The Power Of Inspiration

I love the feeling of getting inspired and believe that it’s one of the most powerful feelings that we can experience.

I get really inspired when I learn about the lives of people who I can relate to, and in particular, how they’ve grown to accomplish their life goals. I like to find out about their journeys and how they’ve reached the point of accomplishing great achievements. Whether it’s by talking to people about their lives or reading about the lives of people I’ve never met, I still get the same feeling – the feeling that it’s definitely possible for people to achieve their dreams, no matter who they are.

I also get inspired by ordinary everyday things. For example, sometimes I go out on shopping trips and when I look at the many shops I pass, I think “these all started from people having an idea and being courageous enough to bring their ideas to life”. This thought alone leads me to thinking about the dreams I have and h

ow I’m in the process of bringing them to life.

That’s one of the amazing things about life –we can get inspired by anything, no matter how significant or insignificant others perceive them to be.

So I’d encourage you to think about who or what inspires you and how they’ve played a part in your achievements so far. I’m sure that you’ll find yourself feeling even more appreciative of them.

Love, Chey x

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Don't Be Afraid To Live The Life Of Your Dreams

It's easy to continue to do things that make you unhappy just because you're caught up in the routine of doing them, despite how they make you feel.  A perfect example is staying in a job that doesn't fulfil your wants and aspirations, just because it's convenient.

I know it's easier said than done but it feels great to be brave enough to change your lifestyle and start doing more of the things that you want to do in life.  Please don't allow yourself to be pressured into living the kind of life that most people around you live, just because it's the 'normal' way of living. This is your life and you have the power and ability to live the life of your dreams. 

We all have dreams and in order to achieve them, we'll need to take risks. Although taking risks can be scary, it can also be thrilling and adds to the excitement of life. If you've always dreamt of living in a certain place, or working in a certain career, take that risk and start planning how you are going to make that change. Don't worry about what people around you think if you know that making the change will be healthy for you and will make you the happiest you've ever been.  

If you don’t feel confident enough to make big changes straight away, then you can start by making small ones. For example, if you want to start a new job, start researching the qualifications you will need in order to work in that position. Then you can take a step further and start searching for places that offer the opportunity to gain those qualifications. Then you can go even further by making a plan of how and when you can start taking those qualifications. After this, you can continue to do new things that take you steps closer to achieving your dream. Another example is if you've been wanting to move to a different country but you’re too nervous to, start researching the area you want to live in and the steps you'd need to take before moving there.

Actually doing things that take you closer to achieving your dreams allows you to accept that your dreams are becoming your reality and shows you that you can definitely achieve them.

I hope this post has helped you, please let me know if it has!

Love, Chey x

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Love Yourself!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

What’s your opinion on Valentine’s Day? Personally, even though I don’t make a big deal out of it, I do like that it’s a day that’s dedicated to spreading love and kindness to others. However, even though Valentine’s Day is traditionally known to be a day about showing love to your partner, I think that it’s just as important to show this love to yourself as well. Now of course, we don’t need to wait for Valentine’s Day to do this, this is something we can do every single day.

A lot of people talk about the importance of loving ourselves, which is great – but I’m sure that I can’t be the only person who has thought “Ok great, I’m going to start loving myself more! … but how?” Just saying that you’re going to love yourself more is simple, but when you think about what you can actually do to encourage this, it can become a lot more complicated. This might be because you’re just over-thinking it, like I was. I now understand that loving yourself is an on-going process that will progress throughout your life. Some days might be more challenging than others but that’s OK, it’s about the fact that you’re making the effort to pay attention to yourself and value the person that you are.

I believe that an important part of loving yourself is to get to know yourself. I like to consider that as people, we’re constantly developing and changing over time and it can be quite challenging to fully know who we are. However, everyone has different ideas of what it means to know themselves completely and whether it’s possible. In my view, knowing myself is about having a deep connection to my thoughts, emotions, behaviours and intentions in life.  What’s your perception of knowing yourself and do you think you know yourself completely?

I think that another important part of loving yourself is taking the time to fulfil your own wants and needs. It can be very easy to get caught up in everyday life and forget to dedicate time to yourself to do what you enjoy. However, I think that It’s crucial that you look after yourself as well as others, and remember that you deserve your time just as much as anybody else does.  Even if that means planning to dedicate a bit of time out of every day to go for a walk, eat your favourite meal, listen to your favourite music etc., this is a significant part of you valuing yourself and your importance, which I think is a huge part of loving yourself.

