SOMM: State Of Mind Management-CERTITUDE

By Dr. William K. Larkin on September 28, 2009

In our Emotional Gym, we create an ambient sound track in our lives composed of the emotions of love, peace, gratitude, joy and hope, either singly or in combination. We know that we must become the masters of what we feel from the inside, not the victims of what happens on the outside. We decide how we want to feel. Emotional muscle is the capacity to get there instantly, stay there as long we want, and to intensify the positive feeling if we choose. It is a program of practice and exercise. And it works, guaranteed!

Let's take it a step further. Define how "Certitude" feels for you. For many reading this blog, this will be a reminder; for others, newer to our work, let me explain how it's done. Write down all of the feelings you feel when you feel yourself in a state of certitude.

Mine are: connected, knowing that I know that I know, confident, open inside, solid, easy, sure, peaceful, and determined faith.

Your set of feelings and "sense of certitude" will be different, uniquely your own. I practice feeling all of these while I draw the letter "C" in my left hand with the right index finger. I draw in slow, meditative strokes. I draw on my hand no matter where I may find myself-the car at a stop sign, under the table at a meeting, before I give a talk, as I go to sleep. Over and over again, I practice this state, and now I own it. It is mine. I can get there quickly, stay there as long as I want, and make the feeling stronger if I need to.

Just like going to the gym, it took a while to get a little muscle. But as soon as I started the Emotional Gym, I felt better. Then I got better at it and now I have BIG, STRONG, EMOTIONAL muscles. When I look at the "gym guys" with their big bulging muscles, tanned bodies, and swagger of confidence as they try to walk getting one muscled thigh past the other successfully, I do certitude and say to myself, "I am the real muscle man. I smile at myself, laugh at myself and move on in Certitude."

Emotional muscle rocks!

The Vast Importance of Positive Emotion

By Dr. William K. Larkin on September 22, 2009

I wish there were another good word for "positive" that would get our attention and convey its meaning as well as the word "positive" does.

We treat "positive" as though it were a "by-product" of living and an occasional good thing. We too often see it as a reward for sacrifice and struggle, rather than a way of life that replaces both sacrifice and struggle. We are deeply invested in "paying the price," in "no pain no gain," in suffering in order to justify our existence.

Positive emotion, attitudes and experience are just beginning to be understood.

I have talked before about the Losada Butterfly and the research behind it which gives us proof that we need 3 positives to 1 negative to begin to flourish. That research also says that a ratio of 11 or more positives to 1 negative is "over the top," unreal, and does not produce flourishing.

But consider this. Up to the point of 11, the number of positives is altogether significant. It isn't just that a 3:1 ratio begins to produce flourishing in impressive ways that sustain both personal health and business productivity and creativity. It's much more than that. There are another 7 points of gradation in the positive range before they are over the top. What would 5 positives to 1 negative produce, what would 8 produce, what would 10 produce?

We haven't even scratched the surface of the deep significance and meaning of the word "positive." If you or I lived in an environment where the positive were 8:1 for three months, our lives would inevitably, beautifully, and unbelievably be altered for the good.

Consider positive education, positive healing, positive therapy, positive coaching, positive love-making, positive food (yes, there is such a thing!)

Today, I challenge you to join an UpSpiraLife Group and to begin to see what 90 minutes of positivity a week will do for you. Then go from there. You will be amazed. We have vastly underestimated the life sustaining significance of positive emotion.

The Developmental Stages After 40

By Dr. William K. Larkin on September 16, 2009

We think of developing as belonging to childhood and adolescence, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are developmental stages after 40. If you don't make it through those stages, you become fixed, rigid and ornery -a good example are the marches that are occurring in Washington. The most significant message being communicated here would seem to be fear, but it is also the lack of development. A lack of development is most signaled by negativity. Chronic negativity is a sign of the developmental stages of growth trying to break through and take root. The degree of fear and negativity is a measure of resistance to being OPEN.

Openness is a key word to navigating these stages of adult development. They are key concepts in the work on transition that we do at ANI. Listen for the negativity around you, maybe even from yourself and you will have a clue, a red flag, to tell you where transition and openness are needed and where they are being blocked.

You will either make the developmental stages and transitions in adult life or you will get sick, in one way or another. It is certain that if you become more positive, if you raise your happiness set-point and your emotional set-point, if you increase your growth in an UpSpiral of positive living, you will experience movement and transition in your life that will literally breathe life into your cells; it will help them thrive. Your cells will get rid of toxins and receive what is healthy for their development. You will flourish as you climb ever higher in the UpSpiral.

Fall is Coming, Change is Afoot…At Last, a New 12 Step Group for a New Millenium

By Dr. William K. Larkin on September 8, 2009

We have really only begun to scratch the surface of understanding the importance of positive emotion and positive structures of reasoning. We are upon the dawn of a new consciousness that will transform education, spirituality, economics and the way that we see everything. We are still caught up with changing the demons and dragons of negative emotions and negative reasoning, busy correcting weaknesses and changing people's faults. But there are signs that we are growing weary of slaying these dragons even if the last Harry Potter movie was entirely given over to this "power of darkness." It is two and a half laborious hours, supposedly for children, about how you have to defeat the darkness first and then you can enjoy the light.

This is so ho-hum, dressed up in computer graphics, and unfortunately, is an attempt to convince kids that the bogeyman deserves more attention than their own genius. It is a long road to believing that the good and positive will eclipse the things we just can't stand about ourselves, the things that just won't change and budge until we realize that they are the other side of wonderful things about us that can literally run the whole show of our lives.

Employers are beginning to realize that they don't make better employees, and certainly not more devoted ones, by evaluations that point out what is wrong and ask for it to be corrected, rather than finding what is good and asking for growth in those directions.

Ministers are still decrying congregations that don't give them enough money to pay their bills rather than inspiring and engaging the profound gifts of their congregants. Teachers are still telling students what they did wrong, rather than finding the genius in what they did that was wonderful and an expression of their real strengths. But things are changing.

Fall is here and change is afoot. Whatever you do, find the ways that get you to the top of the UpSpiral and keep you  there, or at least not too far away from the place where you will be profoundly effective and happy and draw to you what it is that you really want. We can show you how to do that. We guarantee our results.

Fall is here and UpSpiraLife groups are spreading to the far reaches of the world as we begin to offer them nationally and internationally. Check out the UpSpiraLife tab on this website and learn more about the most profound new 12 step group to develop since the first one came into being. This one is all positive.  Finally, a 12 step group where you don't have to be an addict to belong. Fall is here and so is the UpSpiraLife Group. It's free, doesn't cost you any money, but it will cost you this: your negativity in exchange for an UpSpiral of positivity and flow.