“True Power” is a series that will focus on proven techniques to accomplish any goal. Each exercise is designed to enlarge your ability to believe what you want is possible and will actually happen.

How Beliefs Work

You use them everyday. They determine everything from how you feel about your body to who your friends are, from your political affiliations to your work. “They” are your beliefs. Whether you know it or not, you use visualization, affirmations, and self-hypnosis all the time, and here’s the clincher: Those beliefs that you’re visualizing, affirming, and saying to yourself repeatedly form your life-literally.

Here’s how it works: Physics has reduced all matter, motion, and events down to live energy and information or consciousness. Consciousness (live and active energy and information) is the force that is both the substance and the organizer of the physical universe. Your mind, amazing as it sounds, through its various functions, has a directing power on the physical universe-in other words, your mind and thoughts determine your life and its events.

Think of your mind, and your thoughts in particular, as an invisible electromagnetic power plant, which it is. You have no trouble believing if you point a remote at the television, it will turn on, or if you dial your cell phone, someone will answer and you can talk to that person. In both cases, the processes involved are invisible but reliable. Your mind is much like these gadgets, working through invisible processes that follow organized laws. You can prove these laws exist by using them and examining the results. To use these laws properly, however, it helps to know how they work.

The gadget you call your mind is magnetized. It has drawing and repelling power. A particular thought has its own electromagnetic organization and will, by its nature, draw to it like thoughts, emotions, and subsequent events. The thought gathers momentum and pulls in similar electromagnetic and organized energy information clusters that then form similar thoughts, emotions, and events in the physical world. Thoughts unlike your original thought will be repelled like a magnet turned backward. The brilliance of the system and its potentials are astounding.

An easy way to demonstrate for yourself how this works is to take a person you dislike and begin to systematically think kind and loving thoughts about this person on a regular basis. Then see what happens.

Beliefs are supercharged thoughts that have tremendous drawing and repelling power, that actually organize your subsidiary thoughts, emotions and the events that happen in your life. These beliefs are alive. They’re working for or against you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, whether your thinking about them or not, whether you think you even hold the particular belief or not, and whether you believe your beliefs have power or not. You have a choice to let the process go on willy nilly or to direct it consciously.

There are two ways to discover what beliefs you hold and whether they’re productive. You can examine the beliefs in your mind, asking yourself, “What do I believe?” Or you can look at the results in you life. Do you live in a comfortable home, have lovely friends, fulfilling work, a sunny view of people and the world? If there’s room for improvement, or if your deepest desires are as yet unmet, you can consciously work to establish beliefs that will bring about seemingly miraculous changes.

The first technique we’ll deal with, visualization, is one you’re constantly using, but from cultural training, you many times visualize the exact opposite of what you want by thinking about your problems or how what you want can’t happen. You do this because you believe this is “realistic,” or that this is how problems are solved when, in fact, the truth is quite the opposite. Bear in mind that you do not need to fight against unwanted beliefs or remove them nor is it possible to do this. If you try, your focus on these old beliefs will keep them in place because you get exactly

what you focus on. This is a law. Old beliefs will gently move aside in a natural and normal process as you establish new beliefs.

The real question is how do you stop the momentum of negative beliefs and develop strong affirmative ones? Before we begin, I want to mention that many of you who are trying to change your life situation for the better will find your biggest hurdle is a belief you don’t even see and wouldn’t guess to look at. It’s a belief in the value of the news. It may be difficult if not impossible to change your basic beliefs about people, institutions, and the world you live in if you’re in the habit of reading, watching, or listening to the news each day.

That it’s good to read, watch, or listen to the news, that you need to do this to be “on top of things” is a belief. You may protest that the value of news is a fact not a belief, but you can test this out for yourself quite easily by asking yourself what its effect has been in your life. Due to keeping informed of the news, regardless of the source, are you a better citizen? Do you vote more regularly? Do you trust your neighbor more? Do you love your country, its government, and institutions? Do you feel empowered to act? Do you feel you have control over your life?

To pay attention to the news each day is to give your power to someone else by allowing that person to hypnotize you. The results are normally a feeling of helplessness and a deep distrust of your fellow human beings and the world around you. Where is the value in that? Try, if you can, to quantify that value. This, in the face of the fact that the world continues to be wonderful, people are good, and institutions and governments are not static but change quite easily for the better if people believe they can change for the better.

