Influences -- People, Places, Things -- Make them Positive

A few weeks back I did a guest post on Alex Blackwell's wonderful blog "The Next 45 Years". I wrote outlining my "Paging Me System" (which I go into depth within my e-book and also Priscilla Palmer's upcoming book) about the methods I used to heal myself and KEEP myself healthy. "Paging Me" is an acronym for the methods I use to "Page Myself" or wake up my subconscious to keep me happy, healthy and in the moment. Today I am talking about Influences which is the I in Paging. In order to maintain health and happiness I need to keep the influences around me MOSTLY positive.

People

Whether it is the people you are watching on TV or the people in your lives -- ensuring they are people that inspire versus people that drain is key. We all know a complaining friend, relative or acquaintance that James Ray calls the "Energy Vampire". Try to be a positive influence for this person and share your learnings on the Law of Attraction and the act of being positive with them -- but don't exhaust yourself or try to "change anyone". You have to want to change to facilitate change. Limit time with people that suck your energy away from you and try and be aware of your feelings during your time with them. Make sure after you spend time with someone negative, if you do feel drained, do something positive to "lighten" your mood.

I have written about the news being negative and that there are better options for media to surround yourself with. Listening to or watching negative news can exhaust you and make you feel hopeless. The traditional news tends to focus on all the bad things happening in the world instead of the positive. There is a LOT of positive growth and news being made -- you just have to look a little harder to find it. Happy News is a good option. Also KNOWING how many people are working to make the world a better place helps as well. I listed a bunch of social networking sites that do a good job of this. Another example is the people involved in the movie "The Shift". Watch the trailer below to be blown away and if you can figure out a way to promote or help finish it being made -- please do so.

PLACES

Do you like where you live? Is your house filled with stuff? Do you enjoy where you work? All of these things influence your happiness and how you see your world. Home should be an oasis in every sense of the word. I work from home and know that things pile up fast and that having kids makes it near impossible to keep my place truly spotless the way it is in my mind's eye. My house is very comfortable for me though. When I see it getting overcrowded with "stuff" I KNOW it is time to donate, sell and give away things. According to the Law of Attraction if you have too much stuff you are sending out signals that you have more than enough. Look around and ask yourself how much of the stuff you actually NEED. Clean off one drawer or dresser top a day and see how much better and powerful you begin to feel within one week. Messiness and being unorganized contributes to feeling out of control and unwell.

Along with your home is the area you live in. Are you happy where you live? Do you enjoy walking outside? Is there a place you can go nearby (park, museum, village) and enjoy "being". I grew up in NYC and LOVED walking around the city. Now I live in upstate, NY and absolutely love looking out my windows and seeing mountains as well as walking to my nearby park. I walk there most of the year and cross country ski in the winter. I love the "downtown" area and enjoy walking around there. It is so important to get out of the house and explore other places. Make sure you have a few favorite places you can go that will bring that smile to your face.

Work is another place that you should be happy. Lawrence Cheok of "A Long Long Road " has a wonderful series of posts called the "The Career Lover Series" in which he gives suggestions on how to turn your passion into a money-making career. If you are at a job that you don't like you need to find some things positive about it until you can make that leap to doing something you love. Whether it be a positive person to have lunch with, the fact that you are making a salary big enough to put some away for when you will venture out and try something else....whatever it is be GRATEFUL for the things that are good about that position while you are figuring out "what's next". Concentrating on the bad at your job will only make it worse. Instead start looking into how you can make money doing something you love and be thankful you have some stability while you do that.

THINGS

Movies, books, television, songs, hobbies - all of these "things" influence our lives. Once you start to pay attention to what you are watching, reading or surrounding yourself with it is important acknowledge how those "things' make you feel. Watching or listening to materials that make you laugh instead of feel negative or "down" is an easy way to change your mood. Chuck at "Personal-Development" has a post that goes deeply into all the "benefits of laughter". Eckhart Tolle has a great video on "Your Pain Body is Very Seductive" below that touches on what watching violence does to your body and the importance of becoming aware of it.

It is critical to be aware of the influences you are surrounding yourself with and how they are affecting you. People, places and things contribute to how you see your own life. Take action, make the influences around you mostly positive and you will enjoy experiencing the changes that take place in you.

Is the Media you are surrounding yourself with helpful or harmful to you?

What do you do before bed and in the morning? If the answer is listen or read the news to either I feel you can improve your health dramatically just by altering this one simple habit.

What we read, watch either on TV or at the movies and listen to whether it be podcasts, audio books, radio programs or music ALL affect the way we see the world. When I was ill I read only fictional novels (mostly mystery ones with violence) or books on my diseases and I watched the news frequently, read newspapers as well as checked my yahoo news periodically throughout the day. The media is not in the business of bringing happy news -- in fact it seems they unfortunately thrive on the bad.

When I was trying to heal myself I made sure I was surrounding myself with positive messages. I read only positive books or articles. I listened to positive podcasts and audio books. I watched positive movies. I listened to music that was upbeat. How many of you after a break up felt compelled to play sad music? I know I did and somehow it never made me feel any better -- I wonder why? : )

Now that I am healthy I can take a little news or an article on something less than uplifting once in a while but I still try and surround myself mostly with positive. It effects my mood, it effects how I relate to other people and it effects my well being.

Just as in another post I said I had to limit my time around negative people -- I also have to limit my time around negative images and words if I want to feel good. If you think about it -- it just makes sense. If you watch the news all day and worry about this person or that situation or comment on how horrible it is -- how will that make you feel? Whereas if you NOTICE the bad but surround yourself with good it is much more uplifting. When you feel good -- positive thoughts come to you which can produce positive actions. When you feel bad you don't feel motivated to do anything except talk about how bad things are. By concentrating on the good I am able to focus on how I can help the bad situations much better than if I was surrounded by all the negativity.

I have a few links for positive movies, cds, audios, etc. that have helped me. There are also people like Steve Pavlina who I was lucky enough to meet in NYC this past weekend who I consider THE personal development GURU. Steve offers tons of FREE personal development materials on his site; podcasts, articles, etc. that will lead you in the right direction and have you feeling good. There are also positive social networking sites that I did an earlier post on. These allow you to meet positive people and also to BE the change instead of commenting on how bad everything is.

Want to stay informed? There are options. if you feel you can't turn on the news for only 2 minutes a day or just scan headlines -- why not either watch The Daily Show (where at least he is poking fun at the news and you will get some laughs) or check out http://www.happynews.com -- a link that was given to me by C4Chaos.

There are options on what to surround yourself with. There is not shortage of ANY kind of media. Branch out -- try and surround yourself with positive media instead of the negative stuff for a few days in a row. Let me know if you see a difference in your attitude, your peace of mind and your sleep..... for me it effects all of these things and I am grateful this was one of the easiest habits of mine to change and I know it was helpful in healing my chronic pain! ; )