It could be things you wish to accomplish today, this week, this month, the coming year or generally in your lifetime.

You can add more branches, chop and change ideas, even delete some sections to simplify it if you wish.

I began to take responsibility for what I was thinking and what I allowed in. I chose to drop fiction, reduce television and newspaper reading and focus on positive literature. It fascinated me how reactions can be triggered. I considered how I might have felt not having read or seen what caused the reaction.

Whenever negativity arose I discovered I was defending an illusion or making a conscious choice to be offended and yet even with this knowledge negativity can still arise. There is no magic wand. I found reading uplifting and inspiring books and quotes changed my outlook dramatically and often in an instant. A few lines or a short quote or affirmation has incredible transformational power.

Returning to the present moment helps wipe the slate clean of past negativity. By letting go I could be more positive and focus on what really matters. The challenge is to close the gap between recognising negativity and shifting to positive. When ready, letting go can happen instantly; you can be in the same minute and everything changes. In a split second flash negativity about anything in the past can drop away whether 20 years ago, 1 year ago, 1 week ago, 1 day ago or 1 minute ago. The smaller the gap the better! Living in the present moment means being willing to die to the past in every moment.

Dropping the past can be a challenge; moving on can be difficult yet to constantly relive negativity is like biting into a rotten apple and moaning about the day you bit into a rotten apple over and over again. Attaching to the past is an illusion – the past has gone. You can only attach to a thought of the past in the present moment. So you could say that you are attaching to a thought rather than something that happened in the past. Although you cannot change your past – you can change your thoughts about it.

One of the problems I feel we face as humans is believing happiness and unhappiness, positive and negative are switches we can flick on or off permanently. We buy into an illusion that you can be 100% positive and happy all the time. That puts pressure on you to “perform” rather than “feel”.

I think the real key is awareness – recognising how and why you feel like you do and why you are having the thoughts you are thinking. Often by uprooting question after question you can trace “problems” to illusions.

Negative thoughts can leave you feeling drained and unhappy and have been said to have an adverse affect on your health. What I have found is that by reading uplifting and inspiring books and quotes on a daily basis positive thinking is far more powerful than negative. What I also noticed is that if I am the one reading the uplifting ideas – I am also the one making the changes. If you are willing to change you can. You don’t fail if you take a step backward.

A great tip for seeing the positive is to review your day last thing at night and contemplate where improvements could have been made.

In summary here are 11 pointers for positive thinking:

1. Recognise negative thoughts and the triggers causing them and remember mood fluctuations are temporary.

2. Through awareness focus on the positive and choose to repel negativity.

3. Read uplifting and inspiring books and quotes daily.

4. Watch inspiring movies and listen to uplifting and peaceful music.

5. Practice meditation and silent watching meditation daily.

6. Reduce thinking, let go of your past and come back to the present moment.

7. Write or mind map all negativity and start exploring reality versus illusion. Consider keeping a daily journal.

8. Begin helping others more and see what a transformation in yourself there is when you help to make others happier. (Remember only you can change you – so that goes for others too; which also means increasing your patience levels)

9. Reduce incoming negativity by eradicating triggers and pay more attention to the words and thoughts you are using.

10. Take responsibility for controlling your negative thoughts and reactions and if within your power make positive changes.

11. Live the Gandhi quote and “Be the change you wish to see in the world”

Related themes:

A to Z of Positive Thinking

A to Z of Positive Words

Dealing with a Negative Thought Mind Map

Freedom

Celebrating

Sense

Giving

Welcoming

Progress

Safety

Allowing

Action

Happiness

Nurturing

Worldwide

Peace of mind, a state so divine,
A place where worries and fears decline.
A calm that soothes, a heart that’s at rest,
A feeling that brings happiness to the chest.

It’s a place where worries don’t linger,
Where stress and anxiety cease to be a trigger.
A place where the mind is clear and bright,
Where joy and contentment reign supreme, day and night.

Peace of mind is not a destination,
But a state of being, a mental foundation.
It’s a choice that we make every day,
To find serenity in the midst of life’s chaos and fray.

It’s a journey, a path that we tread,
To quiet the noise in our head.
To find solace in the simple things,
And to spread love, compassion, and joy that peace brings.

So take a deep breath and let it go,
The stress and worries, the pain and woe.
Embrace the present and find peace within,
And live a life that is filled with joy and a heart that sings.

For peace of mind is a gift we can give,
To ourselves and others, as long as we live.
So let us strive to find it each day,
And bask in its glow, in every single way.

As you combine random objects and ideas some will naturally be crazy or impractical, others shear entertainment and occasionally you may stumble upon a new idea that really works and has great potential. The beauty of discovery, combining dreams, imagination and the already known.

The odd combinations mind map example contains random words to explore unlikely pairings; some I could develop further, others had no immediate connection. As a further option I could cross pair by plucking and combining any of the words that appear in the mind map – examples might be water socks and bed boots.