The final thing that I’ll talk about is the importance of looking to yourself for love instead of always looking to others. A lot of the time, when people don’t feel loved enough, they look for someone else to help fill that void for them. Is this something that you do or that you’ve done in the past? I definitely have.  I find it interesting that for so many people, our instant reaction to feeling a lack of love is to look for someone else to love us instead of looking back at ourselves for the love that we’re missing.  I think that depending on others to make you feel loved can be risky. Instead, thinking about why you don’t feel as loved as you’d like and working on addressing this can be more effective. Doing this can lead to you becoming more self-aware and appreciative, which also play a big part in loving yourself.

So, to end this post on a lovely note (< sorry, I had to!) I hope that you enjoy Valentine’s Day and you remember to show yourself and others an endless amount of love!

Love, Chey x

- Positive Thinking Wins -

I hope you enjoyed reading this post!  If you want to request a topic for me write a Positive Post on, you can contact me and let me know what you’d like me to write about.  

Happy New Year! (2016) : What Will You Achieve In 2016?

Happy New Year!

As we enter each new year, I find that I always have the same two questions on my mind:

1.What did I achieve last year?


2.What will I achieve this year?

These two questions allow me to reflect back and appreciate the great times I experienced in the previous year as well as look forward to what will happen in the new year.

So my question to you is … What Will You Achieve In 2016? 

You may have something that you were working on in 2015, that you want to make bigger and better in 2016. Or perhaps you’d like to start a new job, or move to a different area.

I encourage you to write a list of the things that you’ll achieve this year and then look back at the list at the end of the year, I’m sure that you’ll have a huge smile on your face when you start ticking your achievements off.

Thanks for reading and I hope 2016 will be great for you!

Love, Chey x

- Positive Thinking Wins –

Tips On How To Become Happier!: #2- Focus On Getting To Know Yourself

I already posted about The Importance Of Getting To Know Yourself  but I wanted to write more about it in this series of posts because it's such an important part of becoming happier. 

Around 5 months ago, I made the decision to really start focussing on getting to know myself by actually studying myself and it was the best decision I could have made. The book 'You Can Heal Your Life' by Louise Hay  played a great part in my journey as it taught me more about my thoughts and how they have influenced my life. I also joined an online community called Amazers and started taking part in personal challenges which helped my self-development. For example, I took part  in a challenge set by Suli Breaks called 'Create Yourself' which led to my  purpose becoming clearer to me.   

Something  that you can do in order to start off your journey to getting to know yourself  better is take the time to reflect on yourself as a person. For example, you can ask yourself questions such as, "What are my qualities?", "What would I like to become better at?", "What do I enjoy doing the most?" and "Which parts of my personality do I love and which parts do I want to work on?" It's good to record your answers to these questions  in some way so that you can keep track of your progress. Doing this is bound to lead you to learning more about yourself and how you can develop as a person. 

I can assure you that once you know yourself better, you will start becoming so much happier as in order to be completely happy, you need to be happy with  the person you currently are.

Thanks so much for reading my post, I hope it has helped you. More posts in the 'Tips On How To Become Happier!' series are coming up! Please let me know if these posts have helped you in any way :D 

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Love, Chey x 

New Series Of Posts: Tips On How To Become Happier!

Hey everyone! I hope 2015's been great to you all so far!

 I've spent the last year focussing on working on myself in order for me to develop as a person and reach a higher level of happiness. I have learnt  SO much already during this process and I'm sure I will learn a lot more in the future. With the amount of progress I've made, it's only right for me to share what I've learnt about becoming happier with you. Therefore, I have decided to create a series of posts called 'Tips On How To Become Happier'. Each post in this series will focus on something that has helped me on my journey to becoming happier with the hope that you can use my tips to help yourself. The first post in the series will be published tomorrow at 12pm :D

It's important for me to mention that I will talk about the things that worked for me, therefore, it may be necessary for you to adapt my tips to suit yourself, depending on the type of person you are and what you find effective. I hope you enjoy reading this new series of posts and please let me know if they've helped.
 

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Love, Chey x  

Happy New Year! (2015)

Hey everyone! 

I want to wish you a very happy new year! I hope you achieve all your goals for this year and it is filled with amazing, positive experiences! 

