The Power of Positive Thinking.
Perhaps you have read books by Vincent Normal Peal or watched "The Secret". The power of positive thinking is not a new concept but one, as busy equestrians, that we sometimes lose sight of. There are always so many things to think about that our positive intentions can fall by the wayside. Is my trailer inspected? Can we get the ring dragged? When is the blacksmith coming? Then at the competition it starts all over with more. What time should I braid? Are my boots clean? Did I pack my gloves? The list goes on and on. I know because I live it! Though I realize how important the power of positive thought is to my success, my mind gets so busy with multitasking that I forget to give it the attention it deserves. It gets "put on the back burner" of my mind. Sound familiar? That's where your Equi-Energy Gem Malas come in. But lets talk about how the power of positive thought works first.
Let's take two dressage competitors, Negative Nancy and Positive Patty. Days before her dressage test Negative Nancy is worried that her horse will keep breaking into a trot from a walk because of his tension at the show ground surroundings and unfortunately, she keeps programing that into her head by thinking about it. On the day of her test she is tense and worried every time they walk and low and behold, her tension is actually giving her horse the signal to tense up and break into the trot. On the other hand, Positive Patty has been using her Equi-Energy Gems to program her head with positive thoughts about how her horse is going to "crush" his dressage test. She enters the arena calm and confident which is relayed to her horse and they have an exceptional ride. This of coarse is a very simplistic example but how true!
OK, let's get real. Does that mean that if we are worried that our horse may over react and break into the trot during the test that we ignore it? No, not at all. We turn the thought into a positive. All those days before the test, instead of programming our head with the negative outcome of breaking into the trot, we replace with the calm positive outcome of a nice relaxed walk. "I will remain calm and relaxed and then my horse will relax as well". "I am confident that he will have a great relaxed ride".
So what if your horse does jig into a trot during his test? We take responsibility..."I should have worked on this more". We turn it into a positive..."now I know what we need to work on." We ask ourselves, "what can I learn from this experience and how do I solve this problem? Then we put that into action to reach our goal. We keep our mind on a positive track with positive self talk. Positive Patty decides that she needs to get her horse to some local schooling shows so he becomes acclimated to show ground stress. She is excited about her plan and sees her goals getting closer. Negative Nancy says to herself, "I knew he was going to do that". She spends days replaying and focusing on her horse jigging and how horrible that made her feel. This only adds to the negative "movie" program in Nancy's head. She did not take responsibility. She did not come up with a solution. She is setting herself up for more of the same.
Whenever a negative thought creeps into your head, simply have a mind's eye visual of how to not accept it. To erase it. You can see yourself erasing it off of a chalk board or simply X the thought out and say NO! Reject it fast and every time. Replace it with the positive thought of reaching your goal.
Because we are going to "charge" our Equi-Energy Gem Mala Bracelet with those positive thoughts (Next Must Read Article), we will be subconsciously programing our brain to manifest our goals every time we glance down at it throughout the day. Are you ready to live your wildest dreams?