What you think about and how you think about it matters.

Focusing on frustration is fruitless – it only makes you bog down in negativity.
Dwelling on injustices is depressing – it only makes you feel more abused.

Communication is what prepares the way for change.
Action is what moves you from a bad situation to a good one.

The difference between choosing to dwell on frustrations and choosing to communicate and act boils down to one thing. Your attitude. And no matter what anyone says, you’re the only one who can control that.

Your attitude will determine your thoughts which will determine your actions which will determine your opportunities which will determine your life.

Choose well.

THE 30-SECOND RULE GIVES PEOPLE THE TRIPLE-A TREATMENT

All people feel better and do better when you give them attention, affirmation, and appreciation. The next time you make contact with people, begin by giving them your undivided attention during the first thirty seconds. Affirm them and show your appreciation for them in some way. Then watch what happens. You will be surprised by how positively they respond. And if you have trouble remembering to keep your focus on them instead of on yourself, then perhaps the words of William King will help you. He said, “A gossip is one who talks to you about other people. A bore is one who talks to you about himself. And a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself.”

THE 30-SECOND RULE GIVES PEOPLE ENERGY

Psychologist Henry H. Goddard conducted a study on energy levels in children using an instrument he called the “ergograph.” His findings are fascinating. He discovered that when tired children were given a word of praise or commendation, the ergograph showed an immediate upward surge of energy in the children. When the children were criticized or discouraged, the ergograph showed that their physical energy took a sudden nosedive.

You may have already discovered this intuitively. When someone praises you, doesn’t your energy level go up? And when you are criticized, doesn’t that comment drag you down? Words have great power.

What kind of environment do you think you could create if you continually affirmed people when you first came into contact with them? Not only would you encourage them, but you would also become an energy carrier. Whenever you walked into a room, the people would light up! You would help to create the kind of environment everyone loves. Just your presence alone would brighten people’s days.

1. Smile: If you smile, you’ll notice two things: smiles are contagious, and they actually improve your mood.  People respond to smiles with friendliness and generosity, which could turn your whole day around. Smiles even work during telephone conversations, where they can be heard clear as day by whomever you’re speaking with.

2. Project Confidence: Boost the positive energy in your communications by providing additional non-verbal cues: upright posture, firm handshake, uncrossed arms, calm demeanor, and appropriate eye contact. 

3. Dress the Part: You don’t have to dress like James Bond everyday (unless maybe you’re a caterer), but dressing near the peak of appropriateness for your surroundings has 2 important effects: people may lend you greater legitimacy and respect, and because of this, you may feel and act more empowered.  Superficial or not, the effect is real.   

4. Say Something Nice: Every day, life presents you with another opportunity to say something kind, generous, and genuine to somebody. Whether it’s complimenting a co-worker on his new tie or admiring someone’s accomplishment, boosting the positive energy in someone else’s life boosts it in your own too.

5. Increase Positive Relationships: If you surround yourself with positive, supportive people instead of deadbeats and abusers – well, that’s half the battle, isn’t it?

6. Group Learning: Find something productive that you love to do (writing, dancing, acting, programming, or whatever) and then find a group of like-minded people who are interested in learning this activity with you. The group is your support structure and your growth catalyst, and it will help you accomplish something you can be proud of.

7. Morning Gratitude: Every morning, remind yourself of all the things you have to be thankful for: relationships, shelter, food, family, and whatever else makes you feel happy to be alive.

8. Turn a Problem into a Puzzle: Sometimes a single word can make all the difference, and “problem” is one of those words. I’ve often wondered if children would take more readily to mathematics if we called them math puzzles instead of math problems: problem is such a negative, hopeless, impotent word. When a problem descends upon your life, think of it as a puzzle. Is there a way to solve this puzzle? If so, start putting the pieces together, calmly and with confidence.

9. Fill that Glass: Yes, the world is full of negative circumstances that require your attention, so don’t bury your head in the sand. But do remind yourself that there are just as many positive forces in the world as negative ones; your fixation on the negative is a matter of perspective and choice.