Last New Year's Eve, I wrote down all of the things I wanted to achieve during the year and when I looked back at what I wrote this morning, I realised I achieved at least part of everything I wanted to :D The feeling I got when ticking off my achievements was amazing and made me realise just how much of a successful year 2014 was for me. This is something that I recommend that you do this year because it is a great way of realising what you want out of life and the steps you can take to make sure you get there. 

 If you went through a lot of difficult times last year, please remember that you got through them or are currently getting through them! I believe that we can all learn so much from going through negative experiences and I like to see them as ways of developing ourselves. They may not be great to go through at the time, but there are no words to express how you feel when you look back and realise the positive things you've gained due to them! 

I hope 2015 is a great year for you, think positively and positive things will happen! 

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Love, Chey x

Love The Skin You're In!

I was inspired to write this post due to a video I watched yesterday of a speech on Black Beauty by Lupita Nyong'o , the video is below:

I think this is such a beautiful speech that everyone (not only females) should watch! To me, it does not matter what "colour" your skin is, you should love it and yourself.

The case of the girl who wrote to Lupita about being insecure about her skin is a case that many can relate to, including me. I too have dark skin and sadly, when I was younger, I was quite insecure about it. Fortunately, this didn't last long because I learnt to love myself more. But for others, it does last and there are many people out there who are insecure about their skin and that's heartbreaking. 

Every skin tone is beautiful and you should love your skin because it is part of you and the person that you are! Never let anyone or anything make you feel insecure about it. 

I have finally reached a place where I am loving more and more things about myself (my skin being one of them) and I am so grateful for that. I can only hope that you are in the same place, and if you're not, I really hope that this post or Lupita's speech will be the start of you loving yourself more. 

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Love, Chey x 

The Importance Of Getting To Know Yourself

I've realised that it can be so easy to focus on your relationships with other people and not the relationship you have with yourself. However, I think that getting to know yourself is one of the most important things you can do and can lead you to being so successful in life. This is because you will know exactly who you are and what you aspire to do in life.

At the beginning of the year, I decided to work on my relationship with myself and God so that I know that I can be the happiest person, whether I am alone or with others. I've realised that knowing and loving myself are vital steps to take in order to achieve this.

I know that some of you may be at the point where you want to get to know yourself better but are not sure on how to start so I thought I'd write about what I've been doing in order to help you.

Something which has been essential in my journey to getting to know myself is spending time alone. Since I started university and have been required to move to a new town, where I have no family and needed to make new friends, I've had to spend more time alone.  Up until recently, I  used to think of being alone as a negative thing but that was because I didn't feel comfortable with it. Now I have realised that spending time alone can have great effects, for example, being by myself provides me with opportunities to reflect on the parts of myself that I love and those that I would like to improve. Also, I'd like to emphasise that just because you are alone, it doesn't mean you need to feel lonely. 

Another great thing about spending time alone is that you can take time to do whatever you want to do. For example, as a child, I used to love spending time by myself. It was an opportunity for me to play whatever game I wanted, with my own rules and no-one could interfere. I can relate this to how I feel now, I believe that being by yourself is a great opportunity to take time out of your day to do what want to without anyone distracting you. This can provide you with time to work on yourself and become much happier.

I'm currently working on getting to know myself better so I don't have much more to say but if I start doing anything else that I find is effective, I'll update you :D But for now, here's a video that I've watched which discusses how to be your own best friend that I've found really helpful :D 





Love, Chey x
- Positive Thinking Wins - 

Thanks to the following websites for the images:
- http://stepheniezamora.com/2012/08/get-to-know-yourself-better/
- http://awesomelifetips.com/ 

Happy New Year! (2014)

Hey everyone! I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! Here are some things you can do which I think can help you make this year an amazing one!

1. Reflect on your past year – This year I spent  New Year's Eve reflecting on 2013. I looked back at both the amazing experiences that I had and the really bad ones. I think this is a great thing to do because it can lead you to realising how far you have come in a year and even if you feel like you would have preferred to have achieved more, at least you’re acknowledging this and it can encourage you to do more this year.   It’s great to think about things such as what you achieved in the last year, what you would have liked to improve, your favourite memories etc.

2. Set goals to achieve this New Year – I love setting myself goals. It allows me to realise everything I want to achieve and gives me that extra push to get out there and start working towards achieving them. There are many great ways you can do this, depending on the type of person you are. If you are someone who likes writing, you can write a journal entry, or a letter to yourself, telling yourself what you would like to achieve this year and how you are going to achieve them. If you are someone who likes writing but not too much, you can create a list or a mind map. If you don’t like writing at all you can create a video, or a voice note telling yourself what you would like to achieve.

