Intuition = ‘inner tuition’

Intuition is the sixth sense. It is the ability to come to correct conclusions from limited data, without resorting to memory, analysis or deductive logic. It is part of everyday life  and definitely not a special ability restricted to a few.

Humans are not the only creatures to have a sixth sense. Animals have it too, although we tend to call this ‘instinct’. For instance, we cannot explain the incredible navigational abilities of racing pigeons, migrating birds, fish and insects, or how pets appear to know when their owners are on their way home.

We use our sixth sense long before our reasoning minds develop. We experience it in many ways, such as a gentle feeling or a quiet, comforting voice. We ignore it at our peril, because it is nothing less than our Superconscious Mind transmitting insight and guidance to us.

When we ignore our intuition, it is usually because unhelpful beliefs get in the way, or the intellect kicks in, or we lack the courage to follow it through.

Body intuition

Every physical body is surrounded by a field of energy and intelligence. We constantly use our energy field to subconsciously scan other people’s energy and the environment for danger. We may be alerted by a physical feeling, such as a tightening of the neck and shoulder muscles or queasiness in the stomach. When this happens, our body’s intelligence is trying to keep us safe.

Make better use of this facility by taking your attention to the area around your solar plexus (this is where most of us feel it), and asking a question such as, ‘Is this right for me?’ An uncomfortable feeling or general sense of unease could be your intuition urging you to back off, slow down, or delay making a decision.

Listen carefully to your inner voice. Act upon it. In doing so, you are trusting in the very Intelligence that created you!

Tune in

To tune in to your intuition, quieten the mental chatter. The biggest obstacle is the intellect because it demands evidence which can be verified by the five senses. You can move beyond this limiting state of mind by dropping the need to think everything through logically. If this is difficult for you stop analyzing, naming, counting and labeling everything. For example, when you go to the country, don’t try to name the trees, birds and flowers: just look, breathe deeply, take it all in and enjoy being there. Make more time for quiet reflection.

Intuition or emotion?

Intuition and emotion both work through the body and sometimes feel the same, but they are very different in nature. How do we recognise one from the other?

Emotional responses are learned and by adulthood, usually ingrained. But they may not be reliable. Intuition, on the other hand is pure ‘knowing’ and can always be depended upon. For example, some people are afraid of spiders. Is this an intuition? Probably not. Most house spiders are harmless to human beings, so it is more likely to be an irrational fear programmed into them as children.

The key to making this distinction is self-awareness. If you are aware of your programming, you are more able to distinguish between an intuitive feeling and an emotional one.

Here are more clues:

  • The first feeling is the most reliable. Intuition is felt in the body before the cognitive apparatus clicks into gear and produces a conditioned response.
  • Intuition is subtle. It’s like the triangle in an orchestra, drowned out when the other instruments are in full swing, but unmistakable when they go quiet. There it is – ‘ding.’ Doesn’t it sound good?
  • The stronger the feeling of contentment, the more likely it is to be a genuine intuition.

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 12.12.2016

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Imagination

Imagination is the faculty by which we formulate ideas about things that are not present or have not been directly experienced. It is how we innovate: everything ever created first had to be imagined.

A good imagination is not just the preserve of children, storytellers and artists, it is available to everyone.

Imagination involves all five senses. We imagine by means of pictures, sounds, touch, taste and smell, or a combination. The more vivid and lasting these thought-images and sense-impressions, the more powerful they are.

Imagination can be used for good or ill. When we use our imagination wisely, it is a vehicle for positive change. It can begin the process by which better things become reality, or it can lead us in the opposite direction.

Contemplate yourself in the conditions you wish to create in your life. Do it often. There are always better things ahead for those who focus their minds on a bright future.

Two types of imagination

There are two forms of imagination. The first rearranges existing ideas, concepts and memories into new combinations. We can bring the past to mind in any combination of the five senses, but are not creating anything new. We can also imagine how things might have turned out if things had been different.

The second is creative. It envisages things that never existed (past, present or future). Try this: close your eyes. Imagine an elephant. ‘See’ it as clearly as you can. If you are able to do this, the first type of imagination is engaged.

