Create your own media, create your own influences

Yesterday I vented a little about the negative role that media can play in how we shape our images of ourselves and create self-worth. Today, it's the flip side: how we can create our own positive influences using the media and other things around us.

More and more research is showing the power of positive thinking, and you can see a pattern of it in the stories of successful people across the globe.  It really is incredible how you can change your life just by changing your perspective, but that's a whole other blog entirely!

Here's what I've done to create my own positive media and change the way I let the world influence my decisions:

1. Mantras.  I love mantras, and I create them all the time.  One that I shared the other day with a friend who was struggling with something that used to plague me is, "turn jealousy into joy."  I left jealousy in 2010 because it was holding me back.  But, that doesn't mean it doesn't try to creep back into my life.  When I start sensing that I am wallowing in envy-induced self-pity, I remind myself to turn jealousy into joy and am instantly overwhelmed with happiness for whomever it is I have been admiring.  It's amazing how amazing I feel when I use mantras.

2. Surround yourself with positive. Following other athletes on Twitter inspires me to challenge myself and push the limits of my workouts.  Participating in the weekend races of my local track club reminds me of the great wellness community that I live in. My vision board includes images of positive experiences I want to have in my life and I see it every day. Seek out people, places, and events that support your wellness goals and the influence will be very positive.

3.   Ignore and shun the negative. Sometimes living in the positive means taking deliberate action against the negative.  This can be hard because at times it means ending relationships that are antithetical to your goals, which can be painful.  But, every time I have made the difficult decision to remove a negative influence from my life, it has been replaced with so much wonderful that I've been rewarded beyond my wildest dreams.  Sometimes it just takes the will to be positive no matter what.

Your fitness and wellness goals are yours, but it takes more than just you alone to accomplish them.  It also requires a positive environment and influences.  Luckily, you can create them quickly and put them to work right away!  This week, look around and put some mental sticky notes on what is positive and what is negative in your life, and take some steps towards the positive.

I'll see you there!

Good day!