3. Reflect on what you are grateful for- I suggest taking a bit of time, even if it’s just a minute out of your day, thinking about everyone and everything you are grateful for having in your life. It would also be great to write these down every time you do so by the end of the year you have a big list of things that you can look at. This would also be useful to look at when you are feeling down.

Let me know if you try some of these out and if they have helped you. I hope you all have a blessed and amazing year! x

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Love, Chey x 

Thanks to this website for the image. 

The Power Of Belief

Whether you're grieving for someone, experiencing mental or physical health problems or going through other difficult experiences, I think there is one vital thing that you can do that can help you feel better and that is believe that things will get better. I find that the most vital thing for me to have is faith, I am a believer in God and from my experiences, praying and having faith that He will make things better helps even more than I can express. Also, understanding the power of positive thinking is a very important part of the process of getting better.

I was watching a segment about anxiety a few months ago on ITV's ‘This Morning’ show and people were able to call in and share their personal experiences. One man called in desperate for advice because he was spending all day, every day worrying about having panic attacks. He said he has been suffering from anxiety for decades and was offered treatment but the closest centre to him is too far away for him to get to.  I can't imagine what it must be like for him. I want to share his story with you all as it shows just how much these issues can affect your life. However please remember, they do not need to and you can get better.
The human mind is extremely powerful, probably more powerful than we will ever understand. Therefore, do not let your negative thoughts and issues control you by taking control of them instead. Remember that the way you feel is more influenced by the way you think than the experience you’re going through and if you think positively and believe everything will get better, they will. I’ve been reading a book called ‘It's The Thought That Counts: Why Mind Over Matter Really Works’ by Dr. David Hamilton, and in it, Dr. Hamilton discusses how thoughts can create physical reactions.

For example, I’m sure some of you have experienced thinking of insects and the thought alone caused you to start itching (I’m even starting to itch now haha). Therefore, this shows that your thoughts alone can have physical effects on your body. Therefore, if they can have these effects, why can't they affect your physical and psychological well-being too? This emphasises how powerful our minds really are, and if you use yours in the right ways, you can achieve whatever you would like to achieve. 


I also want to state how important it is to believe in your ability to achieve in life. If you work hard and believe that you will be successful, you will. Strive to do your best but don't stress yourself out, you can achieve your goals if you work for them.
The main message I want to express by publishing this post is believe in the power you have to make things better for yourself and achieve in life. By having faith in God and thinking positively, your life can change for the better.
I really do hope that I helped you by writing this. If you know anyone who this post could help, please share it with them! 

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Love, Chey x


* I would like to note that my  all of my posts come from my perspectives which are related to my belief in God. Although I am aware that not everyone believes in God , I am sure that my posts can help everyone.  

Thanks to the following websites for the images in this post:

- http://www.examiner.com/article/the-power-of-belief

- http://www.specialtyfood.com/news-trends/featured-articles/article/power-belief/

- http://ctsgym.com/power-of-self-belief-athletes/ 

Spending Time With Family And Friends

When you are feeling low, it can be so easy to stay inside a lot of  the time and not make an effort to see anyone. This may result in you becoming so engrossed in thinking about how bad you're feeling and not what can be done to cheer you up. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's great to spend time by yourself as it is an opportunity to think about life and understand what's going on in your life and think of the ways you can deal with them. However, I think that it can become easy to spend so much time by yourself that you begin to become isolated, which can make you feel worse. 

One of the things that puts me in a great mood is spending time with my family and friends.  This is a great way of getting myself out and creating great memories that I can look back on when I'm feeling down. For example, I always find myself reminiscing about the great and mostly hilarious experiences my friends and I have had whenever I meet up with them. Personally, my family and friends help me so much whenever I'm going through a rough time because I feel like most of the time I spend with them consists of me laughing.  I also appreciate them much more now since I started university, as it has meant that I no longer have many opportunities to see them, so when I do, I enjoy spending time with them even more.

Therefore, if you are reading this and you want to spend more time with your family and friends but you have become isolated due to your mood, I would like to encourage you to get out there and make plans with them. Just spending a few hours with family and friends can improve your mood for the whole day.