Now imagine a pink elephant wearing a tuxedo. How clearly can you ‘see’ it? If you are able to do this, your creative imagination is at work since there is not and never can be a real pink elephant, let alone one dressed this way.

Awaken your imagination

  • Tell stories, the more far-fetched the better. Picture these events in your mind’s eye.
  • Take an everyday object and ask yourself how it could be improved. Imagine it made shorter, longer, thicker, lighter, heavier, or was packaged differently or grouped with something else.
  • Use cartoons or mind maps rather than lists. Make them colourful and inventive.
  • Imagine how you might make your home or workplace more pleasant, your work more fun, useful and productive.

Envision your future – a powerful exercise

Take a few moments to relax and envisage the perfect life for yourself:

  • Create a mental screen inside your forehead, just above eye level.
  • Project onto it images of your perfect life. Imagine being what you aspire to be, your dreams becoming reality and bringing you happiness.
  • Experience it with all your senses. ‘Hear’ the sounds and ‘sense’ the feelings and atmospheres. What are you doing? Who’s with you? How do you feel? What do you smell and taste?

If any limiting thoughts or images creep in, let them go. If they refuse to go away, acknowledge them, terminate the session and return to it five or ten minutes later.

 *****

Improving your creative imagination cannot help but have a transformational effect on your life!

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 11.12.2016

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The Superconscious

The human mind has powers far greater than those most of us imagine. That’s because it extends beyond our physical boundaries into the energy field that surrounds us, connecting us with other minds and linking with the information fields that control the universe.

Among the amazing capabilities of the mind are its ability to:

  • Seemingly pluck ideas out of the air
  • ‘Know’ something without any concrete evidence
  • Solve complicated problems without any specialist training, including in our sleep
  • Send and receive messages from others, and
  • Recall events and circumstances apparently from past lives.

All these are functions of what is often called the Superconscious Mind. We are part of a limitless source of knowledge and inspiration that extends beyond the physical brain and limitations of the five senses. It includes everything that existed in the past, exists in the present and will exist in the future, if indeed the terms ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’ have any meaning in the quantum world.

Superconscious inspiration and insight have been available to us since the day we were born. Listen carefully. Every moment, the universe offers you spiritual guidance that you would be unwise to ignore.

The Superconscious challenges scientific analysis

Superconscious insight is often dismissed as bogus by neuroscientists because it cannot be explained by current scientific understanding of the workings of the brain alone. However, the evidence is overwhelming. For instance, Uri Geller is only one of many psychics to be investigated under rigorous conditions and has repeatedly proved his ability to communicate telepathically over huge distances. Nevertheless because the investigators have found no physical explanation, he is frequently portrayed as a trickster.

Superconscious abilities

We are a long way from understanding all the powers of the Superconscious, but we do know that they include the following:

  • An ability to ‘know’ and to ‘connect’ that does not rely on past learning.
  • Intuitive insight and decision making.
  • Heightened creativity and inspiration.
  • The ability to stand back and observe, reflect and detach from our thoughts and emotions.
  • Telepathy – the ability to communicate unaided at a distance.
  • Synchronicity – the ability to perceive, interpret and be guided by linked events and coincidences.

How do you make use of your Superconscious?

Think about it:

  • Do you instinctively know when something is going to work or not?
  • Have you ever felt an overwhelming urge to do something without being able to justify it logically? Did you follow it? What happened?
  • Have you ever backed away from a course of action that seemed logical at the time, only to discover later that it would have spelled disaster? What happened? How did you feel?
  • Do you ever wake up with a good idea, or the answer to a problem that has been bothering you?
  • Have you ever had a ‘psychic’ experience? What happened?
  • Do you ever feel that life is trying to steer you? In what way?

Trust your Superconscious

Surveys reveal that more than half of us believe in tarot cards and palmistry, and nearly half in mind reading. Sales of pendulums, dowsing rods, crystals and other New Age paraphernalia have rocketed in recent years. There is nothing wrong with any of this, as long as we remember that the props themselves are unimportant. They are merely tools which help some of us access our Superconscious.

