Beyond Positive Thinkingby Robert Anthony
Morgan James Publ 2004
ISBN: 10975857096
I have tried to cull my notes from reading this book, but it has been a difficult task. Robert Anthony is one of the most quotable authors I know.
This book includes many great sections. My favourites were on Belief, and the Subconscious Mind. There is also a very good section on writing 'intention statements', or affirmations.
Table of Contents and Reader Reviews at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
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Universal Force or Creative Intelligence
“In order to get our lives to work, and take greater advantage of this energy, we have to build a bigger channel for Creative Intelligence to flow through. To enlarge this channel we have to expand our consciousness. Expanding our consciousness involves expanding our ideas and beliefs regarding ourselves and our relationship to this Power.”
Negative beliefs
“The only limitation is in our mind. The truth is we can have anything we want if we’ll give up the belief that we can’t have it. It’s as simple as that…
It is a demonstrated fact of life that you and I do not behave in accordance with the reality of what we ‘can’ do but in accordance with the reality of what we ‘believe’ we can do. It stands to reason if we change the way we believe, we can change the way we act.”
Right thinking
“We must stop kidding ourselves, stop blaming others, and stop avoiding unpleasant decisions and start facing the truth that we may have accepted unworkable beliefs that are the direct cause of the events in our lives. It is not a question of going from negative thinking to positive thinking. It is a matter of moving toward “right thinking”, which means moving toward knowing the absolute truth about who we are and our relationship to life…
Right thinking, which is based in Truth and not illusion is the foundation that determines the solidity of all other thinking. Positive thinking and negative thinking are both filtered through our belief system. Right thinking comes from being aware of the truth or the reality of any situation.“
Accepting responsibility
“The aim of all great teachers since the beginning of time was to awaken us to the fact that we create our own reality. More importantly, that we are responsible for everything that happens in our lives. This includes, the good, the bad, and the ugly…
No amount of determination, no amount of willpower, inspiration or motivation will solve our problems if we look outside ourselves for the answer… In essence, there are no victims, only volunteers.”
Law of Attraction
“The Law of Attraction, like all natural laws, operates with mathematical exactitude. It is impartial and impersonal, which means it works when you want it to and when you don’t want it to…
You may not have realized it until now, but everything you experience in your life is invited, attracted and created by you…
The mind attracts whatever is familiar to itself. The frightened mind attracts frightening experiences. A confused mind attracts more confusion. The abundant mind attracts abundance. “
Subconscious Mind
“The primary function of the sub/mind is to follow the instructions of the conscious mind. It does this by “proving” that whatever the conscious mind believes is true. In other words, the job of the subconscious mind is to prove that the conscious mind is always ‘right’… It will draw to you only those things that are consistent with your deepest inner beliefs, nothing more, nothing less.
Our subconscious mind believes the information it stores is true whether it is true or not… Each time we replay the same thought, it gets recorded as reality all over again and reinforces the dominant belief… As these thoughts accumulate, they bring about patterns of belief. As we allow these thoughts to build up in our minds, we then act out those beliefs; thus we live a self-fulfilling prophecy… Our subconscious mind does not question the validity of the data we present to it. It merely processes it and attracts to us what we believe to be true.”
Trusting the Creative Power
“When you are told to trust the Power within you, immediately you could say: “look at the starvation. Look at the sickness, the war and the crime in the world. You are telling me to trust the Power? If this Power existed, why would it allow this to happen?” Well, the truth is, it doesn’t allow anything to happen. Remember, we said the Power is neutral. It is simply the Power of Creation. It is the impersonal force of life. We can use this Power, or Life Force, to create anything that we want in our lives. Even if we choose from ignorance, it doesn’t matter. It will support us in our ignorance until we learn from it. The effect will always be equal to the cause. Of we’re in a ditch, it means that the Power is supporting us in being in a ditch. If our life is immensely successful, it means that the Power supports us in our success.”
On limitations
“Pronounce your limitations vigorously enough and they’re yours. Whether your beliefs are true or totally insane, if you accept them, then that’s what you life will be about.”
