Action Thursday - 2 More Mistakes and Resolutions to Turn Your Negative Experiences Into Positive Lessons

Now's the time to put the action steps into place to get the results you desire in your life. Today's post is a continuation of yesterday's. Click here to read yesterday's post if you haven't done so already.

Mistake #2 - Becoming consumed by the emotions of the negative past situation

Allowing negative emotions to consume you will hinder you from making progress. When you are engulfed in this energy it's difficult to see the positive and glean the invaluable gems hidden amid the adversity.

Resolution #2 - Redirect your energy

Instead of focusing on how awful you felt or how bad the situation was, redirect your energy into looking for the hidden gems, the vital life lessons you can take away from that experience. It will do you greater good if you ask, "What could I or what did I learn from this?" or "How has this helped my life since then?"

Grab out a pen and paper because you may come up with a whole lot more than you thought. Then you'll begin to see how every situation, though at first brush seemed cloaked in negativity, holds within them the right measure of pressure and heat to mould you into the person you need to be.

Mistake #3 - Retreat to the old way of thinking

As the old pain and emotions emerge, you begin to retreat to the old way of thinking and once again you begin to harbour anger and resentment which binds you in their grip.

Resolution #3 - Refocus your attention and keep moving forward

Okay, you've fallen off the wagon, so to speak, but this is part of the growth process. Babies fall many times before they master the art of walking. During the learning process their muscles are strengthened and they understand the mechanics of learning to balance themselves.

Look at this as part of the learning process where you effectively deal with weak untrained 'muscles' and also master the mechanics of focusing and refocusing your attention on growth and healing. As you do this, you'll open up the flow of positive energy to enter into you and enrich your life tremendously.

What to Do When Your Positive Thinking Turns Into Negative Thoughts Because of Negative Experiences

So here you are practicing positive thinking, focusing on the goodness that's in your life and that's coming into your life. You're feeling good about yourself and your future. Then it happens. Someone said something or something happened that triggered the memory of a past negative event or comment that really cut deep.

At first you tried to ignore it, but the pang of the pain starts bubbling up from inside you soon followed by a gushing outpouring of emotions. You find yourself absorbed with feelings of hurt, anger and depression over something which occurred months ago, maybe years ago. "What does it all mean?" You asked, "I thought I was all over that?"

These emotions many times come from unresolved issues; perhaps you never resolved the issue with the other person or even within yourself. Yes, you moved on but the roots of the problem were never dealt with, was never uprooted. And when the right conditions came, like deep roots come alive and begin to surface in spring, up came those memories and the emotions that belong to them.

3 common mistakes and 3 resolutions to turn your negative experiences into positive lessons.

Mistake #1 - Shoving it under the rug.

The worst thing you could do at this point is to shove the memory under the rug and pretend like it never happened, because it did and now you're reliving it over again in your mind and emotions. You may try to cover it up like soil covering up old roots in the garden. Guess what will soon happen? The roots will find their way, break through to the top soil and continue to grow.

Resolution #1 - Face it and deal with it.

When you find unwanted roots in your garden, what do you do? You dig deeper and begin to uproot the unwanted roots. It doesn't matter so much as to how they got there as to the fact that they are there and you don't want them.

Face yourself, look at the situation, acknowledge how you felt and feel about it and consciously uproot the pain of it and release it from your life. Like garden roots that extend across the length of the garden, you need to keep digging and uprooting until you've got it all out. Sometimes this process may take some time depending on how willing and persistent you are in releasing the hurt, the negative past experience from your life.

Look out tomorrow for the other 2 mistakes and 2 resolutions to turn your negative experiences into positive lessons.

Manage your thought life

Your thought life plays a significant role in the manifestation of the success of your daily living.

Are you allowing all thoughts to have free range of your mind? The proverb says, "As a man thinketh, so is he." Your thought life determines your outcome. Thoughts harboured continuously in your mind that have become your predominant way of thinking manifests in your reality.

You can learn to manage your mind by managing your thoughts.

How do you manage your thought life?

Shift your thoughts. Whatever is pure, whatever is beautiful, whatever is lovely, think on those things. When I find myself in a situation that may cause me to move out of a place of love and peace, whether it's something one of the children did or something negative someone said, I shift my thinking.