Seek help from professional psychics if you must, but don’t hand responsibility for your life over to them. Instead, develop your own Superconscious abilities. When you place your trust in them, they never let you down. Our Superconscious abilities are a natural part of us. The more we use them, the more reliable they become.

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 11.12.2016

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In-ITIA-te Prosperity

Eric Fromm wrote that many people spend their lives never achieving what they want because they have it the wrong way round. They try to:

 Have money and things so they can

Do what they want, so they can

Be happy.

Instead, Fromm wrote, first you need to:

Be, then you can

Do, so you can

Have what you want.

Fromm correctly identified the root cause of prosperity – start by going within, finding your purpose, knowing your strengths and using the gift of mind to the full. Here’s the recipe. It has five ingredients:

  • Self-awareness

Plus I-T-I-A:

  • Intention
  • Thinking
  • Imagination
  • Action

The I-T-I-A Formula applies to every area of life. To create anything, tangible or intangible, you must commit yourself to it, practise right thinking and beliefs, have a clear vision or imagination of the desired outcome and take persistent action to make it so. It works because it establishes the chief causes that shape your character and your life.

Self-awareness

Do you want to be prosperous? Are you sure? What does this mean to you? How hard are you willing to work? How can you contribute to the greater good? Can you handle it?

Intention

Make prosperity a firm goal and commit yourself to the necessary mental and physical discipline it involves. Remember also that we become prosperous by helping others become prosperous too so Include others in your prosperity thinking.

Thinking

Your beliefs about prosperity are like the thermostat that regulates your central heating. Set the thermostat high, and the system maintains that temperature. Set it low, and it switches itself off as soon as that point has been reached. If you don’t feel you deserve to be prosperous you are like a magnet that repels rather than attracts.

Imagination

Your imagination helps shape your world. Using your imagination intelligently gives your mind the ammkunition to accept that you are prosperous. Once inner prosperity is established, outer conditions can be brought into line. Imagine what you desire as already yours. Picture yourself surrounded by the conditions you wish to create. The more you imagine, sense and feel something, the more likely you are to get it.

Action

Make it happen! Your mental work kick-starts the prosperity process, but you must do what needs to be done. Act as if your aspirations are already there in non-physical form, on the way to being actualized. And never, never give up. Every challenge, every difficulty is simply a stepping stone on the way to success.

What are you thinking and doing to be prosperous?

Is prosperity a problem area for you? Are you struggling financially? Do you lack the resources to do and have everything you wish? Then ask yourself, ‘What am I thinking and doing to create this, and what do I need to change?’

If you need more help, my book ‘365 Ways to be your own Life Coach’ has lots of tips to help make your vision a reality.

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 2.12.2016

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Healing and Creative Imagery

Creative Imagery (visualization) is an invaluable healing tool with proven health benefits. It can reduce chronic pain, anxiety, high blood pressure, cholesterol and the stress hormone cortisol. It boosts brain function, the immune system and the heart and circulation. When we relax and focus our minds, we stimulate the life forces within, allowing the body to regenerate itself.

Moreover, when we send loving thoughts to a body part and affirm life flowing through it, we direct healing forces to it. A gentle focus of attention is all it takes to free the body of minor ailments, and more serious conditions can be relieved with regular practice. It can also prevent medical problems.

Try this: when in a relaxed state, take your awareness to your body and notice any pain or discomfort – you’ll find your attention wants to go there. There are lessons to be learned, so ask your Higher Self what your body trying to tell you. Then make the necessary adjustments to your habits or lifestyle.

How to use Creative Imagery for healing

Creative Imagery has been used for decades by eminent doctors such as Dr Carl Simonton, Dr Bernie Segal, Dr Milton Erickson and Dr Dean Ornish. They have written extensively about their techniques.

The following is typical of the type of healing routines they employ:

  1. Thoroughly relax your body and mind. Focus on your breath; imagine it as a form of healing energy. As you exhale, mentally direct this healing energy to the injured part., Affirm, ‘My …. Is healed and strong.’
  2. Next, visualise the part as already healed. If it is a cut, see the flesh smooth and unscarred; if a break, see the bone neatly knitted together. If there is any swelling, see the joint back to its normal size. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what a broken bone or sprained muscle looks like – imagine how it will look once healed and let your unconscious take care of the rest.
  3. Thirdly, visualise yourself doing all the things you will be able to do once you have fully recovered. Remember, focus your mind on what you want, not what you don’t, and you will be surprised how the healing process is speeded up.

