Be an optimist and win!

Rates of depression and pessimism have never been higher. Here is how to be an optimist and win!

If you’ve placed second in a writing contest, did you jump for joy and push for better results the next time or did you get discouraged and accept second place as an excuse not to try again?

The joy of life is it is always filled with exciting choices. You may opt to have a pessimist’s view and live a self-defeated life or you may decide to take the optimist’s route and take on a challenging and fulfilling life.

So, why nurture an optimist’s point of view? What is in it for you?

Well, Maria Duval says that optimism has been linked to positive mood and good morale; to academic, athletic, military, occupational and political success; to popularity; to good health and even to long life and freedom from stress.

On the other hand, the rates of depression and pessimism have never been higher. Depression and pessimism affect middle-aged adults the same way they hit younger people. The mean age of onset of depression and pessimism has gone from 30 years of age down to 15 years of age! Depression is no longer a middle-aged housewife’s disorder but also a teen-ager’s disorder as well which leads to overall pessimism about life.

Here is how optimists beat the odds:

1. Optimists expect the best

The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to expect bad events which will last a long time and undermine everything they do. They believe that bad events are their own fault.

Optimists are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world. What differs is the way they explain their misfortune—it’s the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are confined to this one case.

2. Optimists tend to focus on and plan for the ‘problem’ at hand

They use ‘positive reinterpretation.’ In other words, they most likely reinterpret a negative experience in a way that helps them learn and grow. Such people are unfazed by bad situation. They perceive it is a challenge and try harder.

They do not believe that “things will never get better,” “If I failed once, it will happen again” and “If I experience misfortune in one part of my life, then it will happen in my whole life.”

Positive expectancies of optimists also predict better reactions during transitions to new environments, sudden tragedies and unlikely turn of events. If they fall, they will get up. They see opportunities instead of obstacles.

3. People respond positively to optimists because optimists seem to have more enjoyment in life.

4. Optimists are proactive and less dependent on others for their happiness.

5. Optimists find no need to control or manipulate people. They usually draw people towards them. Their optimistic view of the world can be contagious and influence those they are with.

6. Optimism is a socially desirable trait in all communities. Those who share optimism are generally accepted while those who spread gloom, panic and hysteria are generally avoided except by other pessimists.

7. In life, optimists often win elections; get voted most congenial and are sought for advice.

8. When the going gets tough, optimists get tougher.

Optimists typically maintain higher levels of subjective well-being during times of stress than do people who are less optimistic. In contrast, pessimists are likely to react to stressful events by denying that they exist or by avoiding dealing with problems. Pessimists are more likely to quit trying when difficulties arise.

9. Optimists persevere. They just don’t give up easily, they are also known for their patience. Inching their way a step closer to that goal or elusive dream.

10. Optimists are healthier and live longer

Medical research has verified that simple pleasures and a positive outlook can cause a measurable increase in the body’s ability to fight disease.

Optimists’ health is unusually good. They age well and are much freer than most people from the usual physical ills of middle age. They tend to outlive those prone to negative thoughts.

Frederick Langbridge in “A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts” said: “Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one sees the stars.” Which one of these are you going to be from now on?

Why not look forward to success in all your endeavors? Why not be resilient? Sure, you will continue to hit lows sometimes but why just stay there and wallow in them? Why not be an example to inspire others to remove their dark-colored glasses and see the stars and not the mud?

About the Author

Jim DeSantis is a retired TV News Anchor and News Director who created “Self Esteem Magic”, a guaranteed step-by-step approach to start raising your Self Esteem in one weekend. Change your life starting this weekend at “Self Esteem Magic“.

Clairvoyance and Spiritual Guides

A supernatural ability called psychic clairvoyance is a person’s unique talent to present the past, present, and future information of a person. In this extraordinary world, there are really quite a number of people who have gained this ability. Clairvoyance could be inherited, natural or learned. Whatever it is, they have all mastered the art of communicating with “spiritual guides” through utilizing cosmic power and energy.

So you may be curious to wonder what are “spiritual guides”?

Just like human souls, they are the eternal spirits of this universe but are not in living form in this physical dimension. Ordinary humans cannot communicate with them, and only psychic and clairvoyants are able to communicate with spiritual guides.

The guides communicate the information to the clairvoyants who will in turn relay the guide’s message about you to you, like your life, your future and what you need to look out for.

So now you may wonder why clairvoyants can communicate with spiritual guides?

Top clairvoyants have a very sharp sense of consciousness and awareness through their understanding of the universe. Through various proven spiritual techniques like prayer, and meditation, this sense can be achieved and maintained.

