I created this new exercise based on an analogy that I heard in a Positive Thinking seminar on a cruise last summer.
The story was being told that your intentions are like a train. A strong desire pulls you towards your goal, but many people have so many resistant thoughts that they feel blocked from making much progress at all! In reality, their doubts, fears, and negative perspectives are keeping them stagnant because for every optimistic thought they have about making progress towards their goal, they offset that with two pessimistic ones.
This exercise is a brilliant way for you to become AWARE of your mental activity on a topic. Choose an area where you feel that you are not able to move forward in life, or to quickly make as much progress as you would like. Now write down the positive thoughts and feelings that you regularly have about this topic under a right handed column with a big arrow pointing to the right.
Now, under a big arrow that points left, write down the negative thoughts and feelings that you habitually rehearse in your mind about this topic. You may begin to notice that the amount and frequency of this column is greater than the one on the right! And that explains your stagnation in this area. Since your thoughts create your reality, your negative outlook is overpowering your positive hopes in this area and thus you are living the reality of that.
The good news is that as you become aware of your thought tendencies, you can diminish and even eliminate the negative thought patterns, replacing them with more optimistic thoughts that will move you towards your dreams!
For more help on managing your thoughts and cultivating positive mindset check out my happiness coaching sessions!