Do you have our own way of altering your moods and turning what is potentially a black hole of negativity into something uplifting and worth celebrating?

This thread has been started in hopes to share Tips & Tricks for "flipping that frown upside-down". Please feel free to share your ideas, stories, suggestions, questions and comments with the rest of us.

Just to get the ball rolling, I'll start with my favourite suggestion:

Practice giving thoughts of "lovingkindness". Really feel yourself wanting to share your positive energy with those who really could use a little lift. I like to call it the Care Bear Stare. Most of you are probably familiar with the cartoon that's making a comeback. Well, these cute and colorful bears always end up doing the "Care Bear Stare". They join together and shine love from their tummies on "the bad guy" and save the day by sharing their love. I think it makes it even easier when you're picturing those cuddly bears in your mind when you do this.

Yesterday, I got a call from the Crisis Center requesting food for their food pantry. I didn't even know there was a food pantry. So, when I went grocery shopping, I included food for the pantry. It is fun to be able to share the abundance. And it makes me really appreciate what I have.

It's been a while since there was a post here, so hopefully people are still checking. First, to happyincalgary, I'm from rural Edmonton area, so maybe there is a chance to have a annual or bi-annual get together with people within driving distance. One of my tips is to build in some meditation. I'm very new at the meditation thing, but one of the Wayne Dyer CD's describes closing your eyes, visualizing numbers, starting at 24 and trying to work down to 1. Everytime a thought creeps in, you start back at 24. In a few months I've only made it to 1 once! Shows you how busy my mind is. Anyway, taking the time to sit, relax and try to calm my mind, even if I only if for 5 minutes (goal of 30 min/day) seems to make make life's challenges smaller, ease some of my worry and...end result...I feel happier.

Thanks for sharing Kimh. Do you count down with your breath or just visualise counting down.

AlexK

I'll be trying this one. I have been trying to stay in the moment and not worry about what may happen tomorrow or rehash over and over what happened yesterday. So much chatter in my mind detracts from what is happening now. And if I take away the present with all the mind chatter, what is left? This sounds like a great exercise to support being present.

I am convinced that some form of meditation is key to this goal.

Application of being present - Yesterday, it didn't look like my son was going to be able to make it for Mother's Day. Instead of fretting about not being able to see him, I decided to be happy in being with my two daughters and their husbands. As it turned out, he and his girlfriend were able to come. What a joyful surprise! Being disappointed or sad would have been such a waste of energy and would have taken away from my enjoyment of the time with my daughters and their husbands. (It just occurred to me this morning that I finally have the 6 kids I had always wanted.)

I have a few tricks I use to get my mind off of negative things. I use the first one most often when I wake up tired and grumpy. I read it in Thich Nhat Hanh's book "The Miracle of Mindfulness." All you have to do is smile a really big smile and take five deep breaths. Even if the smile starts out completely fake, just plastered on my face, by the time I get to five deep breaths, I feel better and the smile is genuine. It turns out that smiling releases endorphins in your brain.

Another thing I do is sing. I have a couple of songs that can always turn my mind around.

And if I'm really being stubborn, I resort to playing a video of someone singing, on my computer. My current favorite is little Connie Talbot's (www.connietalbot.com) rendition of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds." How can I not smile while watching that?

Loving Kindness meditation, metta etc is the beautiful and just so simple. I love it.

I use to laugh loud. I feel awesome!

Is this one still going?

Sometimes when I'm feeling down for whatever reasons. I find I need to put on music of some sort. For me it's mostly the classics that gets me out of a funk.

AlexK

(1) Two snowmen standing in a field. One says to the other 'Can you smell carrots?'

The point? Jokes make you feel better.

(2) The 'Euphoria' Paraliminal tape is excellent for feeling good. In fact, I'm planning to make it a daily thing.

(3) The Sedona Method - should be a tool in every self-helper's aresenal in my opinion. Once learned it can really help to get out of negative states. In a nutshell, you allow yourslf to feel the feeling just as it is (which actually feels uncomfortable at first, which is why we resist it) and then ask yourself 3 questions, and see what comes up: (1) Could I let go of this feeling? (yes/no - no is still a valid answer) (2) Would I (let go of it)? (3) When? Refocus and repeat until you feel better.

I'm scared to the point of being phobic about going to the dentist, and earlier in the year I had to have something unpleasant done. I released on the fear to the point that I actually felt as though something was missing when I approached the door to the 'torture chamber' with just a very slight anxiety after extensive use of the process.

(4) Use the processes offered in 'Ask And It Is Given' by Abraham/Hicks. In particular, the one that has you climb up the ladder of feelings by reaching for a higher vibrational state than the one you're experiencing at the moment. For example, if you are feeling depressed, allow yourself to get angry (which is a higher vibration) to get out of the depression. Then use the anger as a stepping stone to the next state up, and keep on going. It's very freeing to know that it's OK to experience negative feelings like anger, as long as you don't stay there.

(5) Isn't there an NLP process where you look up and to the right, whereby you simply can't access negative emotions? I'm sure Paul mentioned it in one of his courses, but I don't know which off-hand.

Thich Nhat Hanh? Hadn't heard of this before. I'll check it out. Thanks for that.