To Meditate, Find A Quiet Place Where You Won’t Be Disturbed … Yeah Right!

Finally, I’m alone. With all of the boys home from college for the holidays, it has been impossible to find even a few minutes to be alone to try and meditate. It’s been “Mom, where’s the Wii remote and Mom can you make me a snack” now for several weeks. I’ve really been feeling the need, but just couldn’t get away. But today, everyone is gone, even hubby. So I go into my office, shut the door, settle down in my comfy chair and put on my headphones…Ahhhhhh

This bliss lasts approximately 3 minutes before I hear the dogs, Snickers and Sam whimpering and scratching at the door. I try to ignore them for an additional 2 or 3 minutes and finally decide to get up and open the door and let them into the room.

Back to bliss…..for about another 3 minutes before I feel a cold nose rubbing up against my hand and a tentative lick for good measure. Ok, I can ignore that and back to bliss – not so much. Snickers (my jumbo mini dachshund) thinks I might be dead, so she decides to jump up in my lap and give me a good tongue lashing just to make sure I’m still alive.

Now that they are sure I’m still breathing, they decide to leave me alone, but within another minute or two, someone happens to walk by out on the sidewalk 200 feet away and “we must bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, to let them know we are in charge here.”

By this time I’ve about given up, but know that I only have a limited window of opportunity to get this darned meditation done. Focus, Debbie Focus…. like I am Genghis Khan and I’m going to conquer this meditation or else.

The next thing I know, I hear one of the boys yelling from downstairs, “Mom, what’s for dinner?”
I can’t believe it, I went and slept away my entire meditation time. Oh well, I guess I must have needed the sleep more. Time to stop feeling sorry for myself and “Get Over It.” That’s why I have my jingles.

Having A Bad Day

Here’s a thought – Maybe I should write a meditation jingle. Hmmm….

A Funny Thing Happened on they Way to My First TV Interview

Excited, nervous, petrified. Those were the emotions I was going through as I walked into the WUSA TV 9 studio on Monday morning, December 22, 2008. I was scheduled to be interviewed on live TV for the very first time and I was doing my best to hold it together, but feeling very much like Alice in Wonderland. I was escorted back to meet the Producer, the lovely Janet Terry, and as I reached out to shake her hand, she exclaimed “Uh Oh! You are supposed to be here tomorrow.”

I was so embarrassed. How could I have made such a mistake? I felt like a balloon deflating and my first reaction, what I would have done back in the old days, was to turn tail and run. I wanted to go hide and lick my wounds, but deep down I said NO! and started silently singing “I trust that everything comes to me Perfectly.” So I smiled and said, OK, I’ll come back tomorrow. They invited me to hang around and watch the show anyway and it was really an amazing experience. I got to meet Howard Bernstein, who would be interviewing me, and chat a bit with him behind the scenes. He made me feel very comfortable and I was able to actually BE Alice in Wonderland in the TV studio without having to worry about my interview.

It turned out to be a very valuable, fun experience and I felt a renewed sense of excitement with a little less nervousness as I was escorted into the studio on Tuesday morning. As I reached out to shake Janet’s hand a second time, I jokingly asked her if I really was scheduled for today. She replied “Well, yes and no.” Turns out there was a gigantic water main break in Washington DC that morning, and people were having to be air lifted from their cars by helicopter. It was a totally different atmosphere in the studio as people were being rescued and thank God no one was seriously injured.

They invited me to stick around just in case, so I got to be a behind the scenes witness to a breaking national news story. I got to meet Andrea Roane and Angie Goff as well. Not at all what I had expected, but it was all very exciting and even though I did not go on, I really felt that it was all happening the way it was supposed to.

So, Wednesday morning I arrived back in the studio, and by now they knew me by name. Howard Bernstein yelled, “Debbie, you came back – today’s the day!” I was still a bit nervous as the time came for the interview, but much less so than I would have been on Monday. It went off without a hitch, and Howard even made me sing “Attitude of Gratitude” acapella and it was in tune!!! I would definitely not have been able to do that on Monday.

It was a wonderful, fantastic experience and I want to thank everyone at WUSA TV 9, especially Howard Bernstein, for making me feel so comfortable giving me such a exciting, fun memory. Hope I can do it again sometime.

The moral of the story is that we don’t always get what we want when we want it, sometimes we get something even better 🙂 Here is a gift for you so you remember that everything comes “Perfectly”

Perfectly

Discover the #1 Way to Avoid Christmas Holiday Depression

For most people, the Christmas Holidays are a time of fun, family, feasting and frivolity, but for many people quite the opposite is true. Whether one is suffering from being stressed to the limit with all there is to do, or suffering the first holiday season after the loss of a loved one, just watching everyone else be so happy can intensify the feelings of sadness, lonliness and depression during this time. Sometimes, in extreme cases, depression requires a doctor’s care when it becomes chronic, and that’s not the kind of depression that I am addressing here. The kind of depression that I am talking about is the kind that results from us being our own worst enemies and letting the little things in life get us down.