On Changing
“You can change anything about yourself quite quickly. All you have to do is give up the belief system that says that it takes a long time to change. “
Purpose
“While living in the present moment, the true source of experiencing joy lies in one act: discovering and following what excites us the most in any given moment each day, all day… What you do, whatever makes you feel alive and joyful, is your unique expression. And it is probably the only thing that will bring you true joy and excitement.”
On poverty and wealth
“I am sure that you have heard the saying that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. Now, on the surface this doesn’t seem fair until we understand that our consistent thoughts create our consistent results. Those who are rich are constantly thinking about riches. Those who experience poverty are constantly thinking about poverty, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy… When our consciousness is filled with beliefs, assumption, thoughts, ideas, concepts and notions that directly encourage a belief of scarcity, lack, limitation, or poverty, our life becomes a reflection of these thoughts.”
Giving and Receiving
“If you want money, give money. If you want love, give love. If you want recognition, give recognition. Whatever you have not, that’s what you must give and contribute… Develop and “attitude of gratitude” toward whatever you have now and watch how it will begin to grow and increase…
One important way to increase the flow of abundance in our lives is to be a good receiver. Giving must be balanced with receiving. The reason that it is important to accept is that it allows the other person to give something to us…”
Self Image
“Whether we realize is or not, within ourselves is a mental blueprint. It’s a picture of the way that we think that we are. This blueprint is exact and complete down to the last detail. This summary or blueprint is our self image. However, this blueprint is not ‘who we are’, but rather who we ‘think’ we are...
Our self-image, which is the picture of ourselves that we hold in our minds, becomes the key to our lives. All our actions, feelings and behaviour, even our abilities, are consistent with this formed picture…
If we change the picture, the change in our behavior and performance follows automatically… Do not try to change your performance or behavior. Change the picture first.”
Reprogramming Your Mind
The process of programming your sub/mind to bring forth your intention, is called “imprinting”. Imprinting is the deliberate control of our thoughts and pictures concerning the kind of changes we want to make. The imprinting occurs when our sub/mind accepts the new image of the end result. Imprinting is a three-step process:
1. You affirm your goal with an intention statement.
2. You picture the end result.
3. You feel the emotion that goes along with accomplishing the goal.”
Deprogramming Negatives
“The way out of this is to affirm your own perfection. It’s not an ego trip to affirm your own perfection; it’s an ego trip ‘not’ to affirm your own perfection… The way to neutralize your ego is to love yourself unconditionally. Loving yourself doesn’t bloat your ego. Loving yourself actually neutralizes your ego, because your ego isn’t about loving yourself.”
Accepting responsibility
“People and events never do anything to us. They merely trigger feelings that are already within us. If we go back to the basic principle of life we understand that nothing happens in the world that we don’t permit deep within our consciousness.”
Trust
“Decide what you want and believe in your ability to get it, and your sub/mind will take care of everything that needs to be done to make it happen. It’s as easy as that. The problem is we are fooled by the simplicity of it.”
Self-Talk
“Self-talk is that constant conversation we carry on with ourselves, as we perceive what we think, see, and hear. It is the three-dimensional form of thought, made up of words, pictures and emotions… Be careful about what you say about yourself. Remember that other people can hand you their opinions about you, but what you think about you is what determines your self-image.”
Limiting Labels
“Take a look at your material possessions. You draw to yourself that which you feel you are worthy of receiving – the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the home you live in . The total quantity and quality of your life is determined by your self-esteem and self-worth.
What kind of labels are you putting on yourself? Each one of us has dozens, perhaps hundreds of labels we have given ourselves during our lifetime. Because we act like we see ourselves, these labels or opinions govern our behavior. Some of the labels are helpful. But in order to grow and develop, some of the labels need to be changed.”
Awareness
“Every decision we make and every action we take is based on our level of awareness at any given moment. In order to be all that we can be, we must constantly work to change and expand our level of awareness, or our perception of reality.”
Unconscious visualization
“We move towards what we picture. We physically, emotionally and psychologically create through activity and movement what we hold as a picture in our minds, whether it is good for us or not. As long as we hold the picture, we are drawn toward that picture. We control our imagery through directed self-talk… Don’t spend your time imaging and imprinting what you are trying to avoid. Instead of going away from something you don’t want, go ‘toward’ what you do want.
