Releasing the Past to Make Room for

Something Better


Key Points For This Week

  • The best way to remove negative emotions from the past is to relive them, then choose to think differently about the event
  • Examine any limiting beliefs that may have formed as a result of that event
  • Change limiting beliefs by replacing negative thoughts with positive

Homework For This week

1. Complete worksheet 01 – Getting Rid of the Emotional Crap

2. When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts, immediately say, “that’s not like me”, then replace that though with a positive (usually opposite) thought.

3. Make a list of your positive character traits, qualities, skills, and talents. Write down every positive thing you can come up with about yourself, even if you don’t think it’s that amazing

4. Spend some time every day reading this list and affirming your ability to accomplish whatever you set your mind to.

5. Every day take a few minutes and use your imagination to change your your old, limiting self-image with an empowering new one. Simply close your eyes and conjure a mental image of yourself as you want to be. See yourself feeling confident, inspired, courageous, and successful. Before long, you’ll feel that way naturally!

Worksheets For This Week
Adobe Acrobat Required 1 – Getting Rid of the Emotional Crap

This Weeks Audio

Click the play button below to listen to the audio

This Week’s Reading

Letting go of past traumas is a little more challenging because they are often buried deeply in your subconscious mind. Yet buried or not, they can still wreak havoc on your level of happiness.

To bring one’s self to a frame of mind and to the proper energy to accomplish things that require plain hard work continuously is the one big battle that everyone has. When this battle is won for all time, then everything is easy.

- Thomas A. Buckner

One of the most powerful techniques I’ve learned for releasing old baggage is to relive the painful experiences, then choose to think differently about them. It doesn’t sound like much fun (and in fact it isn’t) yet it is definitely freeing. If you stop to think about it, much of your emotional baggage is buried simply because you didn’t allow yourself to work through it the first time around. You squelched down the feelings and ignored them, and yet there they lie, festering. If you unearth the painful memories and work through them like you could have done when they originally happened, you are able to release them and be free!

Start By Completing Page One of The Workbook – Getting Rid of Emotional Crap

This is a simple process you can undertake on your own, yet if you’ve had very large, life-altering traumas, you may want to consult a counselor or therapist to help you work through them. While the process is simple, it can be emotionally overwhelming, and having a trained professional as a guide can provide invaluable support. Feel free to call my office at 1-888-321-3684 to schedule an appointment or to find out more.

Once you’ve worked through your emotional blockages, you may also want to examine the underlying beliefs that formed because of them.

For example, an abusive childhood might result in a deep-seated belief that you’re not worthy of being loved. Working through painful memories can be freeing, but it won’t automatically change your beliefs about your worthiness as a human being. You could still find yourself avoiding intimacy and sabotaging your efforts to create a fulfilling life.

The good news is that once you identify your limiting beliefs, you can begin changing them with a little conscious focus.

Transforming Limiting Beliefs into Empowering Beliefs

Changing your existing beliefs, while not “easy”, can be a simple process. You just need the determination to keep at it until it “clicks” in your mind. In this lesson, I’ll also show you a few basic “tricks of the trade” to pave the way and get you started.

To start with, try these three steps:

  • Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. While positive thinking alone will not alter your existing beliefs, it is the first step to help you get in line with your thought patterns in a more conscious way. Rather than being a victim of your own thoughts, you can take control of them and choose them moment-to-moment. As you become aware of negative thoughts throughout the day, consciously replace them with equally positive (and usually opposite) thoughts. It seems weird at first, yet hang in there, it gets easier!

For example, if you find yourself thinking that you’ll never be successful because you just can’t seem to break out of your limiting behaviors, consciously affirm that you have just as much potential to be successful as anyone else.

Visualize yourself with the determination, courage, and optimism you’ll need to succeed. And the next time negative thoughts arise in your mind, go through the same process again.

Remember that it is a process and it will take time to get into the habit of thinking differently, but it does begin to have an effect on how you feel on a regular basis. And the better you feel, the more positively you’ll think. You end up creating a continuous cycle of positive thoughts, positive feelings, positive beliefs, and positive actions!

  • Develop a stronger belief in yourself. While you’re working on transforming the quality of your thoughts, you can also develop a strong belief in yourself and your abilities. A good way to start is by making a list of your positive character traits, qualities, skills, and talents. Write down every positive thing you can come up with about yourself, even if you don’t think it’s that amazing.

Then simply spend some time every day reading this list and affirming your ability to accomplish whatever you set your mind to. Over time, you’ll begin to feel more positive about yourself and more confident about your abilities, just because you’ve developed the habit to do so.

  • Empower and motivate yourself.Another wonderful tool for forming new beliefs is using your imagination to change your self-image. Visualization is an easy yet effective tool to replace your old, limiting self-image with an empowering new one. You simply close your eyes and conjure a mental image of yourself as you want to be.

See yourself feeling confident, inspired, courageous, and successful. Before long, you’ll find that you won’t have to manufacture these feelings; you will feel this way nearly all the time – naturally! Again, this exercise is most effective if you do it every day, even for just a few minutes.

What ARE The Keys To Happiness?

You already know that basing your happiness on external circumstances can be tenuous at best. So what does create feelings of happiness? Happiness is a personal concept that is probably different for each of us.

Take a moment to consider what happiness means to you. That’s one important step in understanding how you can bring more happiness into your life.

Think about the people, places, and things that fill you with joy and peace.

  • Do you feel happiest when you’re at home, or at work?
  • How about when you’re spending time with friends and loved ones?
  • Or when you’re reading an uplifting book, watching a funny movie, or donating your time to help others?

Whatever activities you enjoy the most, make an effort to bring more of them into your life.

It’s easy to sabotage yourself by placing restrictions on your happiness. You tell yourself that you’ll be happy if this or that happens, but not when the other thing happens. Based on what? Of course, certain situations just aren’t pleasant no matter what – yet for the most part, you can choose to enjoy most of your experiences and outcomes, even if they aren’t what you originally expected. And if you don’t enjoy it, you can at least stop resisting that it isn’t what you want, and choose to simply let it go!

Beyond all of this, however, most important is your willingness to accept that happiness is largely a choice you make in every moment, regardless of your surroundings. Happiness isn’t something anyone can give; it’s something you already have! All you need to do is choose it! You won’t find it at the mall, in a bottle or in the corner office! Just reach down inside yourself right now, and grab it. Drag it out and make it your new best bud! Which can be easier said than done I know, especially if you’re in the midst of difficult circumstances.

The true skill you must strengthen right now, Sport, is learning how to be happy on a basic level, even when your life isn’t perfect. Until you decide to be happy with what have and where you are right now, you’ll never be happy regardless of what you have and where you are.

By acknowledging that your life will never be “perfect,” you give yourself permission to enjoy your life as it is right now. And right now, this moment, is all you really have. So make the most of it!

When it comes right down to it, I think Abraham Lincoln said it best:

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

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