In today’s post in The Secrets of Personal Development from A-Z series, I want to discuss the importance of seeing Beauty where ever you are.   For me I think this is really a matter of what we choose to focus our attention on.  We can choose to focus on those things we “perceive as “ugly” or “distasteful”, but when we do that how does that make us feel?

We know from our own experience that whatever we give our attention to expands.  We start to notice more and more things that are like what we are focusing on.  Many people have had the experience of thinking about buying a particular car, and before they were thinking about they hardly notice those cars on the road.  Then when they started to think about that car, they began seeing them everywhere.

What If There Was Only Good News?

What if we were to apply that concept to the news.  Instead of a lot of awful news with maybe short fluff piece at the end, they focused on the truly great things that people are doing in the world. Imagine a whole month of good news and inspiring stories, do you think that might begin to cause people to feel better about the world we live in?  Perhaps cause them to feel a little more hopeful about their future?

To be clear I am not advocating that we stick our heads in the sand and pretend that there aren’t great challenges in the world, or that there aren’t people out there doing ugly and distasteful things.  What I am talking about is how can we put our selves in the most resourceful state of mind that will allow us to face and overcome the challenges that we do face.

Instead of Complaining, Ask “What Can I Do To Make This A Better Place?”

What if instead of always looking for what is wrong with our society and each other, we chose to look at what is right?  Instead of complaining about the way things are, asking the question “What can I do to make this a better place or situation for myself and those around me?”  To me this is a much more uplifting, empowering, and energizing approach.

This type of approach is much more likely to lead to a desirable outcome, where as the alternative just continues a cycle of fear, doubt, chaos, confusion, and hopelessness.  I encourage you to try an experiment over the next week.  Make a point of looking for beauty in everything and in every situation this week.

Look For Beauty In The Eyes Of Those Around You

You may not always succceed, and yet I can guarantee to you that if make this your focus you will find yourself more uplifted instead of run down at the end of the week.  One place I would encourage you to start to look for beauty would be in the eyes of everyone you come in contact with.

The eyes are truly the windows to the Soul, and within each one of us, (even those that may not be aware of it) is a very  and loving Soul. Even if someone is expressing anger (which simply means there is a place inside of them that hurts) do your best to maintain your focus of seeing the beauty within.

You Have A Choice On How You Spend Your Energy

Try this for a week and be aware of any changes that take place with in and around you.  If you don’t like the changes you experience, you can always go back to spending your energy focusing on what is wrong with the world.  However, I think you know how that has worked for you so far.

In the next post in The Secrets of Personal Developemnt From A-Z series we will be moving on to another “B” as I will be talking about the positive impact that Breathing in the correct way can have on our lives.

I welcome your comments, feedback and questions.  Of course I also appreciate your sharing and tweeting this post.

In my continuing series The Secrets of Personal Development From A-Z we’re going to start off the “b’s” with Blessings.  By that I mean having the mindset that everything that happens in our life is a blessing.  I know this is a challenge for a lot of people, including me sometimes.

Some of you may be saying “So you mean I’m so supposed to see getting fired as a blessing?”  or I’m supposed to see losing my home as a blessing?” or “I’m supposed to see my divorce as a blessing?” etc.  The short answer is yes.  However, let me take some time in explaining why I believe this is the healthiest choice we can make for ourselves.

I don’t think anyone would argue that the examples I gave above would be fairly traumatic for anyone to go through.  Certainly I would never advocate anyone to suppress or ignore their feelings.  In fact I always encourage people to be aware, acknowledge and embrace whatever feelings are present for them.

Everything Is A Blessing And happens For A Reason

At the same time, if we come from the perspective that everything in our life is a blessing, and therefore happens for a reason, I believe we can process the negative emotions in a much healthier way and move on with the lessons we have gained rather than becoming stuck in the glue of self pity.

Quite often when we are faced with challenging situations we forget that while we may not be able to control the situation, we are in complete control of how we choose to react to it.  As one of my teachers used to say “How you respond to the issue IS the issue”.

Ask Yourself “What Is The Blessing In This Situation?”

Instead of wallowing in self pity and focusing on what you perceive to be the negative consequences of your situation, simply STOP for a moment.  Take in a deep breathe, and then ask yourself “What is the blessing in this situation?”  or “What is the positive lesson I can learn from this situation?”

