Ever Notice How Incredibly Positive Photo Albums Are?
It's exactly 7 years today since my wife and co-host Jessica Lee and I first met at a meditation center in Boulder.
Boy how time flies, but what a special, challenging, beautiful, difficult, horrible, wonderful, amazing, crazy time it's been. That's life!
This morning I was thinking about photo albums -- something a recent guest on our Inspire Nation Show reminded me of.
It funny, if you were to flip through your favorite photo album, or 'gallery' of photos on your phone, chances are you'd find beautiful, positive images of friends, family, loved ones, kitties and poochies (or other pets) and amazing places you've been.
And it's almost universal. What you wouldn't find are images of rough momemts, bad times, horrible situations, or anything that twists and turns your stomach into knots.
In fact, if you found a negative image on the phone, or an "ex", in your photo album, you'd rather not think about, you'd immediately remove or delete the image.
So why is it instead that's exactly where we dwell in the photo album of our mind?
According to Dr. Rick Hanson, Happiness Expert and author of Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, it takes 5 positive thoughts to counteract the negativity of 1 negative thought, something researcher & psychology Dr. John Gottman calls the "magic ratio".
So why flip through the negatives?
Shawn Achor, Harvard positivity researcher, and author of The Happiness Advantage, teaches how rewiring our mind or creating new grooves in the record to focus on the positives boosts our creativity, productivity, and self-esteem. And if you're in business, literally boosts your bottom line.
Most importantly, it helps shift you to a positive state where you feel better, things go better, and you're empowered to live you're greatest life. Like Law of Attraction expert Bob Proctor of The Secret says: "What You Think About You Bring About."
So when you're in that positive state you become an attractor magnet for bringing more beneficial experiences into your life.
So for today, when you catch yourself flipping through negative thoughts in your mind, catch yourself and think 'Photo Album'.
Yours Truly, Caught In the Moment, Photographing a Maui Sunset
Then bring your mind right back to where you want it to go.
Pull open your favorite photo album in your mind...or on your phone, and look through some of the beautiful stuff.
That's where we truly reside, and who we truly are!
It's a practice, but the more you focus on beautiful memories in your mind, the brighter you will shine, which of course leads to more fantastic photo moments!
So have an amazing photo-album kind of day ahead.
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