Turning Off The Negative Influences In Our Lives
The negative has an incredible influence on our lives and destiny, much more than many of us realize or can imagine. For some reason (best left to another article), we humans are inherently negative and more easily drawn to negative things than to the positive.
We only need to take a look at the trends on the media to confirm this.
What things sell the most? The latest favorite movies and TV programs tend to be the ones most filled with violence, hate, broken mixed up relationships, witchcraft and all that goes with these things.
What happens to you when 98 people praise you and 2 tear you to pieces? Which ones do you tend to believe?
What is the first thing that happens to you when you hear something negative which could affect your life (if it were true)? What images flash into your mind?
For some reason negative influences have a lure which only the alert can see and avoid.
How many times have you heard someone responding to the question: How are you today? With the answer: Pretty good under the circumstances. What are they doing under the circumstances? (Of course I know you have never responded that way)
In a previous article Uncluttering A Cluttered Mind we recognized negative thoughts as being one of the culprits of overloading the mind. I think we have established that this is true.
The problem is we often come under a negative influence without realizing it until it is sometimes too late, or at least some damage has been done and an already engrained habit has been strengthened.
So the question is:
How can we conquer this negative influence in our lives?
The best way to conquer the negative is to learn to recognize the areas of our lives that these influences affect and then we can learn to deal with them, one at a time by changing our thought patterns related to that area. It will take a little time, just as changing any habit will, but statistics assure us that
What area is most affected by negative influences?
Our minds: The thought life is the first area attacked. The true battle is in the mind. That’s where everything starts, and that is where everything is going to be turned around. If these influences can’t get past our minds, they have little power in our lives.
There are few things in this world and life, that we can TRULY control (we may THINK we control lots of things), but one thing we surely CAN control and that is our own minds.
Proverbs 23:7 tells us that “As a man thinks, so is he”.
In modern day language that would be expressed: “You are what you think”.
However this proverb penned by King Solomon (King David’s son) was originally written in the Hebrew language and of course translated into English many years later. The orginal Hebrew word that is translated thinks was actually from a root word meaning the to act as gatekeeper. Interesting no?
“Our thoughts are the gatekeepers of our minds”, was actually what was being communicated here by Solomon.
What does a gatekeeper do?
He stands in the gate to decide who gets to come in and who does not. (Very likely he has a criteria outlined by his boss to go by)
What do our thoughts do? – They decide what comes in to stay and what does not. The criteria was outlined by the will, which created the outline by a decision process.
The key word here is DECIDE.
So gatekeeper (yes I am talking to YOU) – what are you allowing to come into the database of your mind today? That decision will affect all of your tomorrows.
It is said that it takes 21-30 days to change a habit. If you decide today to start being a good gatekeeper, and choosing carefully what you allow to come into your mind, in 21-30 days you life will be very different.
Those negative influences will be outside the gate, not inside taking over your life. You will be focusing on letting the positive influences come into your life.
It all starts with a DECISION. What is your decision today?
You Too Can Be A Champion!
58 successful entrepreneurs were given 30 days to start again from scratch and recover their wealth, Could they do it? Read their stories.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
This is a fascinating, inspiring, and empowering post. This is my first visit to this site, and I came to know of it from twitter.com. It will definitely not be my last! I agree heartily with the subject of this article.