Personally I feel that consulting a clairvoyant and psychic could be a good way out when you feel your life has reached a bottleneck, or you are in a midst of a complex life problems involving several people and you just do not know how to resolve intricate human emotions.

A clairvoyant reading could possibly help you to better understand your life purpose so that you can make more informed decisions on your life.

I have come across people who simply dismiss this a superstition and they highly doubt the power of the psychics. Yes the fear could be strong enough to even overcome the strongest man and that is only very natural. I just want to say that people like Maria Duval are just like human beings. They are only special because they can communicate and access the energy flow of this universe. There is always a reason why God gives them this natural gift.

Psychic healing removes your veil of ignorance

Psychic healing allows us to have a strong mental and physical health. Spiritually, psychic healing connects humans to their purest and inner most emotions. This purest emotion is our soul which can never be tainted by external influences from the material world we live in. It is only hidden by our own veil of ignorance. To get rid of this veil, only psychics can help us to heal it. By seeking this psychic help, it does not mean you are insane or depressed. It should be encouraged for the whole humanity.

Similarly, this form of psychic healing is also the connection for any individual to transmit healing spiritual energy to another person.

Talking about the psychic healing, we can say that the illnesses that we suffer in this life, are the karmic consequences of what we did in the past. That is to say that when the karma matures, the illness manifests itself.

It is necessary to take appropriately care of the body because it is the temple of our soul, but it is also necessary to be in charge of the person’s mind and to look for its psychic healing, until the person becomes an illuminated one. Then and only then it will be able to enjoy the full healing.

It is important to remember that we don’t heal with our energy, we are only the channels through which the Divine energy flows, reason why the Divine intervention doesn’t conclude when we finish our healing exercise, but rather the healing continues acting on the other person for as much time as God considers it necessary.

Any person that gets consciously and energetically ready can practice healing, because the power to communicate with God and to offer oneself like a tool for the healing of others, it is a helping ability inherent to all human being

It is important to remember that we don’t heal with our energy, we are only the channels through which the Divine energy flows, reason why the Divine intervention doesn’t conclude when we finish our healing exercise, but rather the healing continues acting on the other person for as much time as God considers it necessary.

In fact all healing exercises should go accompanied by a teaching by which we acknowledge the sick person that we will help him to establish an energetic connection with The Supreme Being, but that he can also request it without our help.

Letting Go and Forgiveness

I felt utter peace. I have never experienced such a feeling and felt I had to understand why this was all of a sudden originating into my life. So I set out on a spiritual journey…

Last weekend was even more exciting. I held had a little party on Saturday night, my family has been weird and so it was an interesting process. I am only very close to my mom, and i hardly talk to the rest. Just wouldn’t click. Maybe we are too greatly different in characters.

Since teens, I had my family who is overly negative and include an underlying pretense. I will never forget feeling both of my family’s negative and positive energies meshed with in the room. Many of times I had to leave the room or simply zone out because of the insane pretense ideas coming from my family would make anyone go mad.

That day, I stood outside in the cold and my buddy stepped out to have a cigarette and made the comment that I looked as if I was immersed deep in thought.

This broke it all open. I looked her in the eye and said, you know. I am.. I just can’t understand why I have to live under the ideas my family has instilled into me.

She looked me in the eye and said “Jackie, do you stand behind who you are?”

I thought for a brief moment, looked up and said yes! YES I do stand behind who I am. She then said JUST LET GO.…

My buddy seemed larger than life and wiser than sages at this moment, despite her small frame.

She told me that as long as I was ok with who I was, I did not have to allow these pretenses to be attached to every bit of my social exchanges.

This was the wisest words she had ever uttered as she’s always been out of sorts at times. Suddenly i felt i was an old hag grumbling about life and laced with negativity while she was in a newly married bliss, full of positive energy and looking expectantly into life ahead.

In that moment I let go. My mind sat quite for the rest of the evening…

We enjoyed a wonderful evening and although I felt dumber than a sack, I had no negative thought, feeling or fear enter my personal space for the rest of the night.

I have never experienced such as amazing feeling…

So I began digging deeper and deeper. Devouring information related to letting go, from Maria Duval, of forgiveness and of course awareness and awakening.

I look forward to getting to know all of you and to being a part of such an a wonderful place

Thank you allowing me to share,

The way of positive thoughts

I believe you know about “Aladdin’s Lam”. It is an amazing story that leaves a huge mental imprint in us. This story rightly illustrates the fact that man has within him the power, if he is able to use it, to gratify his every wish.

Man should have plenty of everything and not merely substance to live on as so many have. All natural desires can be realized. It would be wrong for the Infinite to create wants that could not be supplied. Man’s very soul is in his power to think, and it, therefore, is the essence of all created things.

