The key to developing a Positive Mindset is to reprogram our brains.

How can we do that? First, there are some basic principles to understand:

1. Our brain is like a computer; it accepts whatever programs it has been given. The brain does not distinguish between what is true or false, or between what we want or what we don’t want. It just accepts whatever is programmed into it without judgment.

2. Our mind is the computer’s programmer. To reprogram the brain, the programs the brain has been given need to be changed. Changing our mind means changing our perceptions and beliefs, which come from our thoughts.

3. To continue the computer analogy, how we feel and how we react are the print-out of the brain’s program - the tangible results. Our results occur because of how our brains have been programmed. Therefore, if we want to have different results, we have to reprogram our brains.

The formula to reprogram your thoughts?

A. Become aware of what you have been thinking.

B. Notice the words that you use when you talk to yourself.

C. Observe how those words make you feel emotionally and in your body. Do you feel uplifted, empowered and expansion, or do you feel down, lifeless, contracted?

D. If the thoughts have caused unpleasant emotions or feelings in your body, note that that is an alert system to you to change your thoughts to the positive.

Exercise to Reprogram your Thoughts:

1. What is the situation/circumstance/interaction/event to which I’m reacting? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. How am I feeling emotionally?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What was/am I saying/thinking to myself?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. How am I feeling physically?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. How am I acting, behaving as a result? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is this how you want to see yourself? Is this how you want to feel?

If the answer is “No,” watch for my next post to learn how to intercept those negative thoughts and switch them to positive ones that help you feel calm, cleaer-headed, and creative.