Emotions Come From Thoughts » Passion

Using Anger as a Positive Energy

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:31:54 +0000

“Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

-Frederick Buechner

ThinkSimpleNow :Creativity, Clarity and Happiness has a great article about using anger as a positive use of anger. The article is 15 Simple Ways to Overcome Anger.

The post suggests that the three ways to interrupt a behavioral pattern are by using NLP (neuro-liguistic programming). Wikipedia defines NLP as:” Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a theory of language, communication and thought together with an associated therapeutic method, which holds that people can improve the way they interact with the world by means of certain principles and techniques concerned with their use of language.”

The three ways are: visual (change your thoughts), verbal (change your language), and kinesthetic (change your physical position).

I will list the 15 suggested ways to overcome the negativity of anger:

(1) Look up!!!

(2) “What do you want?”

(3) Eliminate: Don’t, Not, No

(4) Finding the light

(5) Surrender

(6) Circle of influence

(7) Gratitude exercise

(8) Meditation

(9) Breathing relaxation technique

(10) Laughter!

(11) Forgiveness

(12) Snap a rubber band

(13) Identify and eliminate your triggers

(14) Identify what anger brings

(15) Seek closure. Solve the problem.

What Do You Like To Do?

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:44:30 +0000

Over a 40 year period, I, Kathy Berman, have worked in eight different careers including teacher, education specialist, insurance/investment sales, addiction counselor, marketing specialist, manager of parks, manufactured home sales and author. The greatest gift from having had such diverse jobs is the reality that no one knows a job before they begin. We learn jobs on the job.

All the talents you are good at on your present job will be talents that you’ll use on new jobs/careers. List the 10 aspects you feel comfortable with on a job. Don’t be afraid to change or modify your list.

Put it in a conspicuous place and check it over every day.
A career shift is easy after you understand the qualities you must have for any job. What are your interests and desires?

Career Questions:

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

Is there something in your life that you want and don’t have?

What is stopping your moving forward?

What do you need to change today to make your career move forward?

Another author has suggested these questions:

What one subject can you enjoy talking about for many hours?
Do any of your hobbies involve working a lot with other people?
What specific concerns preoccupy your mind, breaking into whatever else you’re thinking about?
What do you most enjoy doing for others?
Let’s pretend you’ve reached the end of your life, and you’re in heaven looking back on it. What’s the one thing you want to be most happy about having done or having been?
Who ‘out there’ in the world have you come to care about the most? Who do you most want to help, enable, or reach? (You define the categories, whatever way you want. Go with your first instincts.)
Now, write down at least five of your life experiences that most gave you a sense of fulfillment and/or growth. (Don’t think about them until later — just write them down for now.) If more experiences come to mind, just keep listing them until you exhaust yourself. You’ll sort them out later.

Turning the Mind Into An Ally

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:28:24 +0000

Turning the Mind Into An Ally

Sakyong Mipham

ISBN 1-57322-345-X

Amazon link

From the book:

“Many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy. We try to focus, and our mind wanders off. We try to keep stress at bay, but anxiety keeps us awake at night. We try to be good to the people we love, but then forget and put ourselves first. And when we want to change our life, we dive into spiritual practice and expect to see quick results, only to lose focus after the honeymoon has worn off. We return to our state of bewilderment. We’re left feeling helpless and discouraged.”

“The more consistency with which we practice bringing our mind back to the breath, the more we know that basic stability will be there when we sit down to meditate. How are we going to hold the mind to the breath? Just by taking our seat, we’ve got the wild horse saddled. Our tools in training are mindfulness, trenpa, and awareness, sbesbin, “presently knowing”. The power of mindfulness is that we can bring our mind back to the breath; the power of awareness is that we know when to do it. Awareness knows when the horse has bolted, and tells mindfulness to bring it back.”

Instructions for contemplative meditation:

Calm the mind by resting on the breathing.

When you feel ready, bring up a certain thought or intention in the form of words.

Use these words as the object of meditation, constantly returning to them as distractions arise.

In order to help rouse the heartfelt experience of their meaning, think about the words. Bring ideas and images to mind to inspire the meaning.

As the meaning of the words begins to penetrate, let the words drop away, and rest in that.

Become familiar with the meaning as it penetrates.

Conclude your session and arise from your meditation with the meaning in your heart.

Now enter the world aspiring to conduct yourself with the view of your contemplation. For example, if you have been contemplating the preciousness of human birth, your view will be one of appreciation.