Healing with white light

Healing energies are often visualised as white light. White light symbolises loving, healing energy. For example:

  1. Imagine yourself resting in a sanctuary bathed in pure white light. Go within and release your inner healing energies.
  1. See the symptoms clearing, the light of pure love working on the body, strengthening and supporting, mending the joints and muscles, disease and negativity flowing out of the body.
  1. Visualise your body bathed in light, strong, healthy, doing everything you want it to.
  1. See the body infused with light and affirm: My body is strong and healthy. All my muscles and organs work in perfect harmony. Vitalizing energy floods my whole consciousness and I am healed.

With proper self-management, doctors would rarely be required, but you must adopt good habits or sooner of later the body will demand attention and force you to change. Remember, good habits are not just to be adopted when you are ill. Prevention is better than cure, and positive attitudes, wise words, creative imagery and loving actions are among the best form of prevention.

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 15.11.2016

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The Eighth Principle of Relationships

The eighth principle is:

Work on yourself. Become a better person, and all your relationships will improve.

The place to start if you want to improve your relationships is with yourself – improving your confidence and self-image, challenging harmful beliefs and learning new listening and communication skills. Cultivate an open, positive attitude to all your relationships.

If you are willing to change, to grow, to work on yourself and become more loving, tolerant and accepting of others, all your relationships will improve.

  • Make this your intention.
  • Examine your thinking; change your self-talk and beliefs.
  • Use your creative imagination to imprint the changes you wish to make on your subconscious.
  • Practise new behaviours, starting with those you find easiest to change, then move on to the more difficult areas. If these changes feel uncomfortable – which change usually does – feel the fear and do it any way.

Nearly everybody wants great relationships with the people around them. Become the kind of person others like being with, and people will gravitate towards you.

‘How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong; because someday in your life, you will have been all of these.’

 George Washington Carver

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 24.6.2016

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Why Creative Imagery Has Such A Powerful Effect On The Unconscious

Why does creative imagery have such a powerful effect on the unconscious, and consequently your life? Imprinting a thought-form in your mind (words and/or pictures) is like planting a seed. It may take a while before you see the results, but every time you focus on that thought, the roots are burying deep. Eventually the fresh green shoots appear, and the more emotion and enthusiasm you put into it, the sooner it happens. Once an idea takes root at this deep level, it’s extremely difficult to shift.

Here are the main reasons:

1. The unconscious thinks mainly in pictures and feelings

The unconscious ‘thinks’ mainly in pictures. It also processes feelings. It is accessed mainly through the right side of the brain, which is more receptive to these than language (which is largely a left-brained function). For most people, the best way of impressing anything on the unconscious mind is to ‘show’ it a picture, and back it up with emotive words and feelings.

That’s why advertisers display their products against glamorous settings. The viewer unconsciously associates the product with drink with aspirational people. But if the advert said ‘Us this product and become one of the jet-set,’ you would dismiss it as a load of rubbish. Putting the message across VISUALLY and creating EMOTION circumvents the critical faculties of the conscious mind and impresses it on the unconscious.

2. The unconscious cannot distinguish between fact and fantasy

The unconscious is incapable of knowing whether the information it receives has come through your five senses or from your imagination. It responds exactly the same to all input.

Show your unconscious an image, and it accepts it as real. It stores the event in your memory as if it really happened, together with the emotions you were feeling at the time. Have you ever woken up at night in a sweat after a bad dream? You knew it was just a dream, but your unconscious didn’t. That’s why you reacted as if it was real. Have you ever cried at the cinema? You were watching artificial lights flickering on a screen and listening to recorded sound! You knew this all along, to why did they have such a powerful influence on you?

3. The unconscious cannot distinguish between good and bad

The unconscious does not question whatever you feed into it consciously or subconsciously. It has no way of knowing whether your instructions are good for you or bad for you. It simply does as it believes it has been directed.

