Zip it.

Chances are that if you are reading this, you know that you are what you think. You are what you believe. You are what you eat. You are the exercise you get. Let's add another to the list: You are the company you keep.

The people in your social circle and how you let them affect you will have a greater influence on the direction of your life than any other factor. Nowhere do personal associations influence you more than in your quest for optimal health, spiritual growth and self achievement.

As human beings, we have an automatic tendency to conform to the words, behaviors, and habits of the people who surround us. When you become aware of which people in your life are positive influences and which are negative, that's the beginning of a life transformation.

"We are all being influenced by someone. Since this influence will determine, to some extent, the direction of our lives, it is far better to deliberately choose the people we will permit to influence us than to allow the power of the wrong influence to weave its effect on us without our knowledge or conscious choice."

-Jim Rhon, Motivational Speaker

Start by taking an inventory of all the people in your life. Who do you spend the most time with? What kind of influence are they having on you? Is that influence helping you move toward your ultimate goals or away from them?

Try these strategies if the negative influences in your life are beginning take a toll on you.

1. Limit your exposure to the negatives by simply spending less time with pessimists, critics and other negative people. A good first step is to begin placing an extraordinarily high value on your time. As you start to realize that time is life itself and you have a limited supply, you'll begin to have less tolerance for time wasters. This also applies to the time you spend watching TV, reading books, listening to music and surfing your laptop. Keep it uplifting-- avoid anything that brings you to a lower frequency.
2. Increase your exposure to the positive people in your life. Rearrange your time and priorities to expand the positive associations in your life. Do anything it takes to share time with people who are filled with light. Fill your mind with inspiring books, uplifting music, and positive thoughts and ideas. A spoonful of positive energy can counteract a truckload of negative energy.
3. Build immunity from the negatives. Expecting to eliminate all negativity from your life is unrealistic. You can however shield yourself from it. Every morning before you go out into the wold, put yourself inside a force field of positive energy. Visualize yourself stepping into it and even zipping it up. I do this every morning for my kids-- I literally run my hand up an imaginary zipper from their waist to their chin, and remind them that I am helping to protect them from any negative energy-- if it comes their way that they can watch it bounce right off of them. This is a powerful tool that we all may need a bit more of.

Every recording that you will find at mythoughtcoach.com is specifically designed to have an overall positive effect on your life.

How does that EFT thing WORK, anyway???

If you have tried it, you know by now that EFT reduces emotional stress. But how?

Emotional Freedom Technique approaches the problem of emotional stress from the vastly different standpoint of Energy Psychology, certainly not the way the psychologists or psychiatrists consider these problems. For this reason the mechanics and outcomes of EFT are unlike what people expect.

EFT is associated with the ancient healing art of acupuncture, called chi. Chi energy travels within and over the body in 14 clearly described channels, pathways or meridians. Another principle of acupuncture that applies to EFT is that any disease, pain or disturbance of the body is caused by a disruption of chi energy. As such, negative emotions like anxiety, fear, anger, a phobia of any kind, and so on, are also caused by a disturbance in one or more chi energy meridians.

Have you noticed that whenever you think about a stressful memory or event that the same stress that you experienced when the event first HAPPENED comes back? Just by thinking about it? This is because the event AND the feelings associated with it become linked in your brain and energy system. It is this link that keeps us stuck, re-living that negative emotional and physical response over and over again every time that we are reminded of or think about a past stressful or painful event.

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) reduces the emotional and the physical reaction associated with the distressing memory by neutralizing the link that was originally formed when the event first happened. This is done by intentionally holding the thought of the negative or stressful memory and tapping with the fingertips on a few acupuncture points on the face and chest.

With this tapping action, additional energy is brought into the body to neutralize, normalize or reduce the energy disruption in all affected meridian pathways. Energy flow is normalized, and as a consequence the body functions better in all physical, emotional and mental dimensions.

It is critical to the EFT process to remain clearly focused on the distressing thought and memory. In this way, the energy disturbance will remain activated during the tapping process. Becoming distracted by outside thoughts will break the neurological connection between the memory and the feeling. This disruption between the two could prevent the corrective process from occurring.

As the process of EFT treatment continues to neutralize this connection, you will experience a rather sudden awareness of detachment and absence of the familiar stressful response the next time that you think about the stressful or disturbing thought. Many report that it is as if the negative emotions about the event have been drained away. From this point on, one would then be able to: think the "previously stressful" thought, picture the disturbing mental image, or mentally relive the hurtful event. . .without the painful or self destructive response.

Still haven't tried it? You should. I can help you at www.mythoughtcoach.com.