If you ever feel badly and really want to feel better but don’t have any idea how… try these. These are some tips I have picked up from my teachers over the years.

1) Practice Gratitude

Don’t just think “oh, yeah. Things could be worse. Guess I should be grateful.” Rather - stop and consider the real abundance in your life.

Have a roof over your head? Food to eat? Did you sleep in a bed last night? Have you ever slept on a floor? A warm and safe place to rest the body and mind is a wonderful thing.

Pull out a piece of paper and write it down. List just one thing if you are in a bad place. List many, many more if you can. As you write these things down on paper, really Allow yourself to FEEL THANKFUL.

This isn’t about anyone else. This is personal. This is about what the world has given to you. Maybe it is a good friend. Maybe it is the blessing of a friendship from years ago that you find yourself really appreciating more with time. Don’t focus on the lack - focus on the gift that was or is present in your life.

Breathe deeply and think for just a moment how beautiful and amazing it is that you are alive. You are a gift to the world. Things may not be as you like right now. Things will change. But the simple fact that you are here is a miracle of abundance all too itself.

2) Say this out loud: “I want to feel good”

I heard this on a Dr. Wayne Dyer audio book when I was feeling particularly down and in need of help. My first take was - “huh? C’mon Dr. Wayne… that’s the best you can do for me in my hour of need!”

But then I tried it. I closed my eyes and said “I want to feel good”.

Now don’t expect waves of bliss to come sweeping over you, or the clouds to crack open with a blinding light shining down.

But DO expect to actually feel better.

This sets out the clear INTENTION of feeling GOOD. It also helps you find your Power again when it is being drained away.

3) Write this down and carry it with you: “What you think about me is none of my business.”

Pull it out of your pocket and read it frequently.

This is handy if you are feeling down because of what YOU THINK OTHERS THINK OF YOU. I came across this in one of Dr. Wayne Dyer’s books… the idea is simple but powerful.

The idea is this - you can’t control what anyone else thinks. You don’t really know, and you certainly cannot control what they think of you.

The Power comes from the simple act of LETTING IT GO. This is your choice. It is your power. Just as you choose to care what others think of you - you can likewise LET IT GO.

How? Just imagine the other(s) that are concerning you, and say it out loud: “What you think of me is none of my business”.

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If you find yourself browsing the web, and wanting to feel better, browse on over to the high Vibe it site to see what the community is posting there. High Vibe it is expanding to become a wonderful place to find inspiration and insight.

Thank You for joining me. Thank You for visiting, and for reading this blog.

I wanted to write a bit about the experience of building out the high Vibe it website - and immediately thought of the Dr. Wayne Dyer quote…

“Infinite Patience Produces Immediate Results”

I really appreciate this idea.

There is this paradox I sense in life - we are all powerful and yet completely powerless. We are all-knowing and yet utterly ignorant. Words play tricks on our minds and distort our perception of that which is real.

The idea of infinite patience to me is the idea of “letting go”. It is about the powerful act of saying “this is what I intend” and then letting go of the details. You don’t sit around waiting for results. You just let it all happen.

This is how I feel about the high Vibe it site. I have strong intentions for it to grow, attract like minded people, and have a positive influence on others… and everything else about this is just easy and fun.

I have worked in technology for a while now, and have done a lot of web stuff - but this is the first time in a long time it has become fun again. I not only feel oddly possessed of infinite patience, but also quite aware of infinite possibilities.

I could feel my negative patterns return for a brief moment followed by laughter when I found myself wondering if I had gone too far today - as in over the edge :)

I live in the Chicago area, and the snow and ice has moved on and in its place we have rain and fog. And my basement has been busy attracting water!

By the way - I find it fascinating that the Abraham-Hicks material suggests that ALL physical matter is always Attracting. I guess I understand the gravity element to some degree, and I get the obvious things like the birds and the bees… but I never quite followed this thought all the way through before.

So while I was busy attracting dryness back into my basement with the handy dandy shop vac, I was taken away thinking about the awesome power of water. Just a small portion of the basement seemed to have standing water, and yet I discovered quite quickly just how much water there really was.

I was also immediately reminded of just how much water makes up our planet, our bodies, and so on. When we discover water outside of our planet, it makes instant headlines worldwide. I started dreaming about the ocean tides, and going for walks by the Fox River.