If you happen to get stuck you might try rephrasing the question this way.  “If there were a blessing or positive lesson to be gained from this situation what might it be?”  The simple act of having your mind focusing on a positive answer will begin to lift you out of the depths of despair and hopelessness, to consider positive possible actions.

The Blessing Of Being Fired

Just as an example, lets take being fired or layed off from a job, which has happened to a lot of people in the last year or two.  How might this be seen as a blessing.  First there are a coupe of statistics that I think are interesting.  The first is that the majority of people are not happy/satisfied with their current employement.  You probably knew that.  Did you know that eight times more millionaires are created in a down economy than when the economy is booming.

Why do you think that is?  I believe it is because as we have seen in past couple years people have been forced to create new possibilities for themselves.  Without the security of their job (which they propbably weren’t crazy about to begin with) they began to consider more seriously things they had always wanted to do, like start there own business doing what they love.

From Great Tragedy To Great Success

We have all read stories about people who have overcome great personal tragedies to achieve great personal success.  The one thing they all had in common was looking at their situation as a blessing or an opportunity to learn and grow, and become more of who they were truly meant to be.

Regardless of your situation, ask yourself right now “How might I look at my situation as a blessing?”  You might be pleasantly surprised by the answer.

In my next post in the Secrets of Personal Development From A-Z series, I will be discussing the concept of seeing “Beauty” all around you.  I welcome your comments suggestions, and feedback.  I also appreciate you sharing or twittering this post.

In today’s edition of the continuing series The Secrets Of Personal Development From A-Z I will discuss the importance of Alignment. What I mean by alignment is when our thoughts, our words, and our actions are all aligned (and support) our purpose in life.

I see too many people expending their energy in a “shot gun” approach hoping that somehow something will stick and begin to manifest their desired outcome.  This usually the result of the chaos and confusion they are experiencing in their mind.

The First Step Toward Alignment Is Clarity About Your Life’s Purpose

In order to align our words, thoughts, and actions with our purpose in life, we have to first be clear about what our purpose is.  Many of us have things that we desire and would like to achieve, but are they really our life’s purpose, or are they simply things we’ve been conditioned to want in our lives.

This is not something that you can figure out at the mental level.  You have to go deeper.  You have to connect deeply to your heart.  If have never done this, a simple way to start would be to sit quietly with your eyes gently closed.  Place one or both of your hands on your heart, and focus on your breathing as you breathe in and breathe out.

Connect Deeply To Your Heart

As you continue to be aware of your breathing, allow yourself to release and let go of all stress tension and anxiety.  Then think of someone or something that you truly love.  This will connect you to your heart.  Once you have made this connection, then ask your heart what it desires.  You may want to ask this question several times to access the deepest part of yourself.  Then simply listen carefully for the answer which may come to you as an image, a feeling, or whisper etc.

If you are unsure of the answer you receive, you can ask your heart to clarify the answer by asking “can you please answer in a way that I can understand.  It maybe that sometimes the answer doesn’t make sense to you in that moment, but in  a day or two it does.  Be patient with yourself.

Once you have your answers and you are clear about what your heart desires (which is the fulfillment of your purpose) you can then begin aligning your thoughts, your words, and your actions in a lazer-like focused manner.

Alignment Makes Decision Making A Graceful And Easy Process

When you are clear about your purpose it becomes very easy to make decisions about what to do in your life.  If the action will move you in the direction of fulfilling your purpose, the decision would be to take the action.  If it will not move you in the direction of your purpose the decision would be to not take the action and move on.

Our words are very powerful, and should always speak in favor of and support our purpose.  Sometime as a result of subconscious programming we have thoughts and beliefs that are contrary to our purpose.  In this case you must re-program these thoughts and beliefs so that they support your purpose.  One of the most powerful ways you can do this is through the use of affirmations during the half hour before you go to bed.

When your thoughts are aligned with your purpose, this will also be reflected in your words.  You will find that once you are clear on your purpose in life, and you align your thoughts, words and actions with that purpose, everything flows more gracefully and easily.  You will also find that instead of expending a lot of energy in many directions and feeling exhausted, you are aligned with your purpose you accomplish much more while experiencing an abundance of joy and vibrant energy.

To summarize what is required for Alignment, you want to:

1.  Get clear about your life’s purpose.

2.  Only take actions that move you in the direction of your life’s purpose

3. Always think and speak in support of your life’s purpose, and never against it.

In the next post on The Secret of Personal Development from A-Z I will be discussing Affirmations.  I welcome you questions, comments and feedback, and of course you can tweet this post if you like.