If you have studied anything about personal growth lately, or heard of The Secret or the Law of Attraction, you may have heard that your thoughts shape your reality. What you spend most of your time thinking about is what will come true for you. If you can begin to accept that this is true, you can then accept that it would be in your best interests to think positively as much as possible. Easier said than done, right?

But much has been written over the last century and especially in the last 30 years about this concept. And now, in our lifetime, science in the shape of Quantum Physics is getting involved to help prove these concepts.

So what does this mean for those of us who find ourselves spending the majority of the time in a negative frame of mind – telling ourselves things like:

· This stuff always happens to me

· What is wrong with me?

· Who could ever love me?

· Why do I even try?

· What’s the use?

It means that the fact that we are thinking these thoughts predominantly will make these things exactly the things that we continue to experience – why else would the same stuff keep happening?

Maybe something really bad did happen, but let me ask you this question, especially if you are right now experiencing one of these downward spirals.

Can you feel bad enough to change what happened or didn’t happen? Is there a pit deep enough to crawl into that will make “whatever” disappear or make everything all better?

No, of course not. Whatever “it” may be, it is what it is. The only thing that can change is your attitude towards it – how YOU decide to deal with it.

Think about it – the same thing can happen to two people and they will have very different responses to the event. One person will be a total wreck and the other will pick themselves up, dust themselves off and move on, better for the experience. It’s all in the stories that we tell ourselves – how we have been programmed to react. “This certain thing happened, so I must feel bad about it,” right?

So, what is the secret to overcoming this programming and getting ourselves on track to feel better and better? That’s the 64 million dollar question, isn’t it?

Well, here are 2 keys:

1) First, when something negative happens to us, we must realize and accept that we are in charge of how we feel and react. We may not have consciously chosen for this thing to happen, but WE don’t need to be a victim of circumstance. It’s not WHAT happens to us, it’s how we REACT to it.

2) Second, we need to be prepared so that when we realize that we are starting to spiral downward, we have a plan, something to grab onto, some sort of trigger in place, a way to flip the switch so to speak, so that we don’t keep feeding the spiral.

So think about it now, ahead of time. What will you do the next time something happens that sends you into a tailspin, when you suddenly realize that right NOW is the only time you have and you are spending it in the dumpster. Think about it now – be ready – make up a story or song or poem or jingle that you can repeat to yourself. Make it something you enjoy.

That’s what I do. I have these affirmation jingles (kind of like the jingles you hear on radio and TV), that I sing to myself. As soon as I realize that I am starting a downward spiral – I say NO! Not This Time! and I start singing my jingles. It’s just like flipping a switch. They are there when I need them and they work like magic. I don’t have to stop what I’m doing – they are stuck in my head, so I just keep singing and my subconscious does the rest.

So let me leave you with one thought…

To accept the fact that YOU just might be the one in charge of what happens to you is, in one way kind of scary and yet in another way it is the most liberating thing to know that – no matter how bad things are – YOU have the power to change it, just by changing how you Think.

Right Here and Now – I AM HAPPY!

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Affirmations Have The Power to Change your Life

“By repeating an affirmation over and over again, it becomes embedded in the subconscious mind, and eventually becomes your reality. That is why you need to be careful what you think and believe, because that is exactly what you will get!“

~ Anthony Robbins, bestselling author and trainer

Do you find yourself dwelling on the negative and ignoring the positive? Do you wish you could “snap out of it” and stop dwelling on the negative?

If you are anything like me, you find that you operate by getting into habitual patterns – some productive and some not. If your habits are bad for you, you will eventually get bad results. Your thoughts are no different. So if we habitually think negative thoughts, we will produce negative results. How does that work?

Well, science has shown us that everything is made up of energy, including our thoughts and the material world. So, when you focus your thoughts on something positive, say something you want to achieve or create, the energy of the thoughts attracts those desired results to you. Conversely, if you dwell on negative thoughts, like fear or lack, you will draw the same energy to you in the material world—that of fear and lack.

Your thoughts, as well as your words, act as a magnet to bring into your life material results that match the energy of what you think and what you say. So it is crucial that you become more aware of what you’re thinking and saying. What are you thinking about most of the time? What are you continually saying to yourself and others? When someone asks how you’re doing, do you start complaining? When you are faced with a challenge, do you first see the reasons why you can’t overcome it?

What you focus on is what you get. Most of us focus more on what we don’t want than what we do want. But how do you shift your typical negative attitude to a positive one? How do you shift your thoughts and words to what you want to create? Many successful people attribute their shift in attitude to a focused use of affirmations. Affirmations have been used for many years as a powerful tool to manifest desires. They are positive statements you say in the present tense.

