Every positive thought is a silent prayer which will change your life. Prayers are at the very least meditations. A positive thought is a silent prayer; a negative thought — a silent curse. A single thought can flood your body with emotional stress, or calming relief. Your thoughts have tremendous power over your feelings and perceptions. When we feel powerless in a hostile world we can at least practice quelling the enmity in our minds. Think deliberately. Think carefully. Think purposefully. Think positively. Pray for your own deliverance from your own vicious thoughts. Ask for forgiveness — forgive yourself for the terrible things you have thought about yourself. Ask for the strength to never curse yourself or others again. Your positive thoughts are both the prayer, and the answer to your prayer. Each positive thought is your refuge and your sanctuary, where in that thoughtful moment, you are safe. Begin now with loving thoughts and allow these quiet prayers to transform your life.
When the world is collapsing around you, and everything looks like it is going to hell, remember — *ALL IS WELL*. *All is well* does not mean everything is perfect in the world, it means *all is well* within you. Your state of mind is integral to how you will experience life. When you are negative, corrective, reactive, bitter, vicious and biting — you become a component of a vicious world. When you are nothing but pessimistic you are an enabling force of impossibility. When you are positive you are an enabling force of possibility. *All is well* means all well-ness begins with and in — you. It means you are responsible for doing what good you can with what you have, and any good is better than none. It means in a world of turmoil you maintain the inner-peace and calm to share with others as you interact with them. It means you are hopeful and share the plenitude of your hope with the hopeless. It means you see the problems in the world clearly, but you also look for and see the solutions. *All is well* is a form of courage; it is courageous to be positive in the face of negativity. *All is well* is a form of gratitude; it is grateful to be thankful, even when things are not perfect. *All is well* is a choice for how you will live out your days. When you start your day tomorrow, and when the stress and pressure is on you, just remember, that as soon as you accept the moment for what it is — *all is well*.
The battle for what you want deceptively appears to be external — in the world, but it is completely an internal struggle with your mind. Success is not only in the hand; it is in the heart. Reach with all of yourself — with all of your heart, mind, and passion. The struggle is beautiful. Reach for success knowing that the gift of effort is instantly yours, and that the journey is the most rewarding and fulfilling destination.
You are likely the greatest obstacle to achieving your own dreams. Get out of your own way. Learn to exist gracefully and peacefully with yourself. Only inner-mastery can bring outer-mastery. Start deep within yourself and slowly build outward toward your goal. Be calm and patient with your desires. Reject the common false beliefs that you don't have much time or you will never have another opportunity. Be steady, gentle, calm, centered, focused, patient and grateful. Focus on your truthful passion, even if that passion "seems" to have no chance of bringing the worldly rewards you presently believe you want. Your wants will evolve as you grow in understanding and spiritual maturity. Be prepared to prove your passion with patience and longsuffering, or if you are wise, with long-joying. Remember that any desire is tested; the greater the desire, the greater the tests. Take action, but without attachment to any outcome. Work only as a truthful expression of your passion and not just to get.
Having contentment and gratitude in the present moment is the surest way to achieve success. Contentment is not greedy, possessive, jealous or impatient. Contentment and gratitude are signs that you are worthy of further receivership. They are indicators of inner-maturity and balance. They are the attributes of the naturally gifted and of those who have carefully cultivated themselves spiritually and intellectually. When you accept that there is no success greater than inner-peace and contentment, you instantly qualify yourself for more success. Contentment also protects your existing successes. Without inner-peace and contentment, success will ultimately destroy you along with everything you have created, or are trying to create.
Impatience, resentment and jealousy are obvious negative emotions that are more easily understood as toxic. However, the concept of want is more complicated and confusing. If your feelings of "wanting" are not disruptive to your inner-tranquility then they are likely healthy. However, excessive want is a form of desperation and a declaration of lack. Any aggressive lust lacks balance and is unwholesome and obstructive. Balance in life is the key to everything. You need to focus on more than just your wants. Everyone has wants, but you have to be smart to get what you want. It can be counterintuitive and difficult to understand that in order to get anything, you must offer your value first — you must give. You must also create a space of sanity and security within yourself for your value and strategies to take root and grow. That space of sanity is called contentment and gratitude.
If you want more from life — start by counting your blessings instead of counting your losses, deficits and wants. Impatience, resentment, jealousy and endless "want" are not creative attractors and have no value. These feelings block your opportunities. From time to time, everyone experiences these thoughts, but you must learn to move through them constructively. When negative feelings move upon you, reflect, and recognize the danger of feeding those feelings and keeping them alive. Let them take their course and see to it that they burn-out like a campfire in a dry forest; watching them carefully, without adding further fuel to their fire with undue worry.
There is a way of having your needs met without negativity and complaining. If you want something — give it. Being positive, giving and caring may not always work out exactly the way you wish, but whatever you give will come back to you one way or another. Your giving heart may inspire change in another, or qualify you for a better situation if the current situation must eventually change. And, even if it fails with the person in whom you wish to see a behaviour change — even if they are totally non-responsive, dysfunctional and a taker — you still can't lose, because you can never lose by being awesome and by being your very best.
Learn to minimize your fear and to embrace disappointment as cheerfully and positively as possible. Count on people to fail you. Plan on people never coming through. You are going to have to fight your way through all on your own. One thing you can count on is people not showing up when you need them. Don't look at people's unreliability pessimistically, just vow to never be like them yourself. If you build people's failures into your success strategy, you will not be caught off guard by surprises. And, when and if someone ever comes through, you can rejoice in the rare blessing of that event! Be continually surprised by people, rather than being continually let down.
If you want anything meaningful in life, you need to be that meaningful thing. You keep waiting to meet an amazing new person, a friend, a life partner or a business partner — people who share your values. Then when you meet that special person, you may put them on a pedestal, where there is nowhere to go but down, so they disappoint you. But really, it was you who disappointed yourself with your expectancy. Maybe they disappear after a short time, or it fizzles out. But often we are the cause; it us us who again disappointed ourselves. Too often, we push people away with these unreasonable expectations. If you do this in your life, it is because you just couldn't let them be human, because you don't accept your own humanity. You wouldn't let them be real because you aren't real. You think people are disappointing, but maybe it's you who are disappointing people all the time, and you don't even know it. Sometimes people vanish because we vanished — we expected them to act as we act, to be as generous as we believe we are generous, to be as excited as we are excited. Where we think they failed, perhaps we failed them. In many cases, it is just plain and simple fear that destroys our best opportunities. Fear can cause us to suspect people don't like us, which can lead to insecurity, cynicism, negative thinking and unjust actions. Sadly, what we fear we often bring upon ourselves. Start with the simple practice of believing what you want is possible for yourself. It may take time, but everything positive will spring from that one simple practice.