If you stop paying attention to the news, you will still be informed, you will like people better, and that will be reflected in you work, your relationships, and ultimately in every facet of your life, including your prospects and income. However, the only way to know this is to try it. Lacking that, be aware of your emotions as you listen to the news, NO MATTER WHAT THE STORY. Know that those emotions form your life and that you are choosing to form your reality in this way by allowing someone else to control you.

The above summations on how beliefs form your life has been a oversimplification of a topic that could literally take books to explain. In the interest of space, I’ve left out much information. It’s true that your thoughts, emotions, and especially your beliefs form your world, literally, not symbolically, but it’s also just as true that you should ALWAYS express your emotions and never criticize those emotions or your thoughts NO MATTER HOW NEGATIVE. Have your tantrum if you need to. Be morose for a while if you need to without castigating yourself. A colorful variety of thoughts and emotions is part of life, and the point is to be conscious of the general trend of what you’re saying, feeling, and imaging for yourself and NOT impose discipline on your thoughts and emotions. You can foster incredibly positive beliefs even WHILE you’re have what you might consider negative thoughts, without ever trying to change or stop those negative thoughts. In other words, don’t worry about negative thoughts or emotions. Just notice them. They will phase out, slowly, of their own accord as you begin to make changes.

Next: Part I. Visualization: Image Production and Verbal Thought

S.C. Giles is a contributing author of The Artrepreneur E-Zine and newsletter.

The Artrepreneur offers articles helping artists focus on proven techniques to accomplish any goal. Read More: http://www.theartrepreneur.com

Copyright © 2005 Arctic Mouse, Inc. All rights reserved.

It was 8:00 PM and I’d hit a creative wall – hard. But there was so much work to be done! And I just had to get out of the office or else my article would never get finished. So I knew the only way to stimulate my mind was to practice a technique called “displacement.”

You’ve no doubt heard of (and probably practiced) this creativity booster before: take a different route to work, eat at a new restaurant or take an outside break – anything to change your environment. In fact, if you Google the word “creativity,” most of the articles will instruct you to practice some type of displacement technique. They’ll urge you to “stray off the beaten path” because changes in your surroundings will stimulate your senses and enhance your ability to generate new ideas.

But I think Michael Michalko said it best in his famous book on business creativity, Thinkertoys: “Your mind is like vegetation. It flourishes in one soil and droops in another.”

I read that quotation right as I hit my wall last night. Hmm…vegetation, I thought. That gives me an idea! So I took his advice – literally – and went to the one place I’d be guaranteed to find lots of vegetation: the grocery store.

Trust me; this wasn’t my first choice for a place to get some work done. But Starbucks was closed and all the local restaurants were too loud. However, I did remember noticing a line of computer tables in the produce section of the store a few weeks earlier.

It felt awfully strange walking into the grocery store at 8:30 PM with a briefcase in one hand and an Ipod in the other. Then again, I needed some mental stimulation, and I needed it fast. So, what better place to enliven all five of the senses than the produce section?

And it worked! Surrounding me were hundreds of fruits and vegetables of every color; crisp, cool air; and the aroma of fresh flowers and spices. It was everything my baffled brain needed. And within a few minutes, I was back on track with my article. New thoughts poured onto my laptop. Creative ideas came from out of the blue. I climbed over my mental wall!

Now, let’s talk about why this unusual displacement technique worked. Was it something in the air? Was it a coincidence? No. Creativity doesn’t know what the word “coincidence” means. It has to do with our thinking process. It has to do with displacement. Now, maybe the grocery store isn’t for you. But when your brain decides it doesn’t want to get creative anymore – and trust me, it will – you’ll need some techniques to help you break out of the same old mental rut. So, here are Four Ways to Motivate Your Melon.

Exercise

Have you ever noticed how creative you get while exercising for extended periods of time?

That’s not a coincidence, either – it’s biological. According to Molecules of Emotion by Candace B. Pert, continuous exercise like running, long-distance swimming, aerobics, cycling or cross-country skiing appears to contribute to an increased production and release of endorphins. These endorphins are morphine-like substances that have strong affects on the brain and body during exercise. They result in a sense of euphoria that has been popularly labeled as the “runner’s high.”

