-- A Healthy Balanced You --
Energy Healing • Emotional Freedom Techniques • The LIFE System

The Power of the Mind

By Phyllis Winslow

Red hot coals glisten in the cool of the night. After two hours of listening to Tony Robbins people chant something like, "Green moss, Green moss, Green moss," and walk across the searing coals without a burn. Uri Geller holds a spoon between his fingers. In his mind he intends for the stainless steel matrix to change. Suddenly the spoon handle bends and droops. When someone goes to touch it, the spoon is hard and won't bend.

The power of the mind is awesome. We used to think that walking on red hot coals was something only a native shaman, who had studied for years, could accomplish, but Tony Robins has led many ordinary people through this experience. Not only Tony Robins and Uri Geller are capable of these acts, but you and I. With very soft, delicate feet I've never had the courage to try walking on coals, but I have experienced a spoon bending between my fingers.

Three years before I moved to Tucson, a client of mine had been on a business trip to the southwest. He brought back a brochure of a beautiful hotel where he had stayed, that I remembered as being somewhere "near Phoenix". I loved the photograph on the front cover of the brochure, so he gave it to me. It showed purple-gray mountains silhouetted against a cloudless blue sky and adobe-colored buildings. A large turquoise blue swimming pool completed the picture. Turquoise blue and soft pastel red-orange are two of my favorite colors, so I left the picture propped up next to my computer. I had always thought the climate of a resort area would be a perfect place to live and work.

The picture stayed at the periphery of my subconscious mind as I viewed it almost daily. Becoming increasingly restless to leave New York City, I started looking into places to move. First I explored the possibility of moving to the northwest, then Virginia. And then a series of coincidences happened that all pointed to Tucson. "Near Phoenix" turned out to be Tucson. I discovered that the picture I had been looking at for three years was the Westin La Paloma.

I said to myself, "If I find a job, I will come." As a licensed massage therapist I called several resorts for a job interview, booked a bread and breakfast, and flew to Tucson for a week. My first interview was at the Westin, and I was hired! I had been staring at the photograph for three years and suddenly I would be working there. The power of the mind is indeed extraordinary. Had the photo created the position, or had I known at some level of my being that I would at some time be moving to Tucson?

Had I manifested my move? Have you ever listened to a tape on manifesting in which you visualize your goal and it happens? A woman I know visualized a particular house and in two years it was hers. How many times have you manifested something by thinking about it many times? You may have had positive thoughts, such as thoughts of a beautiful new red truck, and you get a beautiful new red truck. You may have had negative thoughts, such as, "I really don't feel comfortable at this job. I don't like it here." And circumstances ended up so that you were fired or "something" happened that caused you to leave. There is a power of the mind; a power of thought, a power of visualization.

Is there something in your life you would like to change? Once you alter the way you think about something or your perception of yourself, your future will change. For example, we may be afraid to do something. In fact, there may be a very credible reason why we do not act. However, our fears may keep us from taking a risk and moving ahead. Some of our fears may be subconscious and some of them may be real. You may be asking yourself why you never meet the "right" person. Perhaps you don't make the choice to be more social and go out, or you may not take the risk of putting an ad in the personals. At an unconscious level you may think that no one would be interested in you anyway, so, therefore, why should I go out and make an attempt to meet anyone.

Perhaps you think that you are unattractive and that no one will ever find you attractive enough to ask you out. When you think yourself to be "unattractive," what you project is that you are "unattractive." When you think that you are "stupid," you project that you are "stupid." As a result people will think that you are unattractive or stupid. If you believe that you are "beautiful, compelling, and irresistible," people will believe you are "beautiful, compelling, and irresistible." What you think about yourself is how people see you.

Have you ever noticed that the people who seem to be surrounded by other people are the ones who don't really care whether they meet someone or not. They are content within. Because of their inner fulfillment, they don't need other people. On the other hand, people who are looking to be in a relationship and feel they need a relationship for fulfillment project out their need for a relationship, or their need to be around people. They have difficulty being alone. When you are around these people you feel their neediness, and you find your energy drained. Contrary to what they want, to be with people, they experience people avoiding them. In their mind they feel like they need people, and subconsciously people respond negatively to their neediness by going away.

We are always affected by our childhood. Remarks that we heard as children such as, "You never do anything right." are often imbedded in our subconscious minds and become limiting beliefs. You may have an inferiority complex because you heard, "You'll never be as smart as your brother." or "You'll never be good at math." You may have low self-esteem because you heard, "You're never going to be able to get a good job." or "You are never going to make anything of yourself." You may have trouble losing weight because you heard, "You'll always be fat." or "Your sister is the attractive one." The impact of these demeaning statements can stay with you all of your life. However, being a failure at the age of four does not ensure that you are going to be a failure for the rest of your life. Being humiliated when you were six does not mean that you can not find yourself with good self-esteem at age sixteen or sixty.

Your thoughts affect your reality. To maximize your potential, start by becoming more aware of your thoughts. Catch yourself when you are belittling yourself, or when you are beating yourself up for not achieving certain things. Make an effort to change your thoughts. When you become aware that you are thinking negative thoughts, stop thinking these thoughts. Then change them or release them. For example, you can change the thought "I am not attractive" to "I am attractive," and the thought "I don't deserve to be successful" to "I deserve to be successful." Or you may want to release them with by saying something like, "I release all thoughts of my not having enough money into the light of the Christ, and ask for guidance on my path."

It is important to become aware of your thoughts, and become responsible for those thoughts you are thinking. Be aware that you are building a huge thought form of negativity around you when you think negative thoughts, and you may even be attracting what you don't want. The positive thoughts of prayer or affirmations build positive thought forms around you which will attract positive situations. Affirmations do work, but you do have to keep saying them to balance and overcome any negative thoughts you may have been having.

It is important to be aware when your thoughts are negative and when they are positive. When you find yourself with negative thoughts, take the time to think about what these thoughts would be like were they positive. Then say or affirm the positive thoughts to yourself, or simply release the negative thoughts. Think about how you can change your internal dialogue. How can you say something differently to yourself? Replace the belittling, fear-ridden thoughts of , "I can't do that." or "It is useless to try, I'll never make any money." to thoughts of "I'm good at what I do. I deserve to make a lot of money." and "I deserve to be treated well."

You will find that when you change your beliefs, or change your attitude, that your life will change. Healing takes place when we actively initiate change or when we change our thoughts and let things happen. Forgive rather than holding resentment and anger. Accept what is, and then let things be. Two of the most widely read books of this century are Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" and Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich."

Listen to your true inner self. It knows you are okay and capable. It knows that you are unique and that you have a specialness that is unique on this planet. No one is like you, and you have something special and unique to offer to other people on the planet. Be who you are. Listen to your inner guidance. Believe you are wonderful, loving, smart and successful. Live knowing that everything will be okay. Trust in a power higher than yourself.