Changing state

I don't give any credence to biorhythms but I must admit there are days where I am more charged and enthused than others. This would definitely be a 'down' day.

I am still maintaining my own 10 day challenge, so I'm being diligent to now allow my thoughts to wonder into negativity. Which is great, especially on a day like today. However, I still have a general feeling of malaise that I'm all too eager to get rid off.

Blogging is one way I am using to put myself back into positively charged territory. And I'm thankful for it because it's a blog on success and motivation so it's forcing me to be thinking on those lines.

I have gotten to a point where a positive enthusiastic state is my natural state and where the one I'm currently in feels unnatural to me. That alone is a great relief for once upon a time the very opposite was true.

Now, how do I get out of this state?

First, it's helpful to know why you're in it in the first place. As I've mentioned many times, our emotions act as an alarm system of sorts, letting us know when our thoughts are out of alignment with our desires. For myself I believe a large part of my current state is due to uncertainty in a lot of areas of my life. I'm procrastinating on several things, including some major life changing decisions. Procrastination itself is due to a lack of a clear set of values and goals. If you have clearly defined values, prioritized so you know what's most important (a lot of competing values will cause endless procrastination) with clearly defined goals that you're passionate about then procrastination simply cannot exist. You immediately know what is important to you and move in that direction. So obviously, I need to sit myself down, revisit my values, revisit my goals and then apply those onto the various issues currently confronting me.

God, I do love this blog. How often do we know what to do but don't apply it? Writing in this blog forces me to self-medicate. To do what I know, otherwise I'm just being hypocritical and that is simply not acceptable.

In the short term I need to take a page from Tony Robbins. In Awaken The Giant Within, Robbins teaches that the mind and body are linked. If you are in a negative state of mind, you tend to slouch, move slower, frown, look down and lack energy. If you're in a positive state you have more bounce in your step, move quicker, smile, look people direct in the eyes, stand up straight, etc. You can look at most people and from their posture alone know the state they are in so it's obvious that the mind affects the body.

However the opposite is equally true. If you force your body to move in ways that are associated with a particular state, your mind will be pushed into the corresponding frame of being. Don't believe me? Try it. Sit down, slouch, frown, droop your arms and legs and then try to enthusiastically scream 'Happy Birthday'. It's possible but you'll immediately know it wasn't done with the same intensity it would have been if you were standing and moving normally. It would just feel off.

So if you find yourself feeling down, get your body moving!! Lots of energy, smile, big movements, and do something silly like skip around or do pinwheels with your arms while singing 'I'm the very model of a modern major general'. You won't possibly be able to remain in a negative state.

In fact, I'm smiling just thinking about it.