10. Make Negative Thoughts Count: Make sure the time you spend thinking unhappy thoughts is productive: planning solutions, developing serenity, or learning a valuable lesson.

11. Positive Introspection: Take time to inventory the characteristics that make you valuable: skills, attitudes, generosity, capacity to love, and so forth. Be aware of all the wonderful abilities you bring to the table. Write them down if you have to. Everyone has something valuable to contribute.

12. Positive Affirmation: I’ve never been much of an affirmation specialist, but my motto on affirmations is simple: as long as affirmations are representative of reality and are not keeping you from dealing with true problem areas, they’re good; do them if they work.

A group of botanists went on an expedition into a hard-to-reach location in the Alps, searching for new varieties of flowers. One day as a scientist looked through his binoculars, he saw a beautiful, rare species growing at the bottom of a deep ravine. To reach it, someone would have to be lowered into that gorge. Noticing a local youngster standing nearby, the man asked him if he would help them get the flower. The boy was told that a rope would be tied around his waist and the men would then lower him to the floor of the canyon.
Excited yet apprehensive about the adventure, the youngster peered thoughtfully into the chasm. "Wait," he said, "I’ll be back," and off he dashed. When he returned, he was accompanied by an older man. Approaching the head botanist, the boy said, "I’ll go over the cliff now and get the flower for you, but this man must hold onto the rope. He’s my dad!" – Our Daily Bread.

F.B. Meyer wrote about two Germans who wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They hired three guides and began their ascent at the steepest and most slippery part. The men roped themselves together in this order: guide, traveler, guide, traveler, guide. They had gone only a little way up the side when the last man lost his footing. He was held up temporarily by the other four, because each had a toehold in the niches they had cut in the ice. But then the next man slipped, and he pulled down the two above him.

The only one to stand firm was the first guide, who had driven a spike deep into the ice. Because he held his ground, all the men beneath him regained their footing. F.B. Meyer concluded his story by drawing a spiritual application. He said, "I am like one of those men who slipped, but thank God, I am bound in a living partnership to Christ. And because He stands, I will never perish." – Our Daily Bread.

The story is told of a monastery in Portugal, perched high on a 3,000 foot cliff and accessible only by a terrifying ride in a swaying basket. The basket is pulled with a single rope by several strong men, perspiring under the strain of the fully loaded basket. One American tourist who visited the site got nervous halfway up the cliff when he noticed that the rope was old and frayed. Hoping to relive his fear he asked, "How often do you change the rope?" The monk in charge replied, "Whenever it breaks!" – Daily Walk.

The 3-year old felt secure in his father’s arms as Dad stood in the middle of the pool. But Dad, for fun, began walking slowly toward the deep end, gently chanting, "Deeper and deeper and deeper," as the water rose higher and higher on the child. The lad’s face registered increasing degrees of panic, as he held all the more tightly to his father, who, of course, easily touched the bottom. Had the little boy been able to analyze his situation, he’d have realized there was no reason for increased anxiety. The water’s depth in ANY part of the pool was over his head. Even in the shallowest part, had he not been held up, he’d have drowned. His safety anywhere in that pool depended on Dad.

At various points in our lives, all of us feel we’re getting "out of our depth" — problems abound, a job is lost, someone dies. Our temptation is to panic, for we feel we’ve lost control. Yet, as with the child in the pool, the truth is we’ve never been in control over the most valuable things of life. We’ve always been held up by the grace of God, our Father, and that does not change. God is never out of his depth, and therefore we’re safe when we’re "going deeper" than we’ve ever been. – Charles Ryrie.

Wow! Now that our hearts are beating regularly, let’s consider what we have just read over a cup of Java, and thank the Lord that He will never leave us, or forsake us, and also for the power of the Holy Spirit, that reminds us of these powerful promises.

Loving Father, I thank you for the beautiful weekend that I have just had. Help me by the power of the Holy Spirit to start off this week, by taking on board some of the advice that I have just read, and to remember that I am safe in my Savior’s arms. In the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Within every love, there is fear; the fear of separation from that which you love.

A child fears separation from her parents, a lover from his love, the body fears separation from the soul and the soul from its Source Above.