4. The unconscious controls your automatic bodily responses

The unconscious also controls your bodily responses through your nervous system. If you are not convinced, try this exercise:

Sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths and relax. Pretend you have a mental screen, like a TV screen, inside your forehead, just above the level of your eyes. Imagine that a plank of wood is lying on the ground just in front of you, ten feet long and a foot wide. Now imagine that you’re walking along it. How do you feel? Almost everyone can do this easily. Now imagine that same plank twenty storeys high on a building site, suspended between two steel girders. Go on, walk across it. Now, how do you feel? ‘Nuff said?

5. Creative imagery is the most effective way of accessing unconscious material

It is also the most effective way of inputting new, empowering material into the unconscious. You can feed in positive thought forms – words, feelings and images – which programme the unconscious for whatever you desire.

Creative imagery is not some fanciful idea – it has been used successfully in business, sport, academia, psychotherapy, the entertainment industry and many other areas of life to change unhelpful patterns and improve performance. Now you know some of the reasons why.

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 30.7.2016

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How to access your Inner Power

You have a wonderful power within you.

Consider the moment of your birth. At the instant your umbilical cord was cut, you became a separate human being, full of possibilities, charged with spiritual energy. You had within you the seeds of everything you needed to build a happy and fulfilling life. All you needed was someone to encourage your natural birthright to burst forth.

Then what happened?

Did anyone explain how you could make of your life whatever you willed? Were you encouraged to feel like the wonderful miracle of creation that you truly were? Did your adult caretakers nurture your self-esteem, helping you use your innate talents to the full?

Whether they did or not, your Inner Power is always there, just as it always was. It nurtures and sustains you, but the way you conduct yourself ultimately determines how you use it and consequently the kind of life you create for yourself. Everything you do and say has consequences. Greed, envy, selfishness and cruelty are all too much a part of modern life: you don’t have to be a part of them.

It originates in the way you think, imagine and feel.

What you think, feel, and how you speak originates in your ‘inner world’. They condition your behaviour, and attract events and circumstances into your life according to your state of consciousness. Your life is a reflection of whatever you hold in your mind.

It is non-physical, i.e. spiritual.

It has nothing to do with physical attributes. If this were not true, elderly, impaired or diminutive individuals such as Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa would have made little impact.

You will never realise your full potential as long as you think of yourself primarily as a physical body with a brain. You must go beyond all that to that part of you which ‘knows’ at a much deeper level.

You can access it through your Superconscious Mind

The Superconscious oversees the Conscious and Unconscious Minds and communicates with you through intuition and synchronicity. When you are conversant with it, it endows you with higher-level wisdom, creativity and inspiration, peace of mind, and an exhilarating sense of freedom

There is an ever-present Intelligence that responds when we direct our attention and our thoughts to it. It is the invisible ‘energy’ or ‘intelligence’ that governs the universe; the ‘life-force’ which suffuses everyone and everything, and connects us to each other.

Attune yourself to Higher Consciousness….

The Superconscious is powerful, but only because it has a direct line to something even more significant: Universal Consciousness.

Do I mean God? No. The idea that something or someone is ‘up there’, outside of ourselves, looking down on us, belongs to a bygone age.

Many religious people refer to this life-force as ‘God’, but J. Krishnamurti, a great spiritual teacher from the last century, a man familiar with both the Eastern and Western traditions, said, ‘There is only one God as manifested in you, but I am not going to use the word ‘God’. I prefer to call this ‘Life’.’

God/Life is within you. You can feel it pulsating in every part of your being. It is present in rivers and oceans, it makes the stars shine, the Earth rotate on its axis, flowers bloom, trees grow and fish swim. It heals the sick, and without it, everything dies.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote,

‘Whilst everything around me is ever-changing, ever-dying, there is underlying all that changes a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and re-creates.’

A student once asked the teacher, ‘How can I find God?’ The teacher replied, ‘How does a fish find the ocean?’ You are living in an ocean of consciousness. It is all around you and within you, just as a wave is part of the ocean. Like sunlight, which radiates throughout the solar system, it is available to everyone.

Love, peace and happiness are not to be found in faraway places or unusual states of consciousness, but here, right now, if you are willing to receive them.

