A Happy Place

July 27th, 2015

Where is your happy place? Where is that place that when you bring it to mind, a smile parts your lips, that “ahhh” feeling permeates your whole body and you relax into a little bliss?

Maybe it’s a place from your past. Maybe it’s a place you want to experience in the future. Maybe it’s a fantasy place. Whatever and wherever it is, it is the key to better thoughts and better feelings. It’s the thought that improves your mood in just a few seconds.

If I asked you to visualize cutting a cold lemon into quarters and putting one of those quarters into your mouth and tasting the dripping juice, you would start to pucker and salivate. Why? Because the thought in your mind directly influenced how your body responded.

We can’t control every thought that comes into our mind but from time to time we can think better thoughts. We can hold a thought that actually improves our mood, our outlook and even our immune system.

Go to your happy place as often as you can. See it in as much detail as possible. Enjoy it for a moment or for several minutes. Think of it as your own mini vacation, no reservations required and enjoy!

(c)2015 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

Facebook – Sundrops On Life

 

Imagination

July 20th, 2015

Imagination is one of the strongest tools we have in creating the life we want. But imagination has a dark side too.

Imagination is creating a scenario in your mind. Every object whether it be a toothpick or a skyscraper started off in the imagination of someone who then paired it with action and Voila! a toothpick or a skyscraper or anything else.

Sounds like a wonderful, creative force filled with infinite possibilities. So where is the dark side of imagination?

When we look into our future and use our imagination anything and everything is possible. BUT when we look into our past and use our imagination nothing other than what actually happened is possible.

The dark side of imagination is in trying to create a different past. The past is written and not one letter can be changed. It is the journey of a fool to use imagination to envision a different past. “What if I had said this or done that differently?” ” What if he did this or she did that?”

The past is done, done, done! Every moment you try rewriting it, you lose a precious moment of being able to actually create a better future.The past holds no more possibilities. Be done with it. If you can’t see the past as it actually was, don’t go there!

Imagine your best future. Stand tall and always look straight ahead. See with your imagination and paired with action, you’ll soon see it with your eyes. A better life starts right now in your imagination. Imagine that!

(c)2015 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

Facebook – Sundrops On Life

 

Guilt

July 13th, 2015

What follows you around like a giant mosquito, always buzzing so you know it’s around and when you think it’s gone the familiar sting tells you it’s not? It’s guilt.

Some people feel guilty about everything regardless of whether or not they are at fault. “I’m sorry the ocean is so salty and it ruined our vacation” “I’m sorry that I didn’t know what you were thinking” .

Some people hide their guilt and walk around with a perpetual hundred pound weight on their chest. It doesn’t matter whether or not they were actually at fault. The only thing that matters in both cases is the perception that somehow it was their fault.

Guilt is a powerful feeling that can help us to change for the better or paralyze us into inaction. How can we see it in a positive light when we believe, right or not, that we did something wrong? Forgetting is an impossibility.

We hear about forgiving yourself but in order to forgive you have to take a higher position and pass an order of forgiveness to yourself. How can you take a higher position, in other words act as a judge, when guilt has laid you so low?

Guilt will weaken you and it can only be tamed one way. You have to become stronger than the guilt. If the guilt is pervasive “I’m sorry for everything!” you must rein it in and see it in the light. Is it really, really, really your fault? If so, take responsibility and apologize ONCE. If it is not your fault, stand your ground FOREVER.

We all make mistakes or we haven’t really lived. We cannot change one iota of the past. If you have done wrong, rectifying it is sometimes possible. Learning from it is always possible. Learn and move on. Get strong, not arrogant. Be the door that only allows love to enter and not the doormat. Be strong, wonderful you.

(c)2015 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

Facebook – Sundrops On Life

 

Let go

July 6th, 2015

Is it a sign of great strength to hold on to a hot frying pan handle? Is it a sign of courage to pick up something that is way too heavy for you? Is it a sign of bravery to hold on to a mad bull’s tail? And one more…Is it a sign of loving yourself to hold on to the hurts from your past?

​ Sometimes the smartest and most effective thing you can do is to let go. I don’t mean forget because unless you get some form of dementia you will never forget but you can learn to let go.

You let go of the frying pan and it still hurts for a while but you don’t pick it up again to figure out why it hurts. You let go of a weight that is too heavy but you don’t keep picking it back up to understand why you get injured when you do. You let go of the mad bull’s tail but you don’t grab it again to see if you can figure out why he’s mad.

​ You let go of your hurts not by waking them up and asking them to hurt you again so that you can figure them out. You let go of your hurts by being gentle with them, letting them rest in the past where they belong.

Your hurts will always be connected to you but your strength, courage and bravery grow from repeatedly putting them into a safe, quiet place in your mind. Every time they come out and scream for your attention and replays, let go of the fruitless desire to find some new revelation.

The most powerful affirmation is to talk directly to the thoughts and say either out loud or to yourself ” Go in peace. Thank you”. Say it as often as they pop up but do it gently.

There is great strength in letting go and the more you practice, the stronger you get. Here’s to being stronger every day!

(c)2015 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

Facebook – Sundrops On Life