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Recently, Oregon Public Broadcasting highlighted Olympic athletes’ use of mental skills training, including positive self-talk, to help “boost performance.” Mental skills coach and and professor of exercise science and sports psychology at Pacific Lutheran University Colleen Hacker works with the US men and women’s hockey teams on mental toughness, positive self-talk, concentration training, pre-performance routines and imagining success using all senses.

The good news is, these techniques are appropriate for everyone. She gives this example of positive self-talk: “Let’s say a soccer player shot and missed the goal. Positive self talk would be, ‘Keep shooting. Keep putting pressure on the keeper. I’ll eventually get it.’” When practiced, this is a tool that can improve outcomes for anything any of us would like to accomplish.

For more information, read the full article here, see my book Positive Self-Talk for Children or visit my website www.healingfromdepression.com.

People sometimes ask me, “What are the best affirmations for practicing simplicity?” Although we try to make it complex, the essence of life is simplicity. Being a good parent to your children, having a loving relationship with your partner, feeling needed by others—it is these fundamental requirements for love and appreciation that nurture the human spirit.

The theme of simplicity is repeated over and over in the great spiritual teachings. Jesus tells us that “unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” To receive the truth, we must make ourselves like a child—open, accepting and trusting. Too often, however, we get lost in the hectic pace of modern life and lose touch with our real priorities.

Look at your own life. Has it become overly complex? Have you found yourself burdened by too many possessions or responsibilities? Take a deep breath and ask yourself, “What steps can I take to reduce the clutter so that I may live simply and joyously?”

Think how little it takes to lift up your spirits—a smile from your child, an unexpected day of sunny weather, a cold drink on a hot afternoon. As you learn to simplify your life, you will experience a freedom of the soul and lightness of heart. These priceless gifts are yours when you learn to focus on what is truly essential.

 Affirmations

 1. It’s a gift to be simple; it’s a gift to be free.

 2. I follow my heart wherever it takes me.

 3. I release all extra baggage from my life.

 4. I feel light and joyous

 5. I take delight in the simplest of things; even the ordinary gives me pleasure.

?

Words to Consider

 “Our life is fritted away by detail … Simplify, simplify.” –Thoreau

For more affirmations and meditations for daily life, read Words That Heal, available in paperback or now as an ebook. 

One of the simplest and most natural things that you can do to feel better–physically and emotionally–is to get a good night’s sleep. In this YouTube video, I discuss the importance of sleep in maintaining mental health and well as share a variety of solutions for keeping healthy sleep habits.

Sleep isn’t just “time out” from daily life. Sleep is an active state that is necessary for regenerating our body and promoting mental and physical health. If you suffer from depression or anxiety, it is quite possible that your sleep is adversely impacted. Sleep irregularities can bring about depression and they are among the early warning signs that either mania or depression is occurring. Symptoms include: trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, early morning awakenings (followed by ruminations), and sleeping too much. Sleep medication and tranquilizers can be useful in trying to break a pattern of sleeplessness, but they are only designed for short-term use. In my ebook, Healing From Depression Naturally, I discuss multiple strategies for getting a good night’s sleep,  such as those listed in the book No More Sleepless Nights by Peter Hauri.  Some of the strategies are:

• Try to develop a sleep schedule–a regular time of going to sleep and arising–and stick to it.
• Reduce caffeine and alcohol; eliminating cigarettes.
• Use the bed only for sleep and sex, not for other activities such as reading.
• Practice bedtime relaxation techniques.
• Get regular exercise during the day.

In addition, you may wish to be evaluated at a sleep clinic to rule out the possibility of physical problems such as sleep apnea. (Sleep apnea is a temporary suspension of breathing that occurs repeatedly during sleep. It often affects overweight people or those who have an obstruction in their breathing tract.)

For those who have experienced crippling insomnia, establishing regular and restorative sleep patterns makes all the difference in the world. Practicing good sleep hygiene AND treating your depression and anxiety can help you to return to a good night’s sleep. In this regard, here is an affirmation/mantra that was given to me by a client who repeated it to himself as he drifted off to sleep in order to stop his obsessive thoughts. It was written by a 13th century English monk and reads as follows:

All shall be well,
and all shall be well, 
and all manner of things shall be well. 

