Belief and expectations

“Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as you can change your beliefs.”
— Unknown

Positive belief is very powerful. It is also can be called “optimism”. This is a secret discovered by all who succeed during very challenging life situations. Nelson Mandela, Ernest Shackleton, Eleanor Roosevelt — all admitted that what got them through their most challenging times was an ability to focus on the positive. They used what can be called “the magic of believing.” (Claude Bristol).

These optimistic people tended to succeed not only because they believed that everything would turn out right, but because they had the expectation of success that made them work toward that success until they achieved it.

Believing is seeing

“You must understand that seeing is believing, but also know that believing is seeing.” — Denis Waitley

You’ve heard this saying before: “Seeing is believing”. We find it easier to believe what we see with our own eyes. And the same holds true for mental “seeing”. Visualizing a scene or action in your mind tends to make it more real. And therefore as you “see” it, you come to believe in the reality of the image that you have created in your mind’s eye.

This has actually been tested and proven in hospital settings. Two patients both unable to get up to walk, their muscles beginning to atrophy are compared. One is told to visualize himself exercising his muscles every day. At the end of the test period, they are both measured and the one who “saw” himself exercising maintained more muscle tissue, as if he had actually been exercising. His mind didn’t know the difference and therefore his brain sent the messages that he was working out. Amazing!

At first visualization of a goal may seem forced and unnatural. Repeated visualizations, slowly create the belief that the desired goal is possible, then probable, then, finally, a fact.

And once a goal has become real in your mind, once you believe it, it starts to become real in your life. And then you can ACT on it because you have already convinced every cell in your body that this goal is attainable.

Keep on dreaming

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of [her] dreams, and endeavors to live the life which [she] has imagined, [she] will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Henry David Thoreau (Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach)

We don’t have all the answers, we don’t know exactly how it will unfold, but if we just keep plugging along on our path with our dreams in mind, we will eventually get where we want to go. And it will happen when we least expect it. You must have faith. You must believe in your dreams. Always believe in your dreams.

Optimism

“I would love to be an optimist, but I don’t think it’s going to work out.” — Anonymous

As Sarah Ban Breathnach reminds us in Simple Abundance, “Optimism, like the happiness habit, can be learned.” Well, that is good news for everyone. All we have to do is to let go of our thoughts of lack, our thoughts of suffering, our thoughts of failure. We must also realize that it may not all happen over night.

We must allow ourselves the grace to make these Real Life Changes day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. They may seem like baby steps at first, but even a baby learns how to run if you give it the freedom try and to make mistakes along the way and learn from those very mistakes.

Begin the change to optimism today by smiling at those that cross your path. Believe in yourself no matter what task you plan to accomplish. If there are clouds in the sky, realize that they too will pass and the sun will shine again. It always does. And love will shine in your soul if you give yourself a friendly nudge in the right direction.

Believe in your dreams

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”
— Langston Hughes

What are dreams? Dreams are our passions. They are the goals that live in our heart, but are often pushed aside for the goals we feel we should have, the ones we feel are acceptable or necessary to have in life.

Honor the hidden dreams of your passions even if you cannot accomplish them right now. Believe in them and allow them to unfold when they are ready to enter into your life. When you allow your dreams to live in you and in your heart, you will find yourself flying higher in joy than when you try to bury them or deny their existence.

Keep dreaming, and keep dreaming big. When you least expect it they may greet you at your door.