Success or Failure – The Key to Problem Solving is Attitude

by Cheryl Brewster

What if our problems aren’t the REAL problem? What if the real problem lies in our attitude about the problem? That’s what Norman Vincent Peale, father of positive thinking cautioned when he said “Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.”

Have you noticed that when you’re on edge with a problem that it can become difficult to stay positive and focused? Have you noticed how your mood is affected and your normal resiliency is challenged? Research shows that it’s easier to believe the” bad stuff ” when faced with challenges that make us feel unhappy or nervous—a phenomenon known as negative memory bias. “Our moods shape our ability to recall things about ourselves,” explains University of Toronto Psychotherapist, Zindel Segal, PhD. “Naturally, when you’re feeling down, it’s easier to recall failures or times when you’ve messed up. The mind is mired in a negative view. The same holds true for anxiety: Someone who is timid or frightened might be leery of a new situation, might look for comfort in ways she’s been able to secure it before. It’s staying with the devil you know.”

So to solve our problems, we need to be AWARE and check out our ATTITUDES… a subtle but hugely important step that’s easy to miss because it appears so obvious that we skip it.
In the flying industry, a detailed check-list and “walk-around” the aircraft takes place before each flight…. no matter how seasoned a pilot is, this checklist and walk around must be completed each and every time. So too with us, at the start of each day, a check-list and  walk-around our attitudes, will keep us safe, prevent problems that could have been avoided, and keep us motivated in personal effectiveness to reach our dreams and goals.

attitude pirate problemAttitude Checklist

1. Mindfulness
Defined as “paying attention in a certain way, on purpose, without judgement,”(Jon Kabbat-Zinn), mindfulness helps keep our awareness (attention) engaged so we’re able to act consciously instead of unconsciously. Developing mindfulness improves our understanding of what’s going on in any situation. It creates a “pattern interrupt ,” so that instead of being distracted or overcome by emotions or messy thinking we determine where our attitude really is – effective, healthy and empowered, or needing an “attitudinal adjustment.”
Application: pick an area in life that you’d like to bring more success to. Take a few deep breaths and observe from mindfulness… what do you see or hear from this quiet place?

2. Enthusiasm
“Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.” Benjamin Disraeli
Enthusiasm re-frames problems and offers new perspectives…. it grows hope, optimism and gratitude, the great elixirs of transformation. Enthusiasm opens pathways to new ways of thinking which brings more choices in how to respond.  Application: How can enthusiasm help you work effectively in the challenged areas of your life? Decide and take Action!

3. Action
“You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, “I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.” (Joel Olsteen). Solutions come through action.
Application:  Strengthen your commitment to yourself. What action will you take to move through your challenges? Because thought precedes all action, what thoughts do you now need to think? What is that internal communication that needs to take place? Commit to action from these empowered thoughts. This is self-inspired, personal development at its best.

4. Affirm a positive, enthusiastic mindset to fuel consistent action
Constant, repeated self talk and images that are positive and rewarding, focus the subconscious from what we don’t want to what we do want (and believe we can create).
Be vigilant in catching thoughts and words to “release and replace.” E.g., thinking/saying “I’m always behind, there’s never enough time in the day” is a self-fulfilling prophecy…
Application: Affirm a new mindset and actions with “in-process” statements like “I have a new attitude! Each day  and in every way, I’m more and more effective in accomplishing my goals!”  Here’s one of my favorite daily affirmations based on the Hindu word of “Namaskar”:

“I salute the divinity in myself.
I am strong and able.
I can do all that I need to do this day.
My mind is alert, my body vital and healthy and my way will be strewn with golden opportunities.
No matter what this day may bring to me, there is in me that which is great enough to meet it, overcome it, and be blessed by it!”
Namaskar

5. Make the word “Perseverance” a part of your vocabulary. Be Persevering for and with Enthusiasm!Winston Churhill Enthusiasm
Norman Vincent Peale couldn’t say enough about it:  “Enthusiasm spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.”
Application: When challenge comes, what if enthusiasm became your first response mechanism? Imagine the stress prevention that would take place in this one small technique?

Success or Failure, Mediocrity or Accomplishment, Attitude makes all the difference because it’s a “now” process that activates the happiness, peace and prosperity in the NOW, guaranteeing a future that just keeps getting better and better, no matter what.

If you enjoyed this blog, please ensure you are signed up for both my newsletter and quote of the day. The Intuitive Life is committed to “Inspiring Conscious Changemakers.” I welcome your participation in our growing community! Cheryl Brewster is a certified personal and business intuitive, whose specialty is empowerment through change.

Inspire a Fresh Beginning for Better Results!

by Cheryl Brewster

Inspire a fresh beginning! Inspiration is defined as a good idea; a force or influence that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create.

Inspiration is a vehicle of intuition,  essential to personal development and successful business growth. It’s food for the soul! When we get stuck (which is a part of stretching comfort zones), the Power of Inspiration calms our worried minds, invigorates our pioneering spirit and fires our creativity. Inspiration is the door to infinite possibility, so let’s open it!

Are-You-Willing-To-Be-The-DoorwayIt’s downright SMART to make room for inspiration:
1. Inspiration feeds our goals – an inspired goal is far more likely to be completed than one that’s not.
2. Inspiration is the power of positive change:  if you’ve got something you’ve been avoiding or delaying, what would inspiration tell you? I guarantee some immediate answers you’d never have “thought of!”
3. Studies have shown that inspired people get more done and experience more purpose and gratitude.