…. by having some quiet time to yourself each day….

Make a priority of having regular quiet time for you. When you commune with your Inner Power in silence, your spirituality assumes a progressively greater role in your life. Regular practice of prayer and meditation makes a profound difference.

Affirmative prayer is simply a conversation with your Inner Power.  Many people think prayer is a waste of time, because they have tried it in the past, felt their prayers went unanswered, and gave up. If this is your experience, it is probably for one of two reasons.

  • Either you have not listened hard enough for an answer because that still, small voice within was drowned out by mental clutter.
  • Or your prayers were answered, but either you didn’t notice, or it happened in a way you didn’t expect.

…. then miracles might just happen.

When you make prayer and meditation part of your daily life, everything flows more smoothly. You realise that, from a spiritual point of view, the best thing that could happen to you is happening right now. Learn as much as you can from it and let your Spiritual Self be your guide. Don’t expect miracles to happen, but equally, don’t be surprised if they do.

Allow this power to guide and support you….

The idea of acting ‘as if’ the power of the universe is flowing through you is not an abstract idea, because this energy is as real as you are – indeed, it is you. Until you fully grasp this, you are like a light bulb without current.

You can light up yourself and the world around you, but only once you are plugged in and switched on. You can receive spiritual power whenever you have a use for it.

Universal Consciousness constantly emits creative energy like the sun gives warmth and light. As the Indian teacher, Sai Baba, said:

‘The rays of the sun fall equally on all who are directed in their way. If someone is behind an obstacle, or in a room, he will receive only part of the light. Cultivating the higher spiritual yearnings is like coming out from the confinement of a room into the sun’s rays.’

Your task is to facilitate the flow of this universal energy through you and get out into the sunlight! How? The basic toolkit is in the letters I-T-I-A.

  • Intention: Aspire to your highest potential, aiming at nothing less than completeness and harmony. As long as your intentions are pure and focussed, it’s there for you.
  • Think: Cast off your negative beliefs. Shake off the habits and thinking patterns that have constrained you, clear away the rubbish you have gathered inside you, and raise your thoughts to the underlying Intelligence that governs all our lives. When you look for happiness and fulfilment in a higher way of thinking, anger, fear and anxiety fade into nothing.
  • Imagine: Imagine yourself permeated with this Inner Power, attracting whatever you need into your life as naturally as breathing. Imagine yourself as a giant solar battery absorbing energy from the Source, this energy flowing through you and put to good use in the service of your fellow beings. Imagine that tranquil centre within you radiating energy and drawing others towards you, seeking the same peace of mind and sense of purpose that you have.
  • Action: Put your ideas into action. Allow the invisible hand of Universal Consciousness to guide you. Trusting to this degree may be scary at first, but you know the reason for this is merely your programming and conditioning. The more you use it, the more available it is. Persevere and you will change yourself, your life, and the lives of those around you.

Ironically it is not the achievement of your goals that brings happiness, but the sense of purpose and direction they bring. If you succeed – great! If not, at least you’ve enjoyed trying.

…. and you will be happy, peaceful and fulfilled and have the courage to follow your dreams.

No words can express how you will feel once you have awakened the infinite power within you. You realise that all along there was something wonderful within you, and you did not know it. But now you do know it. You are greater than you knew, and all is well.

©David Lawrence Preston,

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Problems, problems, problems!

Think of a problem that seemed terrible at the time, that you now look back on and think, ‘I learned a lot from that?’ Perhaps you surprised yourself, and now thanks to this, you feel more confident. Perhaps you now realise that opportunities often come disguised as problems and all it takes is a change in thinking to make the most of them.

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Eight ways to handle a problem

 1. Write it down.

Problems often seem less overwhelming when put down on paper in a clear and organised fashion.

 2. Focus on finding a solution.

Spend no more than 20% of your time and mental energy analysing the problem, and 80% on thinking about the solution.

3. Stop pitying self-talk and negative questions.

Ask yourself, ‘What can I do to solve this problem?’ ‘How can I turn it to my advantage?’ ‘What more do I need to know?’ and so on. These questions get your unconscious working for rather than against you.