Man must learn more and more to depend on himself; to seek more for the Infinite within. It is from this source alone that he ever gains the power to solve his practical difficulties. The Infinite within is foreign to those persons who go through life without developing their spiritual powers. But the Infinite
helps only he who helps himself.

Concentrate on What You Want and Get It. The weakling is controlled by conditions. The strong man controls conditions. You can be either the conqueror or the conquered.

Maria Duval tells me that the first step is to form a mental map of what I wish to accomplish. This image becomes a thought-seed that attracts thoughts of a similar nature.

Form the habit of thinking of something you wish to accomplish for five minutes each day. Shut every other thought out of consciousness. Be confident that you will succeed; make up your mind that all obstacles that are in your way will be overcome and you can rise above any environment.

You do this by utilizing the natural laws of the thought world which are all powerful. Yes, the famous LAW OF ATTRACTION!

You will find that each day as you focus your forces on this thought at the center of the stream of consciousness, new plans, ideas and methods will flash into your mind. There is a law of attraction that will help you accomplish your purpose.

If you fully grasp mentally the thought of success and hold it in mind each day, you gradually make a pattern or mold which in time will materialize. But by all means keep free from doubt and fear,
the destructive forces. Never allow these to become associated with your thoughts.

Just put forth the necessary concentrated effort and you will be wonderfully helped from sources unknown to you.

Courage – backbone of man

Do you think it is right to say that?

A great courageous man has persistence. By courageous does not mean daring to use physical means to achieve the mission, but state what he believes and puts it into execution with confidence and without fears of the unknown in front. He draws to himself all the moral qualities and mental forces which go to make up a courageous man. A important element of success.

When there is lack of courage, when a new problem comes, instead of looking upon it as something to be achieved, the man or woman without courage looks for reasons why it cannot be done and failure is
naturally the almost inevitable result. Lack of courage destroys your confidence in yourself. It destroys that forceful, resolute attitude so important to success. He then blames his luck when things do not get in his way. We have seen this repeating all too often among us.

So let me ask, what is courage?

Let me answer myself. To me, courage means that will and fighting spirit to do and never give up. Courage concentrates the positive mental forces to attract more positive forces. Cowardice, though, is opposite as it dissipates energy and breaks it apart. That’s why my guidance Maria Duval always warns to steer clear of disruptive and coward men. We should avoid persons that lack courage and they are easy to be picked up because of their habits of fear and rejecting new problems or always thinking impossible even before starting.

Never let another’s opinion affect you; he cannot tell what you are able to do; he does not know what you can do with your forces. The truth is you do not know yourself until you put yourself to the test. Therefore, how can someone else know? Never let anyone else put a valuation on you.

Also, fear is the worst enemy we have. Fear paralyzes energy. It keeps us from attracting the forces that go to make up success. So always concentrate and visaulize on the opposite of fear which is courage.

Lastly, the man of courage overcomes the trials and temptations of life; he commands success; he renders sound judgment; he develops personal influence and a forceful character and often becomes the mentor of the community which he serves.

Do things come in opposite states?

There’s a saying I heard, which in translation, it sounds something like this: “For every one that is rising there’s one falling down.” Basically it means all things in life must have balance and there are always a two states of equilibrium.

Maria Duval concludes by putting it as everything in life has balance, when good things happen to us something bad happens to someone else also effected by the same things that effected us but in opposite way.

For example, if one team wins in a football match their fans are going home happy and satisfied but opponent’s fans are disappointed, sad and angry. Or in a more realistic workplace scenario, one guy gets promoted and another guy gets displaced. In more personal experience, you win the heart of a pretty lady but in the process, breaks the heart of her other suitors.

Or is this the case?

Somehow I think good and bad are relative terms. Good and bad to you is different from the good and bad of my own definitions. People could be sad because they had a desired outcome which failed to manifest. That’s why people believe that “suffering comes when there are expectations”.

In this famous book, The Secret, it’s said that only 3% of population is rich on this world cause they understand laws that are ruling the world. But still there’s 75% poor people. That is far from perfect 50-50 balance.

Do you believe that one day real balance can happen on earth? Is this real and fair balance? Or maybe this balance will destroy our world? In nature everything seems to be working on 50-50 principle, but we are ruining this.

If you realize bad things that will happen somewhere when you reach your goal, it can be helpful for reaching you goal and tell you is it worth it.

A Thankful Heart

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest Virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.” Cicero, a great Roman philosopher.

What exactly is a thankful heart?

At this age, our hearts are easily broken;our faith easily betrayed by failing financial giants and government. We seem to face more disappointments, and life seems so easily to dispense failure and dissatisfaction and heartbreak?