Here are ten starter tips for creating odd combinations:

1. Open books at random pages and pair words or phrases
2. Listen to the very next thing someone says and add it to the next thing someone else says
3. Visualise objects out of their normal environments such as imagining items hanging in trees
4. Combine products such as a torch and a timer to create a timer torch; a torch that shows battery power
5. Revisit existing ideas and imagine a modern version (see the “How could you modernize a door?” Mind Map)
6. Combine occupations; ask someone outside your field of expertise how they might tackle your project
7. Read your surroundings; signs, shops, vehicles, packaging, magazines, clothing etc & make combinations
8. As with comedy sketches, imagine items in unlikely scenarios such as a toilet in an elevator
9. Channel swap on T.V. and radio; example: listen to the news and finish the sentence on another station
10. Read two books or scripts and combine stories like the channel swap idea

The Odd Combinations Mind Map is one of over 20 Mind Maps which appear in my E-Book Idea Creation<

The beauty of creating combinations is that they are infinite. Someone had to invent the odd combination of peanut butter and jam sandwiches – have you tried them?

What might you discover?

Future not here yet

Stay in this moment

Just this one moment

The past has gone

Clock time does not exist

Now.

Giving Gifts

Contentment

Imagination

Birdsong

Self-Improvement

Laughter

Fun

Caring

Smiling

Joy

Family

Nature

Peace

Beauty

Happiness is a word we all desire,
A feeling that we chase, day and night,
It comes from love, and from the fire,
That warms our hearts and makes everything right.

It’s the contentment that we feel,
When life is good, and all is well,
The joy that comes, when all is real,
And we can simply bask, in heaven’s spell.

With imagination, we can see,
A world of endless possibilities,
Of laughter, fun, and pure glee,
And all the joy that life can bring to us, with ease.

So let us love, and laugh, and play,
And make the most of every day,
For happiness is just a smile away,
And all we need to do, is choose to find a way.

The book contains short passages about embracing life and uncertainty as we discover our unique destiny to become the person we wish to be.

The quote carries some great reminders for daily living such as being thankful for what we have and appreciating the thousands of tiny miracles occurring right now inside our bodies on our behalf.

Small miracles are all around us in the beauty of the planet and in nature. The world very often projects back to us what we give out and so you might say you help create the small miracles. There is beauty all around us and beauty that we carry inside; both of which we can cherish, nurture and grow.

Life isn’t always smooth; we each encounter failures and limitations and we each have the capability to transcend our challenges. Appreciating the small miracles helps nurture the enthusiasm to succeed and become who we wish to be.
Spare a thought for the small miracles you witness both within and without; they are the foundations on which we build our celebration of life.

This mind map explores a few of the many potential combinations that may create entirely new walking sticks. As the younger digital and technological generation’s age, might they expect more of a basic walking cane? Perhaps on the flipside, a solid and basic piece of wood unlikely to fail, might be a welcome and refreshingly reassuring “good enough already”?

Walking sticks of the future – will they explode into a vast array of gadget orientated “devices”, or stay the same?

What do you think?

The Planet provides oxygen for you to breathe and live

The Planet provides weather to grow food for you to eat

The Planet turns dark to allow you to rest and light to allow you to see

The Planet provides you with water to drink to survive

The Planet provides you with unconditional love

The Planet provides

You moan

You moan it’s too hot or too cold

You moan you’re too fat or too thin, too short, too tall

You moan about money

You moan about people

You moan about life

You moan

And still the Planet provides unconditional love for you because the planet provides

Chores represent perfect opportunities for exercising present moment awareness, thought reduction and relaxation. Total focus on the chore with 100% effortless concentration; relaxing into what you are doing rather than resisting the moment. Resistance to the chore is primarily thought based – once you surrender to the moment you can explore the fun side of what you are doing.

By heightening the senses instantly you become aware of the sights, smells and sounds. In the moment, fully engaged on the task, the chore is simply something you are doing rather than something you are opposing. Instead of allowing your mind to drift off into the past or future, totally concentrate on the chore alone – there is plenty of time to think later on.

How can the washing up be more fun? How could it not!

You can use all of your senses; explore textures and temperatures, different materials, shapes and sizes. You can marvel at the design and patterns, methods of manufacture, consider the history, who invented the implement. What alternatives might we use? Is the design easy to clean or has it got flaws? Thousands of journeys from a single bowl full!

Then there’s the bubbles – when was the last time you had fun with bubbles? Sounds bring an entire repertoire to the moment. From water sounds, to tapping cups and mugs, dishes and even the washing up bowl itself. Experiment with filling cups with different amounts of water to vary pitch and tone. Tap trays, pots and pans, squeak by rubbing your fingers over plates and objects and even the sink top. Become a musician and play music on the utensils and accessories; compose new tunes, test the musical knowledge of others by having them guess the song.

How about a league – timed events, number of items, speed of washing up and marks for accuracy of cleaning and no breakages! Set a timer and see how long the so called chore really takes. What might you have done in the same amount of time? What could you combine in the same amount of time? Could you listen to an audio book or CD or learn a new language whilst washing up? You might play music or listen to a comedy CD, perhaps dance, jig, sing, rattle and tap along as you wash the dishes.

You could combine the chore with an exercise regime; run or walk on the spot, try steps or twists or pump your arm muscles as you lift the items out of the bowl.

Washing the dishes is a daily chore; it really doesn’t take that long and is a necessary part of living.

It has to be done – can you make it more fun?