To be inspired and stay inspired: sign
1. Inspiration cannot be forced… it “comes” to us… however what helps, is to make time for it…. unplug, relax, and for a few moments right now, take a deep breath and ask yourself, what inspires me?
2. Create an “Inspiration List” – in only a couple of minutes you’ll feel more invigorated and connected.
2. What does inspiration  invokes in terms of feelings and images and write/draw those too. Use the five senses to go even deeper… what song best represents this inspiration? Find it and play it. What body movement would honour this inspiration? Do it. Any sort of physical action helps to make a connection to the brain – to “lock-in” this experience, especially done repeatedly to strengthen new neural pathways.
3. Check your goals – do they inspire you? If not, re-evaluate. If however, your task must be completed, regardless of whether you feel inspired or not, ask Inspiration for its advice… what would make this task more palatable? By connecting with the feelings/images, you’ll find a greater capacity to take action.
4. Inspiration feeds commitment – rather than flash in the pan ideas, inspiration takes you through the long-haul… add an affirmation to the inspiration to fire-up commitment even further.
5. Inspiration is a component of integrity – it keeps us true to what’s important to us and shows us where we are/are not living our values – it helps us course correct and drop negative habits that have built up over time.

Inspire a fresh beginning! Whether personal development, relationships or business goals, inspiration is the energy of action, accomplishment and positive change. It keeps us in sync with the deeper meaning of life, aligned with our values and invites greater openness and flexibility. Essential to positive relationships, communication and common goals, inspiration is a key force behind successful business practices and inter-personal relationships.

 Action Step:
What would inspire you more at home and at work? What steps can you take this week to be in integrity with these possibilities? Inspire a Fresh Beginning, and engage faith, focus and follow-through to determine and accomplish the goals that feed the prosperity of your soul on all levels.

If you enjoyed this blog, please share and send us your comments!  TheIntuitiveLife.com is committed to inspired coaching and workshops that promote positive, powerful change, using Intuition, Inspiration and Imagination – for more information on Cheryl Brewster and her work as a personal and business Intuitive, Coach, and Speaker, email us at cheryl@theintuitivelife.com. Here’s to your Fresh Beginning!

 

 

 

The Healing Power of Imagination – It Works!!!

by Cheryl Brewster

Stress can be deadly. While short-term stress can create anxiousness and overwhelm, we know all too well, that the cumulative affects of stress over time diminishes both the quality and quantity of life. A 2013  report from the  American Psychological Association, American Institute of Stress, in New York reported that:

  • The annual costs to employers in stress related health care and missed work is $300 BILLION!
  • Of people who regularly experience physical symptoms, 77%  are caused by stress
  • 73% Regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress
  • 48% Feel their stress has increased over the past five years

What does this mean to you?

  • With 48% of those studied feeling that stress has increased over the past five years, you have a 50/50 chance of being a part of this growing statistic.
  • If you are a person committed to self growth, you are going to experience stress as you challenge your comfort zones
  • Finding tools that are effective, get results and reverse the stress/death connection are imperative
  • The ability to do things differently is paramount
  • One of the fastest, easiest, most effective tools is the healing power of imagination, and it costs us nothing! Except willingness,  a paradigm shift and a bit of time

How imagination heals

In his book Jung and the Alchemical Imagination, author Jeffrey Raff concludes that “disease is never a purely physical event, but includes the spirit as well.” He  says that imagination can be responsible for the onset of disease, and has a great part to play in its healing. Authors Ann and Barry Ulanov of the Healing Imagination concur; they believe  imagination helps us correspond to grace – that’s how it heals.

This is where it gets personal for each of us so using myself as an example: As a business intuitive I teach  big picture thinking,  as a coach I mentor spiritual healing , and as a  mother, to nurture and guide my children,  I rely on the healing power of imagination in::

  • its ability to get my attention
  • using all of my senses
  • waking me up to a bigger picture of life that includes  healing,  solutions and creativity that I couldn’t otherwise see
  • getting me  out of the nonsense of my negative self talk

Simple Strategies to harness the healing power of imagination:

  1. Ask yourself, “what would effortlessness do?” to get   out of the stress habit and into pure imagination
  2. Breathe into your imagination ….  create some space for it
  3. Use Active Imagination (a process that Carl Jung created), as the bridge between the conscious and the subconscious (this includes dream interpretation, visualization, and daydreaming)
  4. Whatever stress or illness may be in your life, view it as a movie…. how did it get there? What will help to heal it? Notice the pictures, images or body sensations that you experience
  5. Commit to take some form of action…. write down what had the most compelling energy from the above  and use discernment… will action on your part take you further into grace or farther away from it?
  6. Do more of what you love… the state changes created from simple things like your favorite song, exercise,  a favorite flavor of chewing gum or fresh flowers take you to a much higher energy frequency which improves corresponding critical thinking and decision making
  7. Pay attention to signs, symbols and synchronicity
  8. Have a check-in or feedback loop to test and measure the results so you can drop what doesn’t work and expand what does

Embrace Simplicity
Stress becomes ugly, rampant and deadly when we lose our capacity to live from our imagination. Just take a look at the results in your life right now: where there’s shortage, lack or illness, there will be one of two things: lack of positive imagination or undisciplined, negative imagination. Until you become aware, nothing will change… the steps outlined here are beautifully simple. Are they so simple however, that you won’t take them? Imagine what would happen if you did?

Cheryl Brewster is a Personal and Business Intuitive who takes clients from Stress to Success through  Consultations, Coaching Programs and Seminars. She lives in Vancouver, Canada and is a dynamic speaker with leading edge material that captivates and inspires her audiences to greater success in life and business..

Testimonial:
Cheryl Brewster is a valuable contributor to the Business Management Course at Rhodes Wellness College. She is a dynamic facilitator, combining entrepreneurial wisdom and strategies for effective results. The students’ experience of Cheryl was amazing. We are thrilled to have Cheryl Brewster as an entrepreneurial/facilitation resource and recommend her services highly. – Lisa Brown, Operations Manager, Rhodes Wellness College