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Are you carrying around some junk? You know, those hurtful and unconstructive things that you may have been told by someone during the course of your life. It was supposed to be taken with a grain of salt or simply ignored but most of the times we take that criticism and wear it like a hat of shame!

It is one thing to listen to constructive criticism and then make changes to better ourselves or our situation, but it is something else to listen to rude and downright mean criticism and then take it to heart. Well, why not declare this a time to clear out the junk! That means that it is now time unload all of those negative, non-constructive, non-truths that you have been told.

The change is quite simple to start then takes some work to keep up. Start by seeing the best in others and think about all of the good qualities that you have rather than the qualities that you don't have. Change the actual quality of our thoughts. By concentrating on good, quality thoughts, we begin to experience self-pleasure, happiness and self-respect. Along the way, we also recognize our own unique skills and abilities. Let these quality thoughts become your hat, not the negative thoughts that were thrown at you out of anger, jealousy, or another negative emotion.

Try not to analyze every thought down the teeniest detail. Use your thoughts to keep things in perspective. Many times we fall into a trap of thinking too much and we end up spending a large amount of time debating with ourselves, or trying to see how our thoughts will be perceived by our peers. Many times this process will actually stop us from being who we truly are!

Life will always be filled with a few curve balls and surprises and I encourage everyone to really work at being more positive (in your thoughts, speech and actions). Work at this daily until it becomes so much of a habit, that you won't even have to think about it.

Positive thinking is infectious and leads to a 'can do' attitude within any individual that adopts this approach to life. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds.

Below are just a few examples of typical negative self-talk and how you might apply a positive twist to those thoughts:

Negative Thought: I've never done it before & I don't know how to do it

Positive Spin: It's an opportunity to learn something new.

Negative Thought: No one wants to communicate with me.

Positive Spin: I'll see if I can open the channels of communication.

Here are a few action steps that will help you to empty the junk of Negative thoughts and to add the nourishment of positive ones.

' Stop negative thoughts in their tracks. Whenever you hear yourself "thinking" a negative thought ~ STOP and replace it with a positive thought. Instead of saying to yourself, "I'm not good at this." Stop yourself and say, "I am getting better at this with each and every try."

' If you catch yourself visualizing failure, switch to visualizing success.

' Look for the positive. No matter what the situation is, there is always a negative and a positive side of it. Sometimes, the positive side may not be easy to see right off the bat, but if you look deep enough it is there.

Decide that from today, you are leaving negative thinking behind, and starting on the way towards positive thinking. It is never too late to start this process and soon you will notice things changing for the better.