Instead on dwelling on it and letting the negative feeling take root, I immediately look for the positive side of things. If you're looking for the positive, for the good in all situations, you'll find that you're able to deal with whatever you're up against in a more positive manner bringing positive energy into the atmosphere. What could have turned out to be explosive can be turned into a beautiful experience.

I recall an incident that occurred when my son, now 3, was much younger was having a crying session. He wasn't calming down and he was getting louder. I felt myself getting frustrated, then a thought came to me, instead of flowing into the energy he was now projecting, shift the energy and steer him into a calmer atmosphere. Instead of me getting louder than his crying in order to get his attention, I took on a much softer tone, releasing my energy of love to him. He began to calm down and I was able to soothe him.

When you shift your focus from whatever your external situation is, begin to look within and think about what you'd like the situation to become. As you do this, you become receptive to new ideas, therefore, encouraging this change to begin to manifest itself in your reality.

Momspiration: I protect my thought life and shift my thinking to all that is good so that good will always have an open channel to flow in and through me.

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Think I am going to make it

Getting my body back - Day 43

How you think about your success plays a vital part to you having success. Your thoughts can either push you to the finish line or cause you to stop and give up.

Whenever the journey gets tough, if you begin to entertain thoughts of giving up, you send a message to your body to respond to the idea of giving up.

My youngest child is 3 months old. She's just discovered that she has hands. She's observing them, yes, sucking on them, as well. Roxella's making the connection between her brain and hands as she is learning to coordinate the movements.

Research has shown that babies' brains are very active at this age. If you've ever observed a child, you'd notice how they'd look at a toy and immediately the body launches forward with a hand outstretched to get it. The child is using thought which sends the message from the brain to the body, with such precise speed, into action.

As adults, we've mastered the connection between movements and the brain, to the point that we do not have to even think about moving our bodies to complete a movement. We only need to think of getting up and immediately our bodies respond.

It is this obedience to the thoughts we engage in that allows us to continue moving forward on the path to success or give up. The starting point of thought leads to action and continuous action as we engage in continuous positive thought until we reach our goal.

Fuelling words: I think I am going to make it to my ideal weight.

Routine: Warm-ups, stretches, aerobics, toning and strength exercises, cool down.

Visualization - keeping focus on my goal; healthy, strong and my ideal body weight and shape.

Deep breathing - relaxes the muscles and sends oxygen to the muscles where exercising alone would not reach.

Changing Inside Out Now! Tending the garden of the heart - Day 13

What kind of harvest do you want?

Determining the kind of harvest you want let's you know what type of seeds you should sow and what type of garden you're going to grow.

If you want a vegetable garden, you're not going to sow flower seeds and expect to harvest vegetables. Now, if you want a combination of a flower garden and a vegetable garden, you sow the appropriate seeds to harvest your desired outcome.

Similarly, you want to sow seeds in the heart that will bring you a harvest of love, joy, peace, health, prosperity and wholeness - a well-rounded life.

The seeds you sow into your heart come in the form of your thoughts and your words which results in the actions you're taking on a daily basis.

What are you thinking about on a regular basis? What feelings are these thoughts producing? Are they making you feel joyful, at peace or angry and frustrated? Your thoughts, producing your feelings, causes you to act or react externally.

Whatever you are thinking, which is directly affecting your feelings, is the reason for your reaction. The key to turning this around is to stop the negative thought right in its tracks and replace it with a positive one. Find the positive side in every situation. There's always light, even if it's just a glimmer of hope, move towards it. Replace the negative with the positive glimmer of hope. Focus on it, just as you would the negative thought. Feel the emotion and before long you will act or react in a positive way, producing positive results.

Your words are as a direct result of what you've been thinking. I recall a scripture which says, (paraphrase) "It's not what goes into a man (person) that defiles him because it does not go into his heart but his stomach. But it's what comes out of a man (person) that defiles him (makes him unclean). Because what comes out of a man (person's words) comes out of his heart."

You tell what's going on in a person's heart from what they're constantly talking about, which is the fruit of their lips.

Begin today to change your seed thoughts and your words and actions will follow suit to produce the harvest you need.