How to set yourself up for a great day
After waking up, the author Henry David Thoreau would lie in bed for a while and recount to himself all the good things he could think of. He would then get out of bed full of positivity and good feelings, starting the day feeling motivated, happy and full of enthusiasm.
Imagine how doing this each morning would change each day. Even simple activities would be done with pleasure. Minor obstacles would be breezed past effortlessly. Interactions would be full of smiles and laughter, and people could not help but be affected by your positive attitude towards life.
Our unconscious minds have a huge capacity to process information. They keep our bodies operating well, store a vast amount of information and memories, allow us to think and create, and interact with the world in meaningful ways. In fact, our unconscious minds are processing more that 2 million pieces of information every second. In contrast, our conscious minds can only keep in mind an average of 7 things at one time.
This means our unconscious minds are like a massive library full of books, with our conscious minds us walking through it, carrying only a small torch, able to see just the few books lit up by its beam. There are millions of books we could be shining our torches on, and shining our torches in different places would enable us to see different books, different themes, different genres even. Taking control of that torch beam, and shining it in areas you want to shine it, will therefore change what you see, and therefore your experience of your world.
Henry David Thoreau deliberately chose where to shine his torch. He spent a few minutes each morning thinking of good things, ensuring his torch saw the best books in the best light possible, making his day, and the day of those around him, much better.