I'm sure that a lot of you can relate to this but I understand that some people prefer spending time by themselves, and I'm not stating that everyone who is feeling down must spend more time with their family and friends.  I have written this post in order to encourage those of you who would like to spend more time with them but who have become isolated, I really hope that this has helped you.

Love, Chey x
- Positive Thinking Wins -

Surrounding Yourself With Positivity

I think eliminating everything negative around you and surrounding yourself with positivity is so important.  This can help you to stay in a happier mood and think and behave more cheerfully. I'm in the process of doing this now and I'm starting to see a difference in my attitude.

One of the things I have done is change the my laptop's desktop background. This is because like many people, I spend too so much time on my laptop. This means that I see my desktop background A LOT, Therefore, I find it so important to make sure that the background I have is an uplifting one. So I made my desktop background a slideshow of positive sayings and quotes such as 'God is Good so I don't have to look elsewhere', 'Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday', 'Don't worry, be happy', 'Don't think too much, you'll create a problem that wasn't even there in the first place' and the images shown below.  This means that whenever I look at my desktop, I am bombarded with a positive message and this helps me a lot. For example, I can be a big worrier sometimes so these messages really help me when I enter my 'worrying mode'.

I have also done a similar thing in my bedroom in the student house that I live in. For example, I am obsessed with love hearts so I've bought posters and pictures with hearts on so that I'm constantly surrounded by things that I like and that cheer me up when I'm away from my family.

One of the posters in my room.

A canvas in my room.

                                                                           

Another thing I do is watch videos which express positive messages and share inspirational life experiences. This helps me realise the reasons why I may be going through certain things or the different ways I can cope with what I'm going through. I share and discuss some of these videos in some of my posts entitled 'Promoting Positivity', I hope that you watch them and they help you feel better too. 

These are just a few examples of the steps I've taken to surround myself with positivity. I hope to find more ways of doing this which I can share with you.

Love, Chey x 

- Positive Thinking Wins-

The Expectation Of Life To Be Easy

Recently, I realised that I've always had a subconscious expectation of life to be easy and I'm sure some of you can relate to this. After this realisation, I began considering the possible reasons for this but I couldn't come up with any answers. No-one has ever told me that life is easy, in fact I've been told and shown the opposite. Yet, I've still expected it to be and get surprised when things don't go my way. I've realised that having this expectation can cause negative experiences to affect me even more than they should. However, I believe that in order to prevent this from happening again, it is important to stop expecting life to be easy and start accepting life for what it is. In my eyes, life is an amazingly beautiful experience in which we may be presented with some obstacles but these are never impossible to overcome and when we do overcome these obstacles, we come out even better than we were before. I believe this acceptance helps the healing process after going through a bad experience so much.

Every single one of our experiences has contributed to who we are today, so learn and grow from both your positive and negative experiences so you can become an even better person tomorrow. 

I have written this post in order to encourage you to accept that life may not be easy, and negative things may happen, but try to not let them stop you from being happy and succeeding in life.

“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” ― Molière

Love Chey x 

- Positive Thinking Wins-

Finding The Positive In Every Negative

I have realised that one of the most difficult things to do when you're going through a tough time is think about the positives that could come out of the experience. However, I've also realised that this is one of the most important things to do in order to get through it.

I truly believe everything happens for a reason and that one day you'll be able to look back at the difficult times in your life and realise just how much you've changed and benefited from the situation. For example, you may realise how much some of your friends and family are actually there for you, that you've matured by going through the experience, that you've become so much stronger and more. So if you're currently going through a hard time or if you go through one in the future, please try this. You can write it down or just sit and think about it, I really hope it helps you.

Love, Chey x  

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Positive Thinking Wins!

Hi everyone. I wanted to create this blog because I've been going through a tough time recently and have been watching a lot of videos that have changed my way of thinking and have enabled me to see the positives in the tough experiences that I have been going through.

I thank God for introducing me to these videos as they have inspired me so much and made me realise just how important positive thinking is and how much it can change your life.  I have realised that when you go through so much and your heart is broken, it is so easy to feel sorry for yourself and wonder why you're going through these difficult experiences. I want to change that habit, not only for myself but for others too and hopefully, lead us all to becoming more positive.

I will write posts which give tips on how to be more positive, share inspirational quotes, videos etc., that will help us all to become more active in positive thinking and see how our lives change because of this.

- Positive Thinking Wins -

Chey x