So what do you love? Look at your worries and you will know. If you worry about your debts and financial future, then it is the material world you love, because you believe in the material world and you see it as the source of all good. If you sit and worry over the comments of others and the glances they throw at you then it is social acceptance that you love, that you have made into your god.

Cleave to the True Source Above and your heart will have no room for the fears of this world.

Tzvi Feeman

Psalms 112:1-10 ¹ Praise the Lord! (NLT)

   How joyful are those who fear the Lord
      and delight in obeying his commands.
² Their children will be successful everywhere;
      an entire generation of godly people will be blessed.
³ They themselves will be wealthy,
      and their good deeds will last forever.
⁴ Light shines in the darkness for the godly.
      They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.
⁵ Good comes to those who lend money generously
      and conduct their business fairly.
⁶ Such people will not be overcome by evil.
      Those who are righteous will be long remembered.
⁷ They do not fear bad news;
      they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.
⁸ They are confident and fearless
      and can face their foes triumphantly.
⁹ They share freely and give generously to those in need.
      Their good deeds will be remembered forever.
      They will have influence and honor.
¹⁰ The wicked will see this and be infuriated.
      They will grind their teeth in anger;
      they will slink away, their hopes thwarted.

Proverbs 27:17

¹⁷ As iron sharpens iron,
      so a friend sharpens a friend.

I hope, I would do that for you, and you would do that for me. We sharpen each other, that is so profound if you take a moment to think about it.  Hebrews continues with the theme of faith; but it draws into complete focus the fact that we are God’s children, and that he looks upon us as a Father, and  that is a difficult thing to accept, at the heart level sometimes, even though we are Christians and we know this. We have been taught to understand that God, the one God of all, is our Father, and that he is guiding us and teaching us and disciplining us as a Father.

The scripture clearly shows us that God is a loving Father so He may thwart something that we are trying to do out of love for us, and we need to be sensitive to what He is doing in our lives.  He loves us; His heart is good towards us; and what He is after is our freedom, and so sometimes the discipline can be painful.  But it’s to free us of something that is binding us.

Give someone a compliment. Hold the door open for someone, don’t be so busy that you can’t take five minutes and help someone. It’s not always the big things. Don’t let the big things get in the way of the little things… those little things add up to be great things.

Take the high road and be kind and courteous. Keep walking in love and have a good attitude.

The best thing you have in this world is Today. Today is your savior; it is often crucified between two thieves, Yesterday and Tomorrow.

Today you can be happy, not yesterday and not tomorrow. There is no happiness except Today’s.

Most of our misery is left over from yesterday or borrowed from tomorrow. Keep Today clean. Make up your mind to enjoy your food, your work, your play. Today anyhow. You can do anything if you’ll only go at it a day at a time.

If you’re betrayed, heartbroken, why take a day off. One day will not matter. Today put away your festering thoughts. Today take some simple joys. Today be a little happy in the sunshine. You can do it. It’s the burden of the coming days, weeks, years, that crushes us. The present is always tolerable.

Whoever planned this life of ours did well in giving it to us one day at a time. We don’t have to live it all at once. We’ve only got to get through till bedtime. Every morning we are new again.

Why let life oppress you? You don’t have to live your life, only a day of it. Don’t let life mass against you. Attack it in detail and you can easily triumph.

The Past is what we make of it. It is the temper of the Present that qualifies it. It depends upon how you consider it, whether it brings you despair or encouragement.

The poet says we rise by stepping on our dead selves. And as for the Future, the best preparation for it is an unafraid Today. If you are to die tomorrow, the best way to be ready is to be faithful to today’s duties, and to enjoy heartily Today’s simple pleasures.

Today is yours. God has given it to you. All your Yesterdays He has taken back. All your Tomorrows are still in His hands.

Take some time and watch this short video, then go out and practice this and see what happens.

About the Author

Bnei Baruch is the largest group of Kabbalists in Israel, sharing the wisdom of Kabbalah with the entire world. Study materials in over 25 languages are based on authentic Kabbalah texts that were passed down from generation to generation. www.kabbalah.info