For example, I run 8 miles every Sunday. It’s my weekly “mental emptying.” Interestingly enough, since I’ve been running for the past 6 or 7 years, I’ve written articles, speeches, even parts of books while jogging at the park! It’s almost like taking a mind expanding drug every week to boost my creativity – except it’s legal, free and safe.

Think of it this way: how in the world did Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison come up with those incredible, timeless songs? They all took drugs. (Okay, they were also incredibly gifted musicians too, but you’ve got to admit: the drugs helped.) Now, we all know what happened to those three guys at the ripe age of 27. So this doesn’t mean anyone should partake in such illegal activities. But remember: exercise is like a legal, healthy drug; and if you use it at the right time, you can come up with some incredibly creative stuff.

MELON MOTIVATOR #1: Take an hour to go for a walk, ride a bike or

hike a trail.

Work On The Floor

Do you ever feel like your desk is caving in on you? That you have dozens of papers, reports, books and folders coming from all directions, reducing your actual workspace to the size of a Post-It Note?

If so, try the floor. It works wonders for enhancing your creativity, especially from a visual standpoint. First of all, you’ll have plenty of room to spread out your materials. This will help you more effectively solve problems, come up with new ideas and brainstorm because you’ll see all of the elements involved.

And once you sit down on the floor, you’ll start thinking about how silly you look, whether or not your pants are getting wrinkled and what you’re going to say to your boss when he walks in the room. Good. That’s the perfect way take your mind off your mental block.

Displacing your vertical position also reveals patterns you never would have noticed otherwise. For example, I’m sitting in the grocery store right now as I write this article. To my left are Navel Oranges for $5.99 a pound. And wouldn’t you know it? Right below the oranges on the ground level are 16 oz. bottles of Little Rainbow Fruit Juice – for those unsuspecting little grocery shoppers of the youthful persuasion. Interesting…

MELON MOTIVATOR #2: The floor is your friend.

Change Your Workspace

Isn’t it ironic that “thinking outside the box” is such an unoriginal and overused cliché that it’s actually become an “inside the box” type of phrase?

That being said; forget about getting “outside the box,” and get the heck out of the office! Wherever you live, there are bound to be dozens of workspaces you never would have thought to utilize. Coffee shops, all night diners, copy stores, 24 hour libraries, hotel lobbies, hospital cafeterias, even grocery stores are perfect to claim as your new “spot.” Just be sure to find somewhere that’s relatively quiet and appeals to the five senses in a manner that differs from your typical workspace.

In a recent article from Innovation Network, Jonathan Vehar revealed two examples of famous thinkers’ workspace techniques. “Einstein came up with his greatest theories while sailing. And Edison, a man with over 1,000 patents to his credit, would go down to the dock and fish.” As for me, I like the produce section. What about you?

MELON MOTIVATOR #3: The world is your office.

Get The Heck Outta Dodge

Have you ever noticed that movie and television characters always seem to “go for a drive” when they need to figure out their problems? They don’t do this because their cars have magical powers. They do it because of the displacement.

Barring any road rage encounters, driving can be a relaxing activity. And it’s a perfect refresher for your brain. The combination of constant motion, changing scenery and your favorite music will certainly help you displace your mind and your body. Hopefully not too much – you do want to make it back to work the next day.

As another example, look at Robert Lutz, the recently retired president and vice chairman of Chrysler Corporation. According to Johnathan Vehar (ibid.) “Mr. Lutz was driving the back roads of southeastern Michigan in a V-8 powered sports car. He conceptualized using their new V-10 truck engine in a new sports car as a way to add excitement to their product line. This eventually turned into the hot V-10 powered Dodge Viper!”

MELON MOTIVATOR #4: Motion creates emotion.

As you experiment with these four displacement techniques, remember that creativity isn’t a once a week or even a once a day thing. It’s perpetual. And it’s up to you to be on the lookout for materials you can use to build your ideas and get over that mental wall.

And while you’re at it, also remember that creativity is largely about breaking the rules. So don’t feel restricted in any way. After all, I’m writing this article at 11 PM on a Tuesday night sitting in the produce section of my local grocery store. Now THAT’S what you call motivating your melon!

© 2005 All Rights Reserved.

Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, “The World’s Foremost Expert on Nametags” and the author of HELLO my name is Scott and The Power of Approachability. He helps people MAXIMIZE their approachability and become UNFORGETTABLE communicators – one conversation at a time. For more information contact Front Porch Productions at http://www.hellomynameisscott.com.