Category Archives: positive thinking

Dream A Big Dream

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I was listening to a wonderful seminar yesterday with Jack Canfield. He is the author behind the wonderful Chicken Soup for the Soul books, was featured on The Secret, and has written several books on positive thinking and achieving success. He is such an amazing person with a kind spirit, and I love that he is happy to share his knowledge and wisdom with others. 
This particular seminar was a motivational talk for authors who would like to achieve success with their own books, which came at a perfect time because Dan and I are each in the process of writing our own books and look forward to applying his wealth of information to our own lives. 
While he had tons of great advice for authors, 
the one universal theme that stuck with me the most was to dream big. 
When he wrote the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, he always referred to it as a bestselling book – right from the start. He visualized it sitting at the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. He imagined full displays in bookstores. He imagined selling millions of books in the first year. 
And he kept that dream alive even when almost 150 publishers turned him down. He kept it alive when it was finally printed and sales were dismal in the first few months. He kept it alive when the publisher was having doubts about it and said he would be lucky to sell 20,000 total copies. 
He believed in himself, and he continued to dream big. 
He kept raising the bar for himself and dreaming even bigger than before. 
Even bigger than he thought was possible. 
They now have nearly 200 books in the series and have passed all of his dreams along the way. He has had to come up with even bigger dreams, which is a great thing! 
He talked about how if you are dreaming and visualizing anyway – what’s the difference between a safe dream and a “shoot for the moon” dream? The universe and the energy to attract your dream don’t know the difference – your feeling behind this dream is what will bring it into fruition. Your emotion and desire and belief in knowing that you deserve this dream will make it real. 
So you might as well dream in a big way. 
Raise the bar for your own dreams. 
And then take action. 
Once you set a clear dream and truly believe it and see yourself living it, 
you can take action to make it a reality. 

I always have felt that if you meet the universe half way, amazing things can happen. 
You set your intention, which sets everything in motion… 
and the results can be magical if you truly believe. 
So let’s all dream bigger than ever before, and get ready for amazing results! 

The Power of Visualization

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It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to write a post about gratitude! 

Feel free to click here (or below) to learn more about our Gratitude Project. 
Okay – now for today’s post:
Today I am most grateful for the power of visualization.

Seeing it in action in someone else’s life inspires me and gives me the spiritual kick in the pants that I need to get focused and create it in my own life.

I was watching a tv show last night called, “The Lottery Changed My Life.”
It features people who have won the lottery and talks about all of the ways in which their lives have changed since winning. Usually the winners just talk about how they were lucky and just happened to get the winning ticket.
But last night’s winner was different, and I literally got chills when I heard her story. 
Before winning, she was desperately trying to make ends meet financially. Her brother had been killed in a tragic accident and left behind his four children. She had been trying to adopt them all, but two of them were still in foster care. She said that her mom believed in the power of visualization and had passed that along to her. 
So one night she wrote $112,000,000 on a piece of paper and put it underneath her pillow. She meditated while feeling how truly wonderful it would be to have this money. She knew with it she would be able to adopt her two nephews and would no longer worry about money. She acted as though she already had the money and thought about how she would spend it and what she would do with it. 
And three weeks later she won the lottery for $112,000,000.
Amazing.
Chills.
Wonderful.
And while it is all of these things, it also makes perfect sense.
We attract into our lives what we think about and what we believe we deserve. 
When we align our thoughts and our emotions – the sky is the limit. 
This story is a great motivator for all of us to think about the life that we want to live and then truly take the time to feel it. 
Because by doing so, it will become your reality. 
And knowing that we each have the power to create our best lives
 is definitely something to be grateful for!

50 Words

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This is a fun exercise and a great self-esteem boost!
Write down 50 positive words to describe yourself. 
Easy, right? 
Hopefully! 
But… sometimes we can be really hard on ourselves. Many of us are quick to praise other people and forget to praise ourselves. If we had to come up with 50 words to describe our loved ones, we could easily do this – and probably come up with many more! The powerful part of this exercise comes in when we turn that love back to ourselves. 
If you are able to, it might be helpful to create a special space for yourself before you begin to write. Light a candle – carve out some “you” time. Sit in a comfortable chair. Take some deep breaths to center yourself and get into a positive, loving space. Think about your gifts and strengths. And then write. 
If your inner critic appears while you are writing – just take notice of it. You don’t have to give it power. Recenter yourself and start again. Write down only positive, loving words.
If you are having a hard time with this exercise, think about what words your loved ones would use to describe you (only positive words, though!). 
Once you have your list, remember to go back to it from time to time. Add to it! Hang it up where you’ll see it often! And let the words sink in. 
Feel how powerful they are. 
Feel how wonderful you are.

Saturday Selection – A Great Book!

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Every Saturday, we will post a great find that we are excited to share with you all! It may be a book, a fellow blogger, or an artist – something that is inspirational and uplifting – something that we feel great about sharing! 
Today’s selection is a book that one of our customers recommended 
(thanks, Jen from Silver Peanut)!
I have always been a fan of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and I was reintroduced to Jack Canfield when I read The Secret. He is such a positive person with such great ideas on how we can all live our best lives, so I was really happy to learn about this book. I was happily surprised to see that the coauthors were Jeanna Gabellini and Eva Gregory – two wonderful women I have met through Twitter! 
(We even took Eva’s course, Wake Up to the Dream, which I’ll definitely talk about soon.)
Needless to say, I had high hopes for this book and I haven’t been disappointed! 
I am actually still reading it, but I couldn’t wait to share it with you! It’s so good that I wanted it to be my first Saturday Selection!
To let you know more about it, here is the book description directly from Amazon:
Do you ever wonder why some people always seem to be at the right place at the right time, enjoying good fortune, health, the ideal mate, happy kids, and achieve more than the average person could ever imagine? Have you wondered what makes them so ‘lucky’ or well connected? People who enjoy a heightened state of living and have their dreams and goals realized to their fullest potential have tapped into one of the oldest and influential principles for living a fulfilled life–the Law of Attraction. Life Lessons for Mastering the Law of Attraction teaches you what you need to know about living the Law of Attraction and how to create your own personal success through its concepts. 

