Transcript:
Hi everyone, welcome back to another podcast. My name is Glenn Manarang. To those of you who are here for the very first time, I would like to welcome you personally on Real Talk with Soulish Femme. Soulish Femme is me of course, and today’s topic is about the book that I’ve read many many years ago. This book has transformed me alongside with a book The Battle of the Mind, by Joyce Meyer.
This book is titled the power of positive thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. I will give you a synopsis and going to give you a summary of the book. Although I would suggest that you would read the book with entirety because it will change how you see things and how you view life.
But I have relistened to the audio podcast or the audio book rather that is available on YouTube. And so as I have revisited this topic, it really just conjured a lot of memories to me that this book is one of the ways why I have learned how to navigate life and healed from my traumatic experience.
And so, one of the things he talks about is of course our thoughts from the titled positive thinking. Our thoughts are powerful. Now I’ll give you my take on what he said. It is not word for word but this is a summary based on what I have learned.
A Summary of the Power of Positive Thinking:
Our thoughts determined the course of our destiny. As the Bible says as the man think it in his heart so is he. You are what you think. Your thoughts determined your choices in your life. You are where you’re at today is because of the choices that you have made from yesterday. The seeds that you have planted in the soil.
1. Our environment plays an integral part in our growth.
However, I could also say to add to his point that sometimes our destiny, the places that we’re at today, and the trajectory of our future is also based on the people that we have lived with, our parents also. If you came from a parents that are dysfunctional and you’re also going to be dysfunctional if you don’t correct that, of course.
2. Visualization
Features: And he also talks about how important it is to visualize. Now I’m going to share to you based on what I have remembered if my memory serves me right today. Visualization is part of our imagination. It produces something into a reality. To visualize is to imagine something. There’s a power of having a mental picture in your head and knowing exactly on what you desire in life.
Why: If you don’t know how to visualize, you can probably learn how to sit quietly, meditate, and hold a picture in your head for a few minutes. Because usually for many of us, especially today in our generation, we are very distracted. We do not know how to be quiet in our own thoughts. We’re very distracted generation, especially with cell phones in our hand that we do not take the time to visualize.
It takes a lot of discipline to visualize something and to hold it up in your head. Of course, when you start doing this, it is rather hard, but the more and more you practice in visualization, the better you are going to get at it and it becomes easier.
Visualization is also thinking about where you want to go, what your goals are. This relates about the kind of future that you would like to create. I have done a podcast several days ago perhaps about you can live by design and not by default. And you have to be able to understand about your goals and your plans because if you don’t know what you want then you are just aiming at nothing.
3. Your Attitude
Features: And then thirdly he talks about your attitude determines your altitude. Attitude is what matters the most in times of trials. In other words it is how you perceive things or how you par how you view things in life. That’s is your paradigm that can shift. Two people may have the same experiences but each one will have to conquer them differently. You and I might have suffered the same thing.
Note Worthy: As I have said before that even though you have been through hell in life, you have been abused, you have been neglected, you have been abandoned by your parents or you may not had the most wonderful childhood experiences. However, you do have a choice to make a difference in your life.
You can stay a victim. You can play the self-pity party or you can change the course of your destiny by changing how you think about yourself and how you move forward. It is your altitude that determines your attitude rather. It’s how you deal with your circumstances in life.
It’s after the fact, the aftermath of what happened. What are you going to do with the pieces that you have left? When you have faith, which he also talks about faith in action, without faith, you are actually dead.
According to Mark 11:24, it says, “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.”
So faith is something that you hope for. He Hebrews 11:1 is the hopeful of the evidence of not yet seen. It is something that you are hoping to achieve.
Faith is not doing before you see results. Faith is doing the action first before having the result. We don’t see it until we believe it.
Glennavelle
The only reason why many people do tremendous things in this life because they have chosen to put the action first instead of hoping for something to be in fruition. You have to step into a faith. You have to take a risk.
You have to really understand that you cannot expect a result in your life if you are not willing to do the work. When you’re too afraid of trying something new, this is why it says that whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. But without action, faith is dead.
You can ask all you want for God to give you something. If you’re not working with your hands, then you cannot actually visualize and always try to imagine things. It will be useless and it’s going to be a wasteful of your time. So yes, you can visualize things and yes, you can have dreams and goals, but without a plan and without the execution, it will be futile.
And then you ended up trying to please other people because you want their approval. You want them to validate you. But apparently the with that in mind when you constantly are trying to get approval or validation from people you’re going to start doubting yourself because you’re telling yourself that because I do all these things and even though I excel in other areas.
Know Thy Oneself
And for some people, they might say how much more can you possibly do because as a child you were conditioned by your parents that it was never enough and you always question yourself and you always doubt yourself that no matter what you bring into the table and no matter what you produce is never enough because it started it stems from your childhood memories that your parent had conditioned you to say you are not enough and whatever you do it’s never enough because it was based and performative.
Until you change and you shift that mindset and that identity that your validation and your worth is not based on your performance. Your validation and your worth is not based on how good you are in school because what you do and who you are is not the same. what you do is the things that you’re doing, the choices that you’re making, but who you are as a person is contrary to what you do.
You might be a bad student because you maybe are not the most intelligent student in your classroom. You might be slow and because of your slowness, it doesn’t mean that you are a bad kid. It doesn’t mean that you have a an immoral standard. However, because maybe your parents are also perfectionists.
