Affirmwear For Your Life

You must weed your mind as you would weed your garden. - Astrid Alauda

Weeds in a garden can be incredibly pesky, persistent and destructive to the plants you do want to cultivate. Any good gardener knows that frequent weeding is necessary if you want to keep a clear area for healthy plants to grow to their fullest potential. How similar this process is to the role of positive thinking in personal development! Just like a garden, your mind can easily and quickly become overrun by weeds in the form of negativity, impatience, jealousy, anger or inflexibility.

You may think these types of thoughts arent truly harmful, just perhaps a bit annoying. Wrong! Remember, what you focus upon the most is what you tend to create in your life. While most of us have fleeting moments of negative thinking now and again, the length and frequency of time you focus on these thoughts determines whether they will sprout roots and grow into something larger and much more troublesome. What kind of trouble can negative thoughts create in your mind?

How about feelings of depression, defeatism, inability to recognize opportunities, hopelessness, resistance to positive change, confusion, lack of focus, lack of direction and purpose, and much, much more. Even worse, negative thoughts (just like weeds) are incredibly prolific. They multiply and take over the whole darn joint if you let them. They invite all their rowdy, boisterous friends and begin to bully and crowd out the positive thoughts you are trying to encourage to take root.

If you want to keep your mind (and life) free from interfering weeds, you must learn to pluck out the ones that prevent the better growth from happening. That means letting go of grudges, not letting yourself be overcome by anger or frustration, and learning how to find the good in every situation.

You must learn how to cultivate only that which you want to harvest in your life. You will reap what you sow, but remember too that sometimes other people are gardening on your land without your conscious awareness or permission. Dont let them!

Put up an electric fence and be clear about what you will and will not accept into your lush garden. Be vigilant about weeding your mind daily, and you will ensure that only beauty, joy and abundance grow there.

How to Set Personal Boundaries

Living your life as an empowered person often requires the placement of boundaries invisible lines across which you will not allow people or events to infringe upon your time or resources.

When you have clear inner boundaries in place, you know where you stand and youre able to make decisions that support and nurture you. These decisions may include refusing extra obligations that you do not have the time or desire to fulfill, keeping a greater distance between you and people who tend to drain your energy, or insisting that others respect your personal time.

A disempowered person will usually find it difficult to set boundaries because they dont feel that they have the right to do so, or the strength to stand firm in their decisions. Does that describe you?

If so, read on for some simple and painless ways to set firmer boundaries in your life:

1) First, understand that you have the right to set boundaries. This can be difficult if you struggle with low self-esteem or self-confidence. You might hesitate to set boundaries because youre afraid that people wont like you, or youll hurt someones feelings by refusing their requests for help. However, more often than not your own feelings will be hurt if you dont set boundaries! Youll find yourself agreeing to do things you really dont want to do or dont have time to do, and youll run yourself ragged trying to please everyone. Setting boundaries involves learning to love and respect yourself, and your time and resources.

Get into the habit of affirming your own value and worth, and strengthen your belief that you deserve to live a calmer, more peaceful life. Be committed to caring for yourself first, and then helping others as time allows. Remind yourself that you dont have to feel guilty about not saving the world do what you can and feel good about it.

2) Build up your courage. Learning to say no can be scary, but its important to believe that you have the strength and confidence to stand firm in your decisions. One good way to become more courageous is to understand that nothing bad will happen if you refuse extra obligations or favors that someone asks of you. Will they be disappointed? Probably. Will they stop speaking to you or get angry with you? Probably not. Except in extreme circumstances, most often the person will simply move on and ask someone else for help.

If you do happen to receive a strong negative reaction when saying no, ask yourself if it really matters to you? That may sound harsh, but you have to eventually realize that its not your job to make life easier for others especially when doing so makes life more difficult for you! A person who gets angry about your unwillingness to help is probably a person who has gotten comfortable using you as a doormat. In those cases its best to nip the problem in the bud before it takes over your life.

3) Be firm, but nice. One of the reasons you may hesitate to say no is because you think it will make you look bitchy or selfish but that can be avoided by finding a pleasant way to say it. Rather than saying brusquely, No, I wont help you with this, you could say apologetically, Im really sorry, but I just cant do it at this time. Maybe another time? The majority of people will understand and not be upset. However, if you do receive resistance, that is the time to become more firm in your answers.

One of the hardest parts of setting boundaries is learning to be firm with yourself! You may be tempted to overextend yourself to help others, even when you know it wouldnt be in your best interests. When that temptation arises, youll have to be able to override your desire to please and do what you know is best for yourself.

“It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.”
Hans Selye

Ahh! So profound! Everyone has stresses in their lives…everyday of their lives. Why do some people seem to be able to breathe easy through them all and others’ manifest dis-eases within themselves in reaction to these stresses?

I’m a big advocate of meditation and energy healing as I believe both help to alleviate stress and also help you to use stress in a productive way. Stress doesn’t have to be all bad. Our reaction to it is what pushes some of us over the edge into destructive behavior, especially where our health is concerned. Getting a handle on stress can help you to live a longer, healthier life!

If this quote resonates with you…put it on your desktop by clicking on the size you need and then once the picture loads, right click on it and set it as wallpaper background.

800 x 600 ::: 1024 x 768 ::: 1152 x 864 ::: 1280 x 800 ::: 1280 x 1024

1440 x 900 ::: 1600 x 1200 ::: 1680 x 1050 ::: 1920 x 1200 ::: 2560 x 1600