Master coaches and experts in the Law of Attraction Jeanna Gabellini and Eva Gregory and one of the superstar contributors to the The Secret, Jack Canfield, have come together to share with you the powerful and life changing lessons and techniques of the Law of Attraction.

Filled with exercises, lessons, real-life stories, and proven key ingredients, Life Lessons for Mastering the Law of Attraction, from the creators of Chicken Soup for the Soul®, reveals how to master the law’s basic tenets, which include: defining moments in life, creating space to create prosperity, acting ‘as if,’ trusting in intuition, transforming thought, having an ‘attitude of gratitude,’ and changing the impossible to possible. People have been using these techniques for thousands of years to attract their desires and now you too will be able to create the life of your dreams.


What I really like about it is how simply it’s written. I think the more you surround yourself with positivity and abundance, the more it will sink into your everyday life and become reality for you. This book reaffirms that – it’s such an easy read but still so powerful at the same time.

I also love that they give you great writing exercises at the end of each section. It’s so helpful to actually write down your dreams and figure out any blocks that are keeping you from reaching them. 
I am looking forward to finishing it, and I know that I will go back and read it over and over. 

If you have any great books to recommend, please let us know!
Happy reading!

Affirmations and a Free Gift!

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I first learned about saying affirmations many years ago after reading Louise Hay’s books. She is an expert on them, and they were a huge part of her recovery from cancer. 
They can be both powerful and life changing.
If you haven’t said affirmations before, it might feel a bit strange at first. Especially when what you are saying doesn’t feel real yet. 
For example, say your affirmation is, “I live a calm, balanced life.” 

You created this affirmation because this is what you want for yourself – this is how your ideal life looks. 
However, at the present moment, your life may be far from this. That’s okay. We all have to start at the beginning. Say this affirmation to yourself and out loud often throughout your day. Look at yourself in the mirror and say it. Write it onto post-it notes, and hang them all around your house. Even if it feels strange at first, keep saying it – keep believing it – and before you know it, it will sink in, and you will be living a calm, balanced life. 
They really do work, but you have to keep at it and keep believing in it. When you say it to yourself, really feel what that calm balanced life feels like. Really remember why you created this affirmation to begin with. Really imagine yourself living this life each time you say the words. 
Affirmations are amazing tools for visualizing and creating our authentic lives. They are wonderful for our self esteem and our well being. 
Spend some time today writing down your affirmations. This is the fun part of the process – you get to dream and really think about what kind of life you want to create! When you write your own, make sure to write in the first person whenever possible.

To get you started on this journey, we are giving away our Soulful Journals Affirmations Screensaver! 

I created this screensaver for myself years ago, and I still use it today. I am happy to share it now with you! It comes with 12 affirmations – each paired with one of our paintings. 
Simply put “affirmations” in the subject line. We’ll then email it to you with instructions.
Have fun creating your affirmations, putting them up around your house, and saying them! You’ll be amazed at how much your life will change once they start to sink in! 

What Are You Thinking?

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Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions. – Einstein
This is one of my favorite quotes because it’s so true. 

We all have active imaginations, and we are all thinking a million thoughts each day – many of which we aren’t even aware of. Have you ever had someone ask you what you were thinking and realized that it was hard to put it into words because either 1.) you were thinking many different things at the same time or 2) you are so used to being on auto pilot that you had absolutely no idea. 
Regardless of whether you are conscious of your thoughts or not, you are creating your present life with them.
And this can either be a very positive thing or it can be a not-so-good thing. You get to decide. 
Think about how you see yourself and what you believe you are worth and how you deserve to live. Think about the messages that you tell yourself when something goes right in your life – are you excited and pat yourself on the back or are you doubtful that you deserve this wonderful thing and keep waiting for it to be taken away. Do you embrace the good or try to sabotage yourself somehow?
Keep in mind that you may have to do a little digging here to find out what your thought patterns are – you have had a lifetime of setting up unconscious habits for how you think about everything. The first step in changing your thoughts is to recognize what they are. 
I believe that what we think about today becomes our life tomorrow. If you think that you will never be able to live your dream life, than you won’t. If you truly believe that you will be happy and live the life you were meant to live – you will. 
It’s that simple. (Sort of.) 
Once you realize that your thoughts become your reality, you need to make a choice to become more conscious and aware of what you are thinking. That way when a negative thought pattern appears, you can recognize it and change it immediately to a positive thought – which (if done enough) will create a new pattern. 
This takes a lot of practice, and I am still getting the hang of it. I am in the awareness stage where I am learning to harness my thoughts and make sure they are the thoughts that I want to be thinking to create the life that I want to live.
If this is a new concept for you, just take some time to sit with it. Maybe for one day, try to be aware of your thoughts. You can even write some of them down. It may be very eye opening to read in black and white what you spend your time focusing on and thinking about. This is the first step. 
And the worst thing that can happen by changing any negative thoughts into positive ones is that you will be a much happier person. 
And you’re definitely worth it!