BOOK: Master Your Emotions

 How to use positive affirmation

1. Use the present tense and not the future tense, (“I am” not “I
2. will”).
3. Avoid negative forms like “I am not shy.” Instead, use “I am
4. confident.”
5. Repeat the sentence again and again for five minutes.
6. Do it every single day without exception for a month, and
7. preferably longer.
8. Use visualization at the same time and involve your emotions.

Some examples of powerful affirmations:

1. I love being confident.
2. I am independent of the good or bad opinions of others.
3. I am beneath no one and no one is beneath me.

Exercise

• Use positive affirmation for five minutes daily.

• Notice words that show a lack of commitment, confidence or

assertiveness. Go over your emails before you send them and

remove phrases such as, “I’ll try,” “I should,” “I hope,” etc. Replace

them with, “I will,” or something equally assertive. For the next three

weeks, challenge yourself to avoid using words showing a lack of

confidence.

As you perform your own affirmations, try engaging your body as well.

Remember, your words and your body affect your emotions.

Proper breathing benefits you in different ways. Slowing your

breathing helps reduce anxiety.

check it on youtube here: Breath of Fire

For more on how to use breathing to change your mood you

can refer to Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body,

Mind and Spirit or search out other books on breathing.

I developed an ideal mindset for peak

performance and used an arsenal of time-tested songs to

fortify this alter ego and invincible state of mind. During my

training and races it became obvious that even in really

horrible weather conditions, or when I was physically

suffering, that I could use music (and my imagination) to

create a parallel universe that had little to do with reality.

First, let’s differentiate two types of negative emotions. 

The first type are the negative emotions you experience spontaneously. These are the emotions that keep you alive such as the fear our ancestors felt when they encountered a saber-tooth tiger. 

The second type of negative emotions are the ones you create in your mind by identifying with your thoughts. These emotions aren’t necessarily triggered by external events—although they may be. These emotions tend to last longer than the first type. 

The point is, when you give thoughts room to exist, they spread and become major points of

focus.

Here is a formula to explain how emotions form:

Interpretation + identification + repetition = strong emotion

IDR

Interpretation: is when you interpret an event or a thought

based on your personal story.

Identification: is when you identify with a specific thought

as it arises.

Repetition: is having the same thoughts over and over.

Strong emotion: is when you experience an emotion so

many times it has become part of your identity. You then

experience that emotion whenever a related thought or event

triggers it.

You are not your emotions. Your emotions will come and they will go.

They can appear to be you, but they will soon

disappear, like clouds in the sky. Think of yourself as the sun, and

the sun is always there whether or not you perceive it—whether or

not its hidden by the cloud.

Another way to see your emotions is as the clothes you wear. What

emotional clothes are you wearing right now? Are they clothes of

excitement? Depression? Sadness? Bear in mind, tomorrow, or a

week from now, you will likely be wearing different clothes.

How long you wear your clothes (your emotions) depends on how

much you love them (i.e. how much you're attached to your

emotions). 

We’ve seen that the way you interpret an event or a thought

determines how you feel. We also know that, as you identify with

your thoughts or feelings, they become emotions. Now, if you keep

repeating that process, you’ll condition your mind to experience

these specific emotions (positive or negative).

Emotions are energy in motion, but what happens when you prevent the energy from moving? It accumulates. When you repress your emotions, you interrupt the natural flow of energy.

As a result, you may have been repressing your emotions for years. By doing so, you let them sink deeper into your subconscious, allowing them to become part of your identity. They have often 👀become patterns you may be unaware of.

Three different ways to release your emotions as they arise. You can:

1. Let them go. When you experience negative emotions, you can consciously choose to release them rather than repressing them or clinging to them

2. Allow them to be here. You can allow them by acknowledging their existence without clinging to them, or you can

3. Welcome them. You can accept them and have a closer look at them to discover what the core of these emotions are.