How do you frame your life?

How do you frame your life?  Do you look for the negative or the positive in it?

It can be so easy to see and look for all the sad things, all the bad things and all the negative things that have happened.  But what happens when we do this?  We fill our minds with negative thoughts and from negative thoughts grow negative feelings.

A pansy seed will grow a pansy.  And a negative thought will likewise grow a negative feeling.  Likewise, positive thoughts lead to positive feelings.

Here is a picture taken last year of London:

Apart from the houses, there are two dominant things in the picture; a cctv camera and a tree.

To take a ‘negative’ view of London, it would be possible to describe it by talking about all the cameras.  It is said that no matter where you are in London, a camera will be filming you. Many people are unhappy with their invasion of privacy and talk about the coming of a surveillance society where people are policed rather than protected.

And from this description, the picture would be framed thus:

However, the picture could be used to highlight the many trees in London.  Trees are a common sight and line many pavements.  In fact, there are also many many beautiful parks scattered across the capital too where you will often bump into squirrels and sometimes foxes.  And that even though London can be very urban, it also has its fair share of wildlife with birds still singing to bring in the day.

And so for this version, the focus of the picture would be like this:

Both versions are true.  But one version tends to be slightly depressing whilst the other version, paints a much happier picture.

What is the right version?  What is the correct choice? In a sense, neither.  They both exist but what you tend to focus on becomes bigger and the same applies to situations in your own life.  Do you notice and see the good in your life?  Or do you focus on the negative aspects?

Which view makes you happier?  Which view inspires you to make the best of your day?

Negative Thoughts Make Your Bum Look Big

We are all feeling creatures.  We have emotions.  We are not computers.  Are worlds and our lives are steeped in the colours of our feelings.

Take a song for example.  We don’t just hear notes.  We get enchanted by the melody and whisked away in the emotion and feeling of the song.  Some songs make us feel happy and others make us feel sad.

Thoughts are like this too – they create feelings.  Real whammys of feelings.  This is why it is really important to get a grip on your thoughts.

Every day we go through life, our thoughts are being generated constantly.

It’s like a thought factory in there – a production line.

If you don’t believe this, try not to think for one minute.  Try to think of absolutely nothing just for one very quick minute – 60 seconds.  Just 60 seconds of absolute non-thinking-ness.

If you achieved it, you are very rare.   Only very few people can do it – usually people who have spent a lot of time meditating.  And even they still have thoughts – it’s just that they have learnt to detach from them and not get involved with them.  To watch thoughts drift by, like clouds in the sky and not get emotionally involved with them.

Try this experiment:

Purposefully choose some thoughts.  First a few negative thoughts and then a few positive ones.

Negative ones first, things like:

• I am really stupid.
• I am really fat.
• Nothing works out well for me.
• I’m just useless.
• My life is a disaster.

Think them over and over.

How did they make you FEEL.  How did they affect your mood?  How did they affect your posture and body language?  Did they make you feel good?

Now try  positive ones like:

• I’m such a fun person.
• I look really good today.
• Wow!  I did that really well.
• I always do things well.
• My life is getting better and better.

Now run these thoughts over and over for a few minutes.  Really get into them and let them in.  Believe them.

Then notice how they made you FEEL.  How did they affect your mood and your body language?

Negative thoughts make us feel horrible and positive thoughts make us feel happy.

Although that sounds pretty obvious, it is an important thing to realise.  As is knowing, that you can choose what thoughts you think, and choose on the basis of how they make you feel.

Negative thoughts are like clothes that don’t fit well.  They make us uncomfortable and restrict our movements.  Positive thoughts are like clothes that allow us to move and expand into all the good in life.

Do you want to put on those ill-fitting clothes that make your bum look big?  Or do you want to put on your best clothes, that make you feel like a million dollars?

The choice is yours.  It really is.  Thoughts really can make a dramatic difference to the way we feel about ourselves.

Thoughts will keep generating themselves automatically until you decide to take control.  Until you take control, it’s like allowing someone else to choose your clothes for you because the mind has ‘a mind of its own’.