Centering Techniques: To bring yourself back to a place of Balanace and Harmony

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. Pgs 77-86.

So here you are, a blob of negativity. How do you even begin to turn around those miserable thoughts that take away your power? You being by doing the same thing you would do if your body was out of shape. You create an exercise program-in this case, to retrain your mind. To do so, you must take action.

Before giving you a suggest action plan, I recommend the following six tools to make your routine more efficient and certainly more pleasureable:

1. An iPod or MP3 player.
2. Inspirational tapes. Some a listed in the back of this book. If you don't have a local store offering these or similar tapes, send away to the companies listed for their catalogs. Once you realise the benefits you'll recieved from these taped messages, you will take joy in building an extensive tape library.
3. Inspiration books. Library books are not recommended, since you will want to write in the books and reread them over and over again. You will want to 'own' these books in every sense of the word. My own library is growing so fast that I keep having to add new bookshelves. But whats an incredible support system to have ready at all times! You might feel that buying these and the other things will be a costly proposition-you're right. Yet I can't think of a better investment to make. If money is a problem, start slowly. I have friends who trade tapes and books to keep costs down.
   
   The important thing is: BEGIN!
4. Index Cards
5. Positive quotes. Find those that really touch you in some way. Some very effective quotes for me are:
   
   'Ships in harbor are safe, but thats not wat ships are built for.' - John Shedd
   'The best way out is always through.'-Helen Keller
   'I'm not a failure if I don't make it... I;'m a succedss because I tried.' - Unknown
   'Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening.' - Gertrude Stein
   
   And how about:
   
   'Fell the Fear...And Do It Anyway'
   
   Write each quote on an individual index card. Then put them all over the place-on your mirrors, your desk, the refridgeratior door, in your car, your diary, and so on. You may want to put one quote that really ‘speaks’ to your on many cards, so that wherever you tuirn, its there as a reminder.
   
   If you are artistic, make a decorative poster wioth your quotes to hang on the wall. Or buy one of those wonderful posters with inspirational sayings on them and use it to decorate yout wall.
   
   You will find your quotes will change often as you move ahead in your life. Different ideas are meaning ful at different times. Just keep changing the quotes. Be creative; try to bring some lightness to the task. As humourist Jan Marshall said, ‘Not a shred of evidence esits that life is serious!’ Go overboard and be outrageous until friends ask you whats going on. Really have fun with this.
6. Affirmations. An affirmation is self-talk in its highest form. Remember the power of self-talk in the arm experiment? Affirmations are your greatest tool, and the easiest and cheapest to use.
   
   What exactly is an affirmation? An affirmation is a positive statement that something is already happening. Its not happening tomorrow or in the future, but right now. Here are a few:
   
   I am breaking through old patterns and moving forward with my life.
   I am now creating the perfect relationship.
   I am finding the perfect job.
   I am now handling all my fear.
   I am creating everything I want, easily and effortlessly.
   My world is filled with abundance.
   I am now creating a healthy radiant body.
   I am filling my life with peace and joy.
   I allow my mind to relax and let go.
   
   These are just a few to get you started.
   
   There are some things to remember about affirmations:
   
   Always state affirmations in the present.
   Wrong: I will handle my fears.
   Right: I am now handling my fears.
   
   Always phrase affirmations in the positive, rather than the negative:
   Wrong: I am no longer putting myself down.
   Right: I am becoming more confident every day.
   
   Select affirmations that feel right to you at any given time.  What feels right changes as your situation and mood changes.
   
   Now what do you do with all of these tools? I will illustrate by going through a typical day, putting these positive thinking tools to use. The whole point of the program can be summed up in three words: OUTTALK YOUR NEGATIVITY. And, as you probably already know, this is a challenge.
   
   That internal Chatterbox has incredible staying power. It will resist in everyway it can in order to maintain its power over you. Once you have that little voice under control, you’ve got it made. At that point, positive thinking will become more automatic, so that just a few daily reminders will suffice to keep you uplifted. But in the beginning it’s got to be full speed ahead! So let’s go through your first day of outtalking your Chatterbox.