So to adopt the spirit of a thankful heart in your life must be deem as insane in this uncertain world. Imagine you are someone who loses a lot of money in the turmoils now, I doubt you would adopt a thankful heart attitude. However I would like people to do the best not to be self defeatist. Do not give up.

Many spiritual experts and speakers say that the Law of Attraction operates by sending back to you whatever you send out to the universe.

What could that be like? Well, obviously, if you lose your job, you could get a better job, one that you would never thought of looking for. If you lose a boyfriend or have a divorce, there could be something in store from you. Things that seem bad are not always the worst possible things. Sometimes they are just a way of the universe opening up new possibilities for you to enjoy.

Therefore, at the very least, when something unexpected happens, you can realize that you are stepping into the unknown. But, is there a way you can step into these unknown and perhaps seemingly dangerous waters- and still put your best foot forward? Perhaps, you can use the healing and strengthening power of gratitude. Gratitude is not just an emotion, but a power, a power that empowers you to move forward.

Yes, we ought to be thankful and grateful you are still alive and healthy, no matter how bad the situation is. This is what I believe in.

Meditation – the bliss of silence

Thoughts come in and out from our minds many many times in a day. Some of them are so fleeting that even we ourselves do not realize about these little thoughts. Some of those are repetitive like what we thought about the day previously.

Our minds are complicated piece of Creation. In other words we exist in a perpetual chatter in our minds. It is little wonder then that all our miseries and our pains we experience are created in the chatter that we keep repeating to ourselves.

Our society is a sea of noise most of the time. Our culture emphasizes a lot of making loud sound and noise, even a moment of silence would be seen as weird in some cases. There must be no silence or else it is not normal.

It is only in recent years that more and more people are starting to understand the bliss of having a moment of pure silence in their lives. Yes, Maria Duval has said that it is only in true silence that we can hear ourselves; and our little inner voice communicating with us.

Meditation is a very good method to listen to your silence and from beyond. There are also a myriad of indirect benefits of meditation, like stress reduction, cure of anxiety, and improvement of general well being. Spiritually, it makes us more discerning and intuitive, because the little inner voice inside us come to the fore when we meditate. I do my best to have a short meditation session everyday with the grand intention of making it habitual, like going to ladies or taking the meals.

Some people have this misconception that meditation is for Buddhists or monks. This is a very wrong idea. They do that because they know it is a proven way to improve their personal spirituality, and nothing to do with their belief. That means everyone can meditate without affecting your colorful lifestyle. Maria Duval suggests simply find a quite place that you can be undisturbed for about 15 mins and set this aside daily for your meditation. It might be a room in your house. A good time is either in the morning before work or in the evening before retiring to bed.

You can place a few cushions to make it more comfortable and sit down in your quite space. Simply close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. Breathe in deeply through your nose for a count of six and breathe out through your mouth for a count of six. Simply repeat this until you feel a sense of calm throughout your body and focus on relaxing.

Don’t worry to much about your thoughts, try initially to focus on your breathing. As you do this more and more begin to focus more on the breathing and try to empty your mind of thoughts.

The idea with meditation is to take time out of your daily routine for yourself.

Have fun with it.

Those magical feelings…night sky

I love looking at the night sky. Especially during summer nights.

The feeling is very peaceful and comforting. It takes burdens away from your life and makes you feel good about life in that instant, because you are just inconsequential when you see stars at in the sky.

Since young, I have always gazed delightfully into the dark sky, and I can still remember how my grandfather explained to me that bright spark is Jupiter, and that dimmer but conspicuous group of stars is called Pleiades. That fired up my imagination and I told myself to be an astronomer one day. But alas, it was not to be.

Still, I make my chances to go star gazing as much as I can. Last year, I went camping a few friends and away from city lights there is nothing more awe inspiring than a star studded sky in the stillness of the wilderness.

I like to peek at the long horizon with an uninterrupted view of the heavens. As darkness approaches I begin to sense an overwhelming closeness to the mysteries of the universe and a strong connection to the source of all that is. I become aware of an alternate rhythm to life – a rhythm which is so easily lost amidst the frenetic pace of modern living. Everything seems so spiritual when one is away from hustles of the city.

Embraced by darkness, with stars too numerous to count and comforted by the gentle lapping of the waves I begin to realize how much I miss living in a city with its incessant, invasive brightness. It is as if I am rediscovering an enormous part of a lost spiritual heritage..

“Mortal I know I am, short lived. Yet whenever I stand beneath a multitude of swirling stars I no longer tread this earth, but rise to feast with God and enjoy the food of the immortals.”

Sophocles, ancient Greek writer