Maintaining a Positive Attitude with ALS

[quadbliss]

Hello everyone,

I would like to share something that has the potential to make a huge difference in your life. It is something that I figured out a long time ago, but have been afraid to discuss with anyone but Jen. I did not want people to think I was nuts, and disregard all the other principals I have come across on my spiritual path.

Several years ago I realized I was creating my own reality…literally. I saw that my thoughts were causing things to happen, and they had been all my life. I began to deliberately use this technique, and it is amazing how consistently it works.

At first I thought I had some special ability, but now I know that everyone can do this. In fact, we are all doing it all the time, we just don't realize it. This can be harmful because you can create bad things as well as good.

Oprah has now declared that she too knows about and uses this feature of the human mind. When I saw it on her show, I knew it was becoming main stream enough to discuss without people thinking I was crazy. It is called the law of attraction, and is the subject of a feature length film called “The Secret”. It is a law of the Universe just like gravity. The mind emits energy when we have a thought or emotion. This energy has a frequency, and it attracts other energy of the same frequency. In other words, what you think about will manifest in your life, consciously or unconsciously, positive or negative. If this process is happening anyway, you might as well take control and guide it in a direction that will bring you happiness.

Applying this principle is crucial when confronting a difficult life circumstance such as ALS. If you habitually focus on the "bad things" that are happening to you and repeatedly cultivate negative emotions, the Universe will dutifully provide you with more situations that generate these thoughts and feelings. On the other hand, if you work to cultivate positive thoughts and emotions, even gratitude, the Universe will comply by providing an abundance of positive experiences. It will manifest more things for which to be grateful. This really works. I do it all the time.

OK, have I lost any shred of credibility I may have had remaining?

Mike

 

[mlb]

Thanks Mike for sharing your "secret". It is true just try this... go out shopping with a grumpy face and see how sales people react to you. Then put on a happy face and see the difference.

Anna

 

[Pollyanna]

Preaching to the choir....

Hey Mike! How sweet it is to find a kindred spirit, right? You are preaching to the choir, my friend, about the positive attitude shaping our lives. I've been living this way all my life, and now that we have ALS in our lives, the people around me are beginning to realize the value of my outlook on life. I've always tried to find the good in things and in people, the silver lining, so to speak. And it's always my mission to make an unpleasant or unhappy person smile before I leave them. And I've had very few times that it didn't work....not because I'm super-great or anything like that. It's just exactly what you said about our thoughts and attitudes shaping our lives. If we can plant one happy seed in an unhappy person, it almost always makes them smile. And smiles can absolutely change your life! I'm fortunate that God blessed me with this personality. It's certainly none of my own doing, but I give him all the glory. Thanks for sharing your perspective...you've made me smile at the end of a particularly trying day, and as you know, that's huge!:-D

 

[liz]

Mike -

As long as you keep contributing such helpful tips on things like travel, mobility, communication, etc., I think your credibility will remain intact. Threads like this will appeal to some and not to others but that's OK.

Happy President's Day! :-D

Liz

 

[CindyM]

Mike- You're not off base. One of the personal performance gurus, I think it was Steven Covey of the "Seven Habits of Successful People" fame talked about this years ago. They use it in sports psychology too. If a player thinks "I hope I make this shot," he or she is less likely to succeed than if that same player says "I am good at this."

I know a very pessimistic guy with few health problems other than those he convinces himself of. He was complaining about the "impossibility" of working with a particularly abrasive woman. I knew he would never tell himself anything positive so I suggested he try saying "I don't care what she says," 10 or 20 times a day. Guess what? He no longer cares if she is abrupt or interrupts or any of the other annoying habits she has. (Naturally I wouldn't advise this if he was facing an abusive situation. But it works will with a personality clash and gives him a shot of self esteem when he needs it.)

Last week he thanked me for teaching him this little technique, so you see the messages we give ourselves make a difference. My friend is now teaching others at the job how to think "We don't care how she acts." It will be an interesting experiment. I am wondering if enough people feel empowered and truly don't get all in a bother over her ways, what will happen?

Back to ALS, the first time my legs gave out I panicked. I thought of all the bad things that could happen if I can no longer walk. Today, the possibility of not being able to walk seems very real, but I have taught myself not to be frightened. That makes others around me behave differently. They take their cues from me, after all. Cindy

 

[CindyM]

I forgot to say the positive thinking thing only works when the possibility exists. No amount of positive thinking will make my legs strong enough for the treadmill. To think so would be delusional. But I can live to the best of my abilities and I can function better with a positive attitude, and thus generate more good vibes from those around me.

Think about it: it works the other way as well. It often takes only one complainer in the office to lower the morale of everyone.

 

[Al]

What credibility Mike? LOL. You've still got it with me.
AL.

 

[emjoi]

I can only think of my Father and Mother. My dad was dealt a bad hand with ALS, and it would have been easy to sink into despair. But they made a decision early on to live their life as normally as possible. And we family around them chose this path as well.

There's no Upside to this sickness, no hope that things will get better, but you have to keep on living and it's what setting you click to in your brain will determine how that life will proceed. So we had two good years with my dad. We went on small holidays, we had Christmases and Birthdays and did all the normal stuff a family should do.

If you only have a short time on earth left to you, surely that's a better way to do it.

Click that Switch. Say "Stuff it, I aint gonna win, but it's not time to lose just yet."

 

[liz]

Why quit early?

Liz