 

Many years ago I came across the idea of using affirmations as a form of prayer developed by the practitioners of Religious Science called affirmative prayer. Affirmative prayer combines the power of affirmations with the practice of prayer. When you pray using affirmative prayer, you are not asking something outside of yourself to give you something. Instead, you are claiming your good as if it has already come to you. Hence, affirmative prayer, like affirmations, is always stated in the present tense.

Here are the five steps of affirmative prayer, as described on the Science of Mind website:

Affirmative Prayer

Science of Mind uses a five-step affirmative prayer called spiritual mind treatment. The five steps are:

1. Recognition—know that God is all there is.

2. Unification—know that you are one with God.

3. Declaration—state your word for the circumstance you want to manifest.

4. Thanksgiving—give thanks for your word being acted upon by the Law of Mind.

5. Release—“And so it is!”

There is no beseeching to or urge to compel an outside entity in spiritual mind treatment.  As Ernest Holmes states in The Science of Mind:

Effective mental treatment is propelled by a consciousness of love and a realization that the Creative spirit is always at work….A treatment should be given in a calm, expectant manner and with a deep inner conviction of its reality, without any fear or any sense that the human mind must make it effective. The work is effective because the Law is always in operation.

People who practice affirmative prayer on a daily basis have reported profound changes in their lives. For example, when I was in the depths of a life-threatening depressive episode, I composed an affirmative prayer that I shared with the twelve members of my support team and asked them to say it with me for thirty days. Here is the affirmative prayer I shared with them.

With help from God, I am reborn to a new life. I have learned the lessons that the anxiety and depression came to teach and thus have fully and freely released these symptoms from my body/mind. They are replaced by inner peace, emotional stability, vitality, wholeness, wellness and joy. My brain chemistry is stabilized and in perfect balance. I am healed and made whole. Thank you spirit for healing.

This prayer may have saved my life, because seventy-two hours after the group and I started reciting it, my symptoms began to lift. Within ninety days I experienced a full healing. Try affirmative prayer for yourself, and let me know your results.

 

 

As part of my affirmations heal blog, I am now  posting weekly mediations and affirmations that will help you to use the power of affirmations to change your thinking, and therefore transform your life. This week’s affirmation topic is overcoming hopelessness using the affirmation “This Too Shall Pass.”

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

According to an ancient tale, a Sufi village was attacked and captured by a group of warriors. The king of the victorious tribe called the Sufi leaders and said that unless they fulfilled his wish, the entire village would be put to death the following morning . The king’s wish was to know the secret of what would make him happy when he was sad, and sad when he was happy.

The village people constructed a large bonfire, and all night long their wise men and women strove to answer the riddle: what could make a person happy when he is sad, and sad when he is happy? Finally, sunrise came and the king entered the village. Approaching the wise ones he asked, “Have you fulfilled my request?” “Yes!” they replied. The king was delighted. “Well, show me your gift.” One of the wise men then reached into a pouch and presented the King with a gold ring. The king was perplexed. “I have no need of more gold,” he exclaimed. “How can this ring make me happy when I am sad, and sad when I am happy?” Then the king looked again and this time saw an inscription. It read “This Too Shall Pass”.

So it is in your life. When everything is going according to plan, savor those precious moments and realize that in the due course of time they will be a distant memory. And, when the night is darkest and you can’t imagine things ever improving, remember that nothing in the physical world lasts forever. 

In this way, you will learn to accept both the good and bad times equally, understanding that all of life’s teachings are necessary for your spiritual growth. With this realization, you will be like the great saint who proclaimed, “One to me is Loss and Gain, one to me is Pleasure and Pain, one to me is Fame and Shame.”

Affirmations

1. Rather seek pleasure and avoid pain, I accept both as having equal benefit. 

2. What goes up must come down. 

3. What goes down must come up.

4. There is absolutely nothing that time and love cannot heal.

5. My old pains no longer hurt me. They have become a distant memory.

 6. Create your own 

Words To Consider
“Remember, no human condition is ever permanent;
then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too sorrowful in misfortune.”

Socrates