4. Don’t exaggerate the problem.

Problems are soon blown up out of all proportion by anxious thoughts, anger, guilt, and looking for someone or something to blame.

5. Don’t underestimate the problem.

Don’t underestimate the problem nor your capacity to deal with it. Many problems are handled badly because they aren’t taken seriously enough. See reality as it is.

6. Take action.

Take action.  NOW. You solve problems only by doing something about them. Sometimes you need to take time to think things through, but once you’ve worked it out get started. Procrastination can be risky.

7. Ask for help if you need it.

Don’t be too proud to ask for help if you need it. Most people like to lend a hand, like to feel useful. It boosts their self-esteem.

8. Ask your intuition.

If all else fails, ask your intuitive mind for guidance (see my other blogs).

Stay flexible

Stay committed to your plans, but don’t be too rigid. Be open to new ideas and don’t dismiss options you haven’t yet thought of. Flexibility does not mean weakness. Trees that sway with the wind best weather the storm!

Sometimes things happen you just can’t help and what matters is how you respond. You have choices. If one path becomes blocked, look for a workable alternative and try again.

Learn from your failures

Life presents each of us with a series of learning curves, each building on the other. Failure is a natural part of success. Failing doesn’t make you a failure as a person. The only real failure is giving up or not trying at all.

There are opportunities in every challenge. Every setback contains within it the seeds of success, providing you can spot them. Deal with problems as they arise and turn difficulties to your advantage. Hardly anyone gets everything right first time.

The big questions

If you’re sure you have the right goals, have tried your hardest and still don’t seem to be getting every far, ask yourself the big questions. Be honest with yourself. You may not like the answers that come:

WHAT AM I NOT FACING UP TO?

WHAT AM i UNWILLING TO DO?

Lack of success is often the result of being unwilling to do everything that is required. For example, many well qualified and competent professionals struggle to establish their practices. In nearly every case, their failure is due to their unwillingness to get involved in the business side of things, especially sales promotion.

If you’re aware of something you’re unwilling to do that is holding you back, make a plan, apply the I-T-I-A Formula (https://blog.davidlawrencepreston.co.uk/2016/03/i-t-i-a-formula/) and Eight Steps above and start putting it right.

If you are stuck in a rut and nothing seems to be working you could try consciously breaking your habits and routines. This could give you a fresh outlook. For example:

  • Travel to work by a different route or different mode of transport.
  • Read a different newspaper and tune in to different media channels.
  • Wear something different.
  • Eat at different times.
  • Mix with different people.

Moving out of your comfort zone encourages new thinking and stimulates the creative juices!

And finally – be grateful for your problems! They help you to grow as a person, and that’s what life is all about.

©David Lawrence Preston, 1.6.2016

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How To Books, 2004

Creating a wonderful life with Creative Imagery

We all have a goal-seeking mechanism housed in the unconscious which takes us where the unconscious believes we want to go.  It is best influenced by:

1. Repetition – continually and consciously focussing on positive thoughts and images – effective if you persist going long enough; and

2. Creative imagery – relaxing into Alpha State (deep relaxation) and feeding in positive pictures, words, sounds and sensations.

The techniques I’m about to share have been used by many people in all walks of life, and the results can be astounding. For instance, Clare was on the verge of a breakdown. She’d recently completed a lengthy training course, but had been unable to find suitable work. To make matters worse all the others on the course had found what they wanted. She was also desperate to resolve her accommodation problems. She shared a flat with an ex-boyfriend who was verbally abusive and occasionally violent. Above all she wanted to find a partner who would treat her well.

She learned to relax deeply every day and visualise herself doing the job she wanted and being well-paid for it; enjoying a caring and loving relationship; and sharing her flat with someone she liked. At first, she was sceptical, but after a couple of weeks she was getting the hang of it.

I didn’t hear from her for several weeks. Then I received a letter out of the blue. The ex-boyfriend had moved out, she’d found a well-paid job, joined a health club and made a new circle of friends. She had also struck up a good relationship with a man she’d met at the club. Things were definitely on the up.

