Generally you pick up on the things that resonate with your beliefs and your view of the world. This is why, when youre feeling bad, bad things rain down on you relentlessly.

There are the real, major issues that you have to contend with and then there are the generalizations that you have learned to draw from them, like: Life is hard It always seems to happen to me etc.

It isnt in any way your fault, of course. Its also true that bad things happen to happy people too.

Happy people are not necessarily fortunate people in the sense of everything in their life being hunky-dory. How many people do you know who have good relationships, good health, financial security and are still discontented, bored or only half-alive? I can certainly think of a few.

Happy people are the people who have learned to modify their mood, manage their emotions and choose their reactions. Language, which we all have, is the sole tool that they need to do so.

You end up believing what other people tell you, when they tell you something often, or convincingly enough. How many times have you found yourself believing some daft, but effective, advertising slogan, despite your better judgment? How many times have you reviled yourself for being lazy, or stupid or worthless, even when you know that is not really you, because thats what youve been told repeatedly?

If youll see it when you believe it, then the first thing to do is choose beliefs that serve you. You can do that because you only have to tell yourself a thing often enough and you will believe it. Unless, of course, your real mantra is: Well, Ill try it, but I know it wont work for me. In which case it wont because youll get what youve affirmed.

But you can choose an affirmation that allows your spirit to soar. You can start from wherever you are with whatever words seem most appropriate to you. Purely as an example, you could choose to affirm something like: I now give myself permission to celebrate my strength, my uniqueness and my precious humanity.

Say it once and nothing will happen. Say it several times each day, over a period of weeks and old limiting beliefs will start to lose their hold.

Or you could do it the way Sandy Forster advocates in How To Be Wildly Wealthy Fast. Instead of just saying your affirmation, you go through it, putting the stress on the first word first time round, the second word second time round and so on until you reach the last word.

An affirmation of 15 words, like the one above will probably take you 2 or 3 minutes to work through. By the time youve finished, it will have interrupted any habitual negative loop and lifted your spirits.

Do that a few times a day, when negative thoughts kick in and it wont be that many days before you start to feel different. And when you start to believe different things, youll start to see different things.

Yes, its cheap, cheerful and ridiculously simple. Often what stops you achieving something you truly want is not the enormity or the complexity of the thing. It may just be a small, but crucial bit of information you lack, without which nothing seems to make sense.

The question is: are you prepared to give it a go?