Turn The Music Up!

TURN THE MUSIC UP!

You know how it is when you’re in the car and your favourite song comes on the radio… You turn it up, start singing along, grooving away and you are filled with the amazing sense of joy of just being alive. Every problem just drops away and you’re there in the moment feeling simply wonderful.

Once the song finishes you are left with a slight after glow, however all too soon you find yourself returning to your thoughts and back to feeling how you were… Now let’s think about that state of euphoria. It was brought about by a song that engaged you fully, taking you out of yourself and allowing you to just be in that present moment. Bliss… It was essentially an external stimulus that generated that positive reaction, so how can we begin to make the trigger an internal one and begin to bring about that sense of joy for ourselves?

If I were to say that the vast majority of people in the Western world have a negative default, what would be your reaction? By the concept of a negative default I mean that most people with automatically, as if on auto pilot, look for what didn’t go right for them, for what they believe they are lacking, for what they haven’t got. How many times have you heard people say “I’ve had a crap day!” Was all the day negative, was every single experience bad? I doubt it, there would have been some good things there too, however most of us are so programmed to looking for the negative that the good stuff just passes by unacknowledged.

A positive thinking mindset can be adopted by daily practice, just like changing anything. If you decide you want to get fit you undertake to exercise regularly and over time you will see a change, through repetition and sticking to the new routine you will have success. Same for a food diet, anything can be brought about by continued practice and a commitment to the cause.

A simple way to start developing a positive mindset is by observing your negative default, the automatic response which will find you focusing on what you believe hasn’t gone right, what you’re not getting, what you don’t have and then observe how often you go there in your thoughts. This is step one, step two is to begin to notice and become aware of what is good in your life, to appreciate what you do have and what is going well. These are probably things that you take for granted, people and situations you don’t ever give your attention to or fully appreciate, all the while you’re focusing on what you believe you are not getting.

Shift your focus and your world will shift too. We deserve to have those feeling of joy and happiness, not only when we hear our favourite song on the radio but to learn to cultivate it for ourselves in the every day. Want to join me?