Affirmations work because the sub-conscious mind cannot differentiate between what’s real and what you suggest as real. So, it processes the suggestions or affirmations as if they are real—as long as you say them with conviction and feeling. Then the sub-conscious acts on the dictate of the affirmation and sets forth circumstances to bring the desire to pass.

However, you want to create affirmations that are somewhat believable so your sub-conscious mind doesn’t reject them. Create them as statements of what you want and the opposite of what you don’t want. Say you want to be thinner. If you go around telling people you are overweight, or every time you look in the mirror you think, “I am so fat,” you are focusing on what you don’t want. You might create an affirmation that says, “I am getting thinner every day,” if you can believe this to some extent. If you said, “I am thin,” or “I am at my ideal weight” your belief detective who guards your precious beliefs, will reject that. If you are eating well and exercising, you might be able to believe “I am getting thinner every day,” or even “I value healthy food and exercise.”

Start your day by saying your affirmations out loud. Then write them on index cards and carry them around with you so whenever your unwanted beliefs or words pop up, you can pull out your affirmation cards. Continually repeating affirmations with conviction and enthusiasm can chip away at even the strongest resistance.

I know, because I had some challenges believing my affirmations, so I set them to music, sort of like jingles – which worked better for me. Now I go around and sing my Affirmation Jingles all day. And I am amazed at how my attitude has shifted, my negative thoughts and words have lessened, and a lot more good is coming into my life.

Because affirmations reprogram your thoughts, they change the way you think and feel. And because you have replaced unwanted beliefs with new desirable ones, positive changes will start coming into your life.

All About Zapz!

I’ve always felt that there was something that I should be doing. Something that would make an impact, help people, change lives. But I could never figure it out. I tried and tried to find out what it was. I tried several businesses that were supposed to help myself and others get free, but I was a dismal failure at each and every one and I never felt I was really helping anyone or doing anything that would make a difference. With each business failure, I sank deeper and deeper in depression, believing that maybe this was all there was for me. Nothing special – special was only for special people – not me.

Then about 2 years ago in desperation, I finally decided that maybe I didn’t know everything, and maybe there was something to all this Personal Development stuff I kept hearing about. I started to pay attention and to read and listen and attend some calls and some seminars. I started to look at myself from the inside out. I started to practice visualization and believing in myself and what I learned about the universe and life and myself and why I am the way I am was nothing short of amazing. However head knowledge is quite a different thing than knowing it in your heart and your gut.

The stuff I learned made sense, but most of the practices and techniques I learned were either difficult or boring or repetitious or too time consuming or you had to set aside special quiet time (where my family of 6 and 2 dogs left me alone – Ha, Ha, Ha), or they were just not convincing. I consciously knew that I needed to change the way I thought, the way I focused on my goals or nothing was ever going to change, but the work was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I kept asking “HOW, HOW, HOW do I change?”

I remember thinking early on that there must be a better way that isn’t so hard. Wouldn’t it be great to find a way to help make these deep changes without having to be so darned disciplined all the time? I’d tried any number of techniques and practices and spent a good deal of money in the process and I still wasn’t any closer to making the changes I wanted to make. I got really, really, really depressed. I mean lying on the floor, boo- hooing, sobbing “What is wrong with me?” kind of depressed. This went on for awhile until one day I just took a stand against my depression and said “NO damn it. I’m not going to let this win. Right here, right now, in this very moment, I CHOOSE to be happy – Do you hear me? I CHOOSE to be happy, right here, right now!”

And from that, a little tune popped into my head

Right here and now
I am happy
Don’t cha know?
I’ve been set free

I started singing it over and over again and again and again. Day after day. It wasn’t work. It had gotten stuck in my head and I just kept singing it. And I suddenly realized that I wasn’t so depressed any more. I felt better than I had in a long time so I kept on singing. Shortly after that, it dawned on me that maybe this was it. Maybe this was the better way for me to change. It was fun and easy. I started to make up all kinds of little jingles for myself for different things I was feeling. I shared them with my daughter and one day she said “Mom, what if these could make other people feel better the way they’ve made you feel better?” And then I suddenly realized that maybe this was not only the better way for me to make the changes I needed to make – maybe this was the something I’d always felt I should be doing. Maybe other people would be able to benefit and use these little jingles to help them change as well.

That’s what started it all. Was it all a piece of cake to bring this idea, this dream to fruition from that moment on? Not hardly. It’s been a labor of love and that always means putting yourself out there and subject to criticism and there are always people ready to do just that. It’s been a lot of ups and downs and work and frustration and you name it. All the stuff it takes to build your dream. But through it all, I’ve just kept singing and singing and singing and now I offer this to you with the truest of hope that you too will use these to change the way you think and act and follow your dreams.