And when you were brought up in a perfectionist family, no matter what you do for these people, it’s never enough because they’re going to keep on pushing you to the point where they’re going to break you. And so, we’re reminded in 2 Timothy 1:7, for the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but give us power, love, and self-discipline. If you are going to have this doubt in yourself, remind yourself that God is not giving you the spirit of timidity. But he gives you the power and love and self-discipline.
For God's spirit equips us with power, love, and self-control, enabling us to face challenges without fear. And this verse reassures us that timidity and self-doubt are not from God. Instead, he empowers us to boldly and faithfully in every situation. It encourages us to replace doubt with trust in the spirit's guidance and strength. And then Jeremiah 29:11, it says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
Plans to give you hope in a future.” So this is considered to be one of the verses that I have memorized throughout my college years when I was going through a lot of doubt in myself. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I was very confused. No one really directed me and apparently this verse was always in the forefront of my memory. I would bring I would bring a 3×5 card and this is one of the idea that I’ve also received from this book that he one of his friends Norman Peele’s friends when he was going through a phase in his life when he was doubting about himself and he was fearful he would write down on a note card and he would pull it up every time and memorize it.
And I have actually done the same exercise way back in college. I have also carried a 3×5 card with me wherever I went. Every time there was a doubt or any crippling fear that will pop up into my head, I would pull up the card and I would memorize it and I would tell it and tell myself that for the thoughts and the plans that God has for me is not to give me harm but to prosper and to give me a future.
Affirmation
Affirmation is what you actually prophesy. As I said, words are seeds. Remember what the Bible is saying is you do have the power to bless or to curse with your mouth. You have the power to build or to tear people down. So our words are not just words because they are seeds that can be planted in your heart and into people’s lives. I know that for some people we are not aware that our words are actually impactful. It either creates a better world for you or it can prophesy a bad situation in your life in the future. And then last but not the least, he also talks about prayer. That prayer is an important vessel that we can use to connect to the divine, to connect to God, to connect to our maker. Without prayer, we are not plugged in to the creator of this world. A prayer is an antenna. If your TV used to have an antenna before, I remembered growing up that we have an antenna in order for us to get a visuals on our television. It used to have that kind of old way system.
Perhaps today the Gen Z will not understand what I’m saying. But we have to plug into the antenna or right now maybe you have to plug in or connect your TV to the uh the cord in order for for you to have received an images from your TV. If you’re not plugged into the maker, you’re not prayerful and you live into this world and that’s why you are going to get so sidetracked and getting pulled from every direction because of the noises of this world. We are bombarded with too much negativity, too much messaging.
And you if you are not grounded with your faith in the Lord and you don’t know where to turn to, that’s why many people are getting distracted and getting deceived from the enemy because of the things that they tolerate and the things that they watch. What you entertain and what you watch are constantly trying to program your mind.
And we are told in Colossians 4:2, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
As I said, prayer doesn’t mean that you have to always pray in your closet. You can pray wherever you are. In the car, driving to school, on your way to work, while you’re dressing, while you’re going to a store, while you are doing something like cleaning or cooking, you can take God with you because God is ubiquitous. God is everywhere and anywhere. He sees. He hears every single time. God is a spirit. We worship God in spirit and in truth and God can listen and hear you wherever you’re at.
And so you don’t need to be in a church or you don’t need to be specifically in the dark room. Although sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I try my best to wake up at 5 and be in the presence of God at 5:00 and just be in the closet and listening to what he has to say and praying with him. But if you can’t do that, there are many ways that you can still talk to God throughout the day. God can be with you no matter what it is that you’re going through. And because God is really someone who listens and he is a father who listens to his children. He is the father to the fatherless. He is the one who takes care of the widows.
And that is why in prayer it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 18 rejoice always pray without ceasing. See it says that without ceasing you can cons constantly pray to God without stopping. It is an incessantly. It’s everywhere, anywhere you go. Giving thanks in all circumstance for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So when you pray, it has to be a continual prayer. Sometimes when I’m cooking in my kitchen and I sometimes forget the recipe. I’m like, God, remind me again of what to do next and what is that I have to do, make my food good or anything that is so simple. When I go to the store, I also ask God for give me the best brand on which to purchase.
It might be silly and I’m purchasing some clothes and I cannot find the right clothes. I would always have this prayer in my head, give me the right kind of clothing that fits on my body or the kind of clothing that is good price and yet it is affordable and with good quality. Because I remembered back in I believe December this last year that I was trying to choose the kind of gown or the kind of outfit for my mom’s birthday. It was green supposedly. However, I was getting frustrated because we’ve been to many different uh stores with my son and I and I could not find the right dress.
And finally when we went into Macy’s and I just said Lord just give me the right clothing and the right kind of clothing that I can purchase and the the kind of design that I would like to wear and what do you know in a few minutes after praying that my son said mom come over this side and there have many selections of gowns and the gown that I’ve actually chosen was on sale and it was the right fit and it was the right design that I liked.
And so you’ll be surprised that with a simple prayer like that, God can show you in the most miraculous way, he makes a way where there seems to be no way. And it works. I don’t know how it does work but somehow when you just utter a simple prayer like God help me and to choose the right outfit and give me the right price range and he just direct you at the right location because God is not just concerned about the big decisions in life. He’s also concerned about the small things that are trivial. Sometimes we think that God is not concerned about your clothing or your food.