And all this as I bent over sucking up water from my basement floor!

The cliché “glass is half full” line has never done much for me. Like most clichés - it is founded on something real, but loses its meaning as it gets overused, or misused.

I have never considered myself an optimist by nature - but am learning a great deal these days about the Power of thought, and the choices we have each and every moment about how we think - and what we think about. This Power is a change agent like no other. And I am a big believer that we are all changing in life. Our personalities are only set in stone if we choose that path.

As I move towards intentionally choosing to embrace and tune my mind towards more Positive thinking - I would like to share my thoughts on this topic as part of my own personal “change management” program.

I feel that in the past several years, I have been naturally progressing towards a more positive outlook on life. This seems to be an outcome of inner work on several other items that I didn’t even know were related. The take away, however, is that I am not “by nature” an optimistic person.

As fate would have it, my family history is quite the opposite.

I grew up with a group of people that seemed almost comfortable with pain and suffering. I don’t mean this disrespectfully, as I love them very much. I don’t mean to judge them either. We all have our own journey to figure out. It wasn’t even the quality that stuck out most to me as I grew up. What I remember most about my parents is their unconditional love and acceptance… their lack of judgement towards others. I feel so blessed to have spent the time with them that I did. I can only hope some of their good nature rubbed off on me :)

But as I work on looking at life through a different lens, it is obvious to me now, in retrospect of course, why I struggled so greatly at times in my life.

I will preface the rest of this discussion with the note that I have NO real knowledge of quicksand aside from what I saw in movies growing up. Not sure how much research went into Abbott & Costello movies - but the *idea* of quicksand certainly stuck in my mind!

Negative thinking is like quicksand.

It seems you can just be walking along a path in life, and WHAMMO - you step onto ground that is no longer solid beneath your feet. You begin to sink before you even know why. The sinking is slow… and of course, your natural tendency is to look at your feet - at the ground - at what appears to be the source of the problem to try to figure it out. Of course, your natural tendency is to try to move your feet and legs, to try to run away from it.

As you sink, a negative thinker may overly generalize the situation with thoughts like these: “Why does this always happens to me. I am not going to get out of this one. This is all my fault. I should have chosen a different path. Why did that guide send me this way? He must not like me.” And with every negative thought, you fight harder and harder to get away from the sinking feeling.

And as any student of the movies can tell you, struggling after you have fallen into quicksand will only hasten your descent. The more you struggle, the faster you sink. The faster you sink, the greater your fears begin to grasp you and swallow up your perception until you are completely convinced there is no way out. You quickly exhaust yourself, and all the while you have seemingly only done what seems right and natural - tried to get out.

Positive thinking takes little effort. It is not about force. It is not about expending your precious resources and life force. You act when you *know* you need to, or when you want to - you know because you are in the moment… you are able to be in the moment because you have not filled your mind with fears and doubts about the future.

A Positive thinker may never encounter quicksand in life.

But even if you have trained your mind to think only Positive thoughts, this alone may not help you avoid the quicksand altogether.

The difference between a Positive thinker and a negative thinker, based on my experiences to date, is that a Positive thinker won’t struggle with the quicksand. This person will not begin to over think the situation… they don’t blame themselves, or the world. They don’t assume they will sink and die… in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

A Positive thinker *knows* this is a temporary state, and as such, this person is Open and is Attuned to the possibilities surrounding them.

They may see a branch nearby upon which they can rely to slowly and gently pull themselves out. They may detect solid ground within reach, and simply lean over and begin to pull themselves before they are really stuck.

Or, they may simply go about their mental business - day dreaming about what they might want for dinner, or about the great things they will accomplish and see on their walk once they get unstuck… and as they do this without struggle, they almost float in the quicksand… they sink so slowly that to an outside observer, they seem to not be stuck at all… and eventually, some like minded person will come along and lend a hand. The effort involved will be light, of course, because the Positive thinking person is barely entrenched at all.

This is the difference. It is not magical, or mysterious. It is within the grasp of every person. It is a simple matter of choice. Unfortunately, many people do not see their own power. There are many stumbling blocks responsible for this - but that is the topic for another time.