I’ve taught these methods to people suffering from fear of flying, needles, dentists, lifts, reptiles and insects; people about to take examinations, driving tests or face difficult interviews; sportsmen and women keen to improve their performances; people with sexual problems or addictions of one sort or another, and many, many more.

1. Make Creative Imagery a habit

Find twenty minutes every day when you will be undisturbed. Go to a quiet place, switch off the mobile and put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door. Any time is good, but first thing in the morning and last thing at night are especially beneficial because the mind is naturally most receptive at these times. It is also a good idea to ‘visualise’ the way you would like your day to go when you’re waking up.

2. Be clear on what you’re trying to achieve

Plan each session in advance. Choose one or two goals at a time, or, better still, concentrate on one or two for a whole week.

If you find you have difficulty remembering your routine, record it onto a suitable device and listen while you’re relaxed.

3. Relax deeply

Use your favourite techniques to relax into Alpha Level.

4. Imagine a mental screen

Imagine that you have a screen inside your forehead, just above eye level, rather like a cinema screen. Practise making images until you are totally comfortable with it. In time, you’ll be able to use it at will.

5. Allow your chosen images etc. to materialise

Creative imagery is a passive process. The unconscious cannot be hurried. Be patient, don’t force it, and don’t get frustrated if results don’t come immediately.

6. Give them impact

If the images, sounds and feelings you create are to have impact on your unconscious, they must be as clear and vibrant as you can make them.

  • Create colour images and make them as bright as possible.
  • Visualise moving images rather than stills.
  • ‘See’ them in three dimensions.
  • Place them at the centre of your mental screen.
  • Use all five senses if possible. In most cases, you’ll be able to use at least three. For example, if you’re mentally rehearsing a tennis match, ‘see’ the court, the ball, your opponent, etc., ‘hear’ the strings striking the ball, ‘feel’ the racquet in your hand, the sun on your face and the sweat on your forehead (fill in as many details as you can). Project as much feeling as you can.

7. Reinforce with auto-suggestion

Reinforce creative imagery with auto-suggestion. One effective form of words is: ‘I’m so happy. Now I see myself with/doing…’ etc.

8. Imagine a perfect outcome

Imagine exactly what you want to impress on the unconscious –  choose thought-forms and images that symbolise success – the medal round your neck, the crowd applauding, signing the contract, enjoying your ideal relationship, breaking the winning tape, starting the job, etc.

9. See it through your own eyes

Even if you feel at this stage that you can’t achieve perfection, don’t let this deter you from imagining it. You wouldn’t programme a missile to strike somewhere near the target, would you? The fact that your desire is registered in your unconscious will guide you closer to the real thing.

When you ‘visualise’, you could either ‘watch’ yourself like a spectator, from a distance (‘second position’); or ‘picture’ or ‘experience’ the situation through your own eyes as if you were a participant (‘first position’).

For example, if you were mentally rehearsing yourself on stage, you could either watch yourself as if sat in the audience (this is ‘second position’), or you could imagine on-stage looking out into the auditorium, hearing the audience applauding, feeling the boards beneath your feet etc. ‘First position’ has a much more powerful effect on the unconscious.

If your aim is to acquire a material object, imagine yourself already in possession of it. E.g. if it’s a new car you want, imagine the view from driver’s seat rather than looking in at yourself behind the wheel.

10. Generate as much emotion as you can

Hold your goals in your mind until you can literally feel them coming true. Emotions attract and create energy. The more power and energy you put into your creative imagery, the more quickly your desires will manifest.

11. Practise

Practise every day, even if nothing seems to happen. The results cannot fail to materialise and your confidence in the technique will grow.

12. Take action

Creative imagery eases the way to success, but you still need to do whatever has to be done. So do something every day that takes you closer to your goal. Action also strengthens your self-confidence.

Creative imagery is like planting seeds. First clear the weeds (the doubts and fears), prepare the ground, sow the seeds, add fertiliser, water frequently – and wait. Your creative and intuitive powers will be awakened. It may take a while to take root and for the first shoots to appear, but if you trust in nature and keep up with the watering (lots of positive thought-forms and constructive action), your faith will be repaid every time.

 

© David Lawrence Preston, 12.5.2016

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Life Coach book cover

How To Books, 2004