Why Zapz! Work

Over the last several years, I’ve been studying just about everything I could get my hands on in the Personal Development arena. One of the most important things I’ve learned from everyone from James Ray, Jack Canfield, Joe Vitale, Bob Doyle, Sandy Forster, Bob Proctor and many more is that if you focus on what you want and persistently and consistently tell yourself that you have these things, you will come to Believe it. Once you Believe it, then you will be inspired to take the actions you need to take that will bring what you want to you. Hence the saying, “When I Believe it, I will See it”.

When it comes to the way our brains learn things, REPETITION is key. Think about it – how did you learn your times tables in 5^th grade math – repetition. How does an actor learn his lines – repetition. How did we all learn to walk and talk – repetition. So it stands to reason that if you want your mind to believe in a different way than it currently believes, you are going to have to teach it how to think that way by repeating what you want to believe.

Great…that makes sense. The more you repeat something, the quicker your subconscious should start to agree with you. So in comes Affirmations. Affirmations are just statements about what you WANT to believe. They are touted by just about every self help expert as the way to “Fake it til you make it”, because essentially you are just repeating over and over what you desire to believe.

OK, that makes sense too. If we all keep repeating affirmations, we’ll all be rich and happy, right? Sounds simple enough. So then……. Why aren’t we all rich and happy? Because we DON’T KEEP DOING THEM!! I certainly have tried many times. I’ve written impassioned affirmations, I’ve recorded them, I’ve done Power affirmations, I’ve listened to meditation CD’s with affirmations, subliminal affirmations, affirmations with binaural beats…I’ve done it all. But every time, after a week or two, the time required to continue to do these became a chore – I just didn’t Believe what I was telling myself and I couldn’t see anything changing so I would stop doing them. I think this is what happens to a lot of people. But it’s really not your fault, at least not your conscious minds fault.

You see, your unconscious mind or your ego can be your worst enemy. It likes you just the way you are – warts and all. It doesn’t see any need to change, it hates change and when you are trying to change by stating things like “I am wealthy, healthy and happy”, the unconscious “Belief Detective” I call it, immediately responds with “No, we’re not. We’re broke and depressed and I think we’re coming down with the flu. Besides, this is SOOOO boring”. If you can’t get past that “Belief Detective”, or at least realize what is going on, your unconscious mind will win and keep you broke, sick and depressed. Ironically, this is how it thinks it is protecting you. Gee, Thanks!!

Furthermore, many teachers have also taught that what we think about predominantly is what we get. The more you can focus on what you want to have in your life, the quicker it will come to you. If you can focus on it with emotion and feeling, so much the better. Dr. Robert Anthony (Secret of Deliberate Creation) teaches that what you need to do, more than anything is find a way to Flip the Switch when you find yourself thinking a negative thought, or one of doubt or worry or fear. Just Flip Switch he calls it. My first reaction when hearing that was “So, HOW THE HECK do I do that?” I understand the need to keep positive, but how do you change in the moment – in the NOW – from fear and doubt to happiness and joy. That’s the 64 bazillion dollar question. It’s almost like you need to actually have a Switch implanted that you can reach out and Flip at will. Hmmmm…

Well, that’s where these AttitudeZapz! come in. Have you ever heard a tune on the way into work or have you seen some silly commercial on TV and the tune has stuck in your head all day long no matter what you did? We all do that. It’s just stuck there and you can’t get it out.

Sooo…What if that tune that was stuck in your head was an affirmation jingle? What if it was fun and catchy and a no-brainer? You don’t have to stop and take time to write affirmation statements10 times. You don’t have to stop and take time to read them or listen to them. You don’t have to stop and take time to meditate on them by listening to a CD or subliminals or anything (although all of these things are good and will definitely work, we just WON’T DO THEM). It’s already stuck there in your head like a secret weapon.

All you need to do is listen to the jingle a few times, catch the wave and get it stuck in your head and it stays with you all day long. You walk down the hall at work and sing your Zapz! You are struggling with a problem and while you’re thinking you sing your Zapz! You are cooking dinner or changing a diaper or paying your bills – and you are singing your Zapz!. You are depressed about something and you suddenly remember that you need to be present in the Here and Now, so you JUST Flip the Switch by singing your Zapz! And here is the best part, when was the last time your “Belief Detective” made a stink about song lyrics? No arguments, the affirmations just seep into your unconscious little by little, smile by smile, Zapz! by Zapz!

Welcome to the World of AttitudeZapz!

Welcome to my blog. Here you will find the musings of myself and many others concerning the topics of attitude, affirmations, manifestation, law of attraction, The Secret and getting what you want out of life. There is a saying that goes “If you are not growing, you are dying.” Those are your only two choices, so I for one want to continue to grow and learn everything I can about these topics and more. I’m not a prolific writer, but I will post here when I feel that there is something worth getting out there. I hope you find some worthy material here.