.

Counting our blessings is a great way to draw the best from each day!

When we take one day at a time, we are more able to savour and enjoy the many blessings of each day. Follow the above three steps and you will be on the way to holding your attention more in the present moment.

If you are interested in learning how to live more in the now, visit Eckhart Tolle’s website

As always, I look forward to hearing from you.

Spirit*: I received this inspirational message from Spirit through the process of automatic writing.