Visualization
“If we are using imagery to change habit patterns, we must see ourselves acting and reacting the way we want to be in the future… It must be seen so clearly that it seems real to your brain and nervous system. The ultimate aim of affirmation and visualization is to evoke the feeling that the goal has already been achieve.”
Affirmations
“Affirmations are quality ideas and quality thoughts. The quality of our thoughts reflects the quality of our life. Hence, if we were to raise the quality of our thoughts, we would automatically improve the quality of our life… Affirmation literally means to validate or confirm. So when we think a thought over and over again, we are validating or confirming it as the truth… Using affirmations on a daily basis is one of the easiest things we can do to change our lives.”
Releasing
“Start to release everything that is no longer a part of what you want to create in your life. Give material things away that you no longer use or want to make room for what you want or need now… Give your items to friends or… give them to charity. And as your clean out, put what’s left in order because if you have clutter in your life, it is an indication of clutter within your mind.”
The Present Moment
“Think of your present moment as your point of power… all your hopes for the future and even your memories of the past can only happen in the present moment. The present moment is that one point where everything comes together…
Take a moment and just observe the habitual tendency of your mind wanting to escape the now… become the silent watcher. This will help you to focus on the moment. When you are conscious that you are not present, something interesting happens – you ARE present!...
Perhaps you are seeking answers to your questions or problems. Notice that sometimes you receive your answer, but most of the time you don’t. Why? Because you are not in the present moment when the answer arrives!”
Happiness
“One of the most important things about accepting where you are right now and enjoying what you already have is that you can have the same peace of mind, the same tranquility, and the same joy right now that you think you will have when you eventually get to where you want to go.. It simply means that you already have what you want at the Being Level.”
One-line quotes definitely worth noting
“If we think it takes a lot of effort and hard work to get what we want, then our life is going to be about struggle.”
“It’s more work to create poverty, disease and disharmony than it is to create health, harmony and abundance, because perfect health, harmony and abundance are the natural order of things.”
“There are no victims, only volunteers.”
“Everything you experience in your life is invited, attracted and created by you.”
“‘Knowing’ is higher than believing. Knowing means that there is NO doubt.”
“Face your worry and see it as an illusion. It cannot exist unless you give it power and give it life.”
“We insist that society should conform to our own subjective illusion of reality.”
“Money cannot make you happy, but it can get rid of many of the things that make you unhappy.”
“The more you outflow, the more you inflow; the more you give out, the more you take in.”
“Remember, there can’t be a giver without a receiver, and there can’t be a receiver without a giver.”
“You will never let yourself have more money than you think you deserve.”
“A person who knows who they are is not threatened by the beliefs of others.”
“The more successful you are, the more mistakes you will make.”
“Be sure you separate ‘who you are’ from ‘what you have’ and ‘what you do’.”
“We cannot change past events, no matter how painful, but we can always intend how we ‘feel’ about them and heal ourselves.”
“You are walking, talking evidence of your beliefs.”
“When you understand how the mind-brain functions together, you know that faith, which is believing before seeing, is the natural process of creation.”
“Goals don’t start in our brain; they start in our heart.”
“We cannot sustain a mental image of a goal that is inconsistent with our beliefs.”
“Don’t get locked up into the ultimate goal. Just concentrate on the next step.”
“Do something… whatever you do, it will be better than sitting and hoping things will improve.”
“It’s a lot easier to get where you want to go if you’ll let go of anything that does not support you in getting what you want.”
“Getting what you want will not change your life at the Being Level, so don’t let what you have determine ‘who you are’, otherwise you will always feel dissatisfied.”
“You should enjoy the present moment because this is all you have. Create for tomorrow, but live in and for today.”
“Are you always trying to get somewhere other than where you are so that you can finally be happy? The truth is that all unhappiness is caused by denial of the present.”
“If you don’t do the choosing, life will choose for you, and it may not be the choice you want.”
“Belief is the cornerstone of all the great achievements since the beginning of time.”
