The Art of Positive Thinking

I've been thinking about positive thinking and visualization a lot in these first few months of 2012. Around the beginning of the year, my friend Lindsay sent me her copy of "The Secret," which, in a nutshell, defines the great secret of life as being able to visualize good things into your life.

Either you believe there are possibilities in this, or you think it's complete bunk. I choose to believe there are possibilities. It's the law of attraction--have a positive mindset and a willingness to believe good things can happen, and generally, they do (so long as you're also willing to work towards making them happen).

This has been on my mind a lot lately because of various events in my life, namely reaching 80 total pounds of weight loss, wearing my size 4 jeans to choir rehearsal last night, and, of course, the Great Job Search and my recent offer of employment (albeit temporary employment) by ESL Arts Advantage.

I fully believe that the good things that have been happening in my life are a result of my own hard work, but also of my own belief that I deserve them and that they can happen.

All of this came crashing into my head this morning at the end of a two-and-a-half mile run. I've been struggling in my running in the last couple of weeks. It seems like a few days of rainy weather can set me back whole weeks--or maybe that's just my confidence flagging. Whatever it is, I went out this morning determined to have a good running day. So before I left, I posted the following to Twitter: "I am going to have a FANTASTIC run today!"

I set out on my normal warm-up walk, playing my Songs For Running playlist on the iPod, basking in the sunshine. Walking is not a problem these days. It's gearing up to run, worrying about speed and distance and cramping and possible shin splints and, oh, is it time to replace my shoes? that gets me. When I reached my starting point for the run, I reminded myself of that Tweet, sent out in the universe. I owed it to myself, and to anyone who may have read it, to make it be true. After all, I don't like to lie.

It wasn't my easiest run ever, but I did eventually hit my stride and get into a nice groove. Before I knew it, I was approaching the end of my course and finding that while my time wasn't particularly fast, it was respectable, and I had run all but thirty seconds of that two-and-a-half miles. A fantastic run, indeed, considering I couldn't even drag myself out there yesterday after my strength training workout.

I've been practicing positive thinking in other areas of my life, as well--visualizing myself acing a job interview, imagining the phone call in my head in which a school district offers me a teaching position. I don't believe that it makes the universe sit up and throw a job my way; rather, it makes me feel confident, and that confidence inspires others to believe in me as well.

There are good things happening as a result. I got the summer job, and I've been accepted as a substitute teacher in a local school district. I'm building my private piano lessons studio up little by little. The weight continues to steadily melt off, the muscles get stronger. More and more, I am visualizing myself with a flat tummy, with gorgeous arms and shoulders, and feeling my best ever.

My point here is simple: getting rid of the negative thoughts, as much as possible (they happen, you just have to beat them down with a large stick), and focusing on the positive ones, can make a huge difference in how your life works out. The people who complain, and focus on what they don't have, never seem to move forward because they're unable to get unstuck. I've been there, and I've made a concentrated effort to change it.

Now, if I could just visualize that great guy I know into asking me out...; )