How to make a positive difference in the world without having to even leave the house:

Our thoughts and our feelings create our realities and influence our world. Therefore, if we are constantly dwelling on negative thoughts, we are merely going to create more negative experiences. However, the more we work to align and maintain our alignment with what I like to call the “Divine Consciousness” (the positive feelings of harmony, peace, love, oneness, well-being, and abundance), and the more we expect GOOD from ourselves and from the world in general, the more we are manifesting POSITIVE conditions and experiences -- both for ourselves, and for our fellow human beings.

So, how do we create a world of harmony? Well, each one of us who is alive on this planet right now is contributing SOME form of energy to the collective whole, simply by being here. Our thoughts and our feelings are actually electromagnetic energy, and they do radiate out from us and affect the world, believe it or not. We each have a choice: we can either contribute negative energy, or positive energy. If we are sending out negative energy into the world (by dwelling on negative thoughts and emotions much of the time), we are adding to and increasing the problems on this planet. This is not just theory -- there is now lots of hard-core scientific evidence to back this up. For example, there have been studies done showing that when people project positive, loving thoughts towards plants, the plants grow more rapidly. However, when severely depressed people were projecting negative feelings onto the plants, the plants’ normal growth rates actually slowed down!

Don’t be too hard on yourself for having negative feelings and negative thoughts. Before you go off on a guilt trip (more negative energy!), just remember that the negative mindset is so prevalent in our society that we all get “conditioned” to be negative. Just watching the news every night, for example, puts people into a negative mindset. Negativity is so much a part of our daily lives that we tend to think of it as “normal.”

However, negative thinking does not have to run our lives. We can CHOOSE to live differently, by becoming AWARE of the negative thought patterns, both within ourselves and in the world around us. Realize that it helps no one to be in those patterns -- yourself least all (don’t you just feel miserable, depressed and angry when you’re dwelling on negative situations? What good does that do?)

If you make a conscious decision to turn these patterns around, now you are contributing POSITIVE energy to the collective consciousness. YOUR positive energy combines with the positive energy of every other person who is focusing on uplifting themselves, their loved ones, and the world, and this creates a tremendous amount of power. It’s exponential. And it DOESmake a difference.

Consider this: A number of studies have been done revealing that when groups of people participate in meditation in large cities, the crime rates drop dramatically in those areas. Leading scientists are now making claims that if enough people pray and meditate together, the whole energetic field of the planet can shift into PEACE. If we all work together, it really IS possible that we can do this! (For more information about this, please read the literature cited in the Planetary Peace Gathering section of this website, including the books recommended at the end of the section. The information is incredibly eye-opening!)

So, let’s do it! Let’s all commit to praying and meditating together in unison, every week, to create this energy shift. Let’s decide TODAY to leave this world a better place for our children, and our children’s children.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

If you haven’t already done so, please read the guidelines on this website for participating in the Planetary Peace Gathering, and join your consciousness with us once a week in focusing on World Peace. And please invite your friends to participate as well, for the more people who join in doing this, the bigger the positive energy wave grows, and the better life gets for ALL of us!

And in between the group prayers that take place every Sunday, do what you can to work on clearing yourself of negative thought patterns. The more minutes out of every day that you can stay focused on positive thoughts, beliefs and feelings, the more you will be contributing positive energy to the world on a daily basis (not to mention the fact that you will be so much HAPPIER when you clear away those negative thoughts!)

One book I highly recommend for learning how to do this is “Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting,” by Lynn Grabhorn. A description of this book can be found in the Recommended Reading section of the Planetary Peace Gathering area of this website.

That being said, I realize that while some negative thought patterns are simply the result of habits we’ve learned, others that are the result of more painful experiences might not be so easy to just “change” by deciding to switch our focus to something more positive. Sometimes, we need to work on deeper levels to address the things that are causing us pain. Therefore, work on what can be easily changed simply by creating new “thinking habits,” but if there’s something you can’t fix that easily, try working with the exercise below to help you let go of the issue so that it stops weighing so heavily on your mind.

This exercise is especially good for when another person’s problems are causing you grief. We cannot control other people, and as much as we would like to, we cannot fix their problems if they themselves are unwilling to take action. You simply cannot reach everyone -- some people are determined to be negative no matter what. I’m sure you know the type -- they could win the lottery and they’d STILL complain all day long or engage in self-destructive behaviors.

Letting go of people and things that affect our emotions in a negative way is not always easy. Often we just feel “stuck” with a situation and feel there is no way out of it, or perhaps our belief that we will somehow find a way to change the situation to our liking keeps us going down the same dead-end roads. Other situations may remain with us because we feel they have never been satisfactorily resolved. Whatever the reason, if anything in our lives is causing us pain and we are powerless to change the situation into something more positive, it needs to be released, so that we can rise ABOVE it.

Wrestling with events and circumstances over which we have no control gets us nowhere; it merely makes us miserable. When we fight against or obsess over these circumstances, we are giving them our attention and energy, and thus we are keeping them active in our lives as problems. Since trying to change or handle impossible situations only wears us down and makes us crazy, the solution is to find a way to release them.

HOW TO DO THIS EXERCISE: Before beginning, you will need to purchase a new candle. Then, each night before going to bed, light the candle and recite the following prayer:

“God (or whatever you choose to call your Higher Power), I am turning (this situation) over to you. He/she/it is something that I cannot figure out how to fix, and I ask that you help me release this burden.”

If the problem you are seeking release from is a person, add the following statement to your prayer:

“God, please watch over (name of person), and love him/her and guide him/her and help him/her heal, if it be for his/her highest good.”

After you recite your prayer, sit in silence for five minutes with your eyes closed and visualize Divine Energy removing the problem from your hands and the burden from your shoulders. Then say "thank you," and blow out the candle.

This exercise should be repeated every evening for 28 days. At the end of the 28-day cycle, take the leftover portion of your candle and dispose of it in some symbolic way. You may wish to take it outside and bury it, for example. While you are getting rid of the candle stub, which serves as the symbol representing the problem, recite the following affirmation:

“This situation no longer has the power to affect me. I am now free to move on and be happy, for the benefit of myself and others.”

The purpose of performing this ritual is to train your mind to think of the situation as finished, over, out of your hands and gone. Rituals can be a powerful way to create change in our lives. In this case, you are making a conscious decision to let something go and then taking direct action to release it. You have not changed the situation; rather, you have changed your reaction to it. To quote an old Buddhist saying, "It is our RESISTANCE to what is that causes our suffering." Surrender and acceptance of what cannot be changed is sometimes the only way to get free of the pain.

And the more you free yourself from the burden of negative energy that unhappy emotions create, the more room you will have in your mind, your heart, and your life to bring in positive energy instead.

NOTE: If you would like additional help, there are a variety of self-hypnosis tapes on this website that can help you release all kinds of negative situations in your life. Simply browse through the “Self-Improvement” section to see what’s available.

Copyright 1995, by Doria Gambino. For more information, visitwww.MetamorphosisMagazine.com