We all have conflicting thoughts. Well, I should say we all keep conflicting thoughts for the time being.

Conflicting thoughts are thoughts that are opposite in meaning, yet we believe them both.

Even defining it so plainly reveals how crazy it is to have these conflicting thoughts.

Yet every day we entertain one or more.

Some common conflicting thoughts include:

• “I don’t know why bad things happen to me” vs “I love drama”
• “The mind controls the body” vs “my body is sick”
• “People really are nice at heart” vs “people suck”

The purpose of this article is not to list out all of your conflicting thoughts, but to help you live more in harmony with yourself.

This can be accomplished by first recognizing what your conflicting thoughts are. And secondly, by choosing just one (hopefully the thought aligned with truth).

Let’s jump in!

Others will tell you

We can sometimes become so wrapped up in our own ego that we become unconscious of what we actually believe, think, and say.

Luckily, we have mirrors (those around us) to remind us.

For whatever reason, people love proving others wrong and calling out their faults, especially kids.

So you’re surrounded by amazingly eager participants willing to show you your conflicting thoughts.

When confronted openly about these conflicting thoughts, there’s a tendency to react by directing anger toward the messenger.

But when you see the reality of this situation, you can understand that the messenger just did you a HUGE favor.

They have just brought to light some conflicting thoughts that you were unaware of.

At this moment you have a choice. You can defend your beliefs as if truth itself needs someone to fight for it. Or you can take a moment to reflect and see if there is some truth to what the person is revealing to you.

It takes practice, but you’ll get it.

You find yourself feeling uneasy, angry, or sick

Despite the common belief, sickness is not normal.

Seeing the above statement now is so blatantly obvious to me, but there was a time when it wasn’t. I believed that it was natural to get sick and that there was nothing I could do about it.

I believed that something was natural that could never be natural. It’s like living death, fighting peace, or lying for the truth…obvious conflicts that we’ve merged into one.

Since as so above, so below…what you believe inside is reflected outside.

In this case, this inner mental conflict reveals itself as bodily conflict reinforcing that the mind controls the body. Yet we sometimes believe that the body has a mind of its own. And it does. It’s yours. 

This conflict also reveals itself in anger and uneasiness.

You would only be angry if someone reveals something that goes both against your belief and for your belief.

For example, let’s say someone calls you stupid.

If you’re content in your genius-ness, then you would brush off this attempt at an insult because it’s obviously absurd.

Yet if deep down you believe that you are stupid, then conflict or anger will arise. There’s conflict because you are trying to prove to others that you are smart without having truly accepted it for yourself.

It’s time to start using these perceived anger and/or sick times as triggers to practice seeing the miracle of moving toward a united mind.

Being present with what you’re teaching/saying (the advice you give others)

You are always teaching. You are always sharing. They are one and the same.

If for example, I say, “Eating chicken is bad for you.” You may be quick to teach or share why it is or isn’t.

We unconsciously do this. And by doing this unconsciously, we are setting up our own limits.

We are making the parameters for how we are to live. And if we don’t abide by these, conflict arises.

The conflict is there because you’ve set a rule yourself to live by, but you don’t live by it.

See how sneaky conflicting thoughts can be.

It’s not just there. It’s in the debates you have.

You may be so wrapped up in being right, that you don’t realize you’re righting something that you never wanted for yourself while denying what you do.

Fortunately, the fix is the same.

Be present at this moment.

Observe your thoughts as you think them.

Observe your words as you speak them.

This also takes practice. But once it’s perfected, nothing will ever bother you again.

You will be in perfect harmony within yourself always.

In conclusion

On this harmonic journey, try not to get frustrated if you don’t always succeed at overcoming the conflict.

To get frustrated would be to make further disharmony (more conflicting thoughts).

No more!

Here’s a song of mine to help.

The post How To Recognize Conflicting Thoughts appeared first on JClay.

These journal prompts will quickly get you in alignment with what you truly want, not just with what you think you want.

I first got introduced to journaling from the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. In it he spoke about doing SAVERS daily…

• S – Silence – Sitting in silence or meditating
• A – Affirmations – Saying affirmations
• V – Visualizations – Visualizing yourself receiving/achieving what you want
• E – Exercise – Exercising
• R – Reading – Reading books toward what you want to learn
• S – Scribing – Journaling

I had experience with all of the above except journaling. I knew how the others were helpful so it made it easier to trust the recommendation to add journaling to my repertoire.

So I “borrowed” a notebook from my then job’s supply cabinet and got ready to journal.

The only problem was, I didn’t know what to write.

I probably actually wrote, “I don’t know what to write in here.” next to that day’s date.

Yet this is a new day. With more experience and knowledge around the subject, I’m here to provide you with the journal prompts that will help serve you the most.

Journal Prompts You Should Be Using

1. What can I do today (or tomorrow) that will make me super happy?
2. What do I love about my life?
3. What’s something that sucks and is there a way of looking at it where I no longer think it’s sucky?
4. If money was never an issue, how would I spend my day?
5. Make a list of people that have wronged me and explain why I’m scared to forgive them.
6. What does God want me to do that I’m avoiding?
7. It’s been said that … “How you do anything is how you do everything.” … How does that make me feel about my life?

What journal prompts do you use that are the most transformative?

The post You Are What You Journal: The Only Journal Prompts That Actually Matter appeared first on JClay.

Questions are just thoughts and thoughts have the power to create or destroy.

That which you think about the most, you experience. Correspondingly, that which you question the most, you also experience.

A simple example would be the question, how can I make $100/day consistently?

This takes just as much effort to question, how can I make $100/day consistently with little effort?

Although the effort is the same in asking either, the answers that the questions yield can seem quite different.

Yet, the answer always lies in the question because the question sets the blueprint for the type of answer you want to receive.

This is why it’s so important to ask yourself the questions that you really want answers to.

I’ve included some questions below that I know will help you achieve and maintain peace and happiness no matter the perceived outside circumstance.

But don’t limit yourself to just these questions. Make your own and share them below in the comments so that we all may benefit.

The Most Enlightened Questions You Can Ask Yourself

Depending on your situation, some questions may resonate more than others.

1. Am I choosing happiness right now?
2. What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? (from the book The ONE Thing)
3. What am I grateful for?
4. Am I my body, my mind, or something else?
5. What am I holding onto that is more trouble than it’s worth?
6. Is there another way to look at this seemingly troubling situation?
7. Why does feeling happy feel so good?
8. What do I hope to gain by staying mad at a person?
9. Does the answer I’m seeking matter?
10. What is my next question going to be? (I was reminded of this question by Reiki Master
    Charlotte Jackson. Asking yourself this question and searching for the answer is meditating.)

The post Positive Questions To Ask Yourself Daily appeared first on JClay.

Lie – an intentionally false statement.

No lie, you are being lied to as many as 200 times a day.^[1] You will also contribute an average of 2 lies per day to the world, assuming you are truthful about it.^[2]

Whether you tell a lie to protect another or to be more agreeable, each lie told will uniquely affect your mind. It will create conflict between the lie and the truth you hold to keep the lie in place. And since the mind controls the body, conflict within the mind will eventually manifest as conflict within the body.

Whew, this got deep really fast.

What if “the truth will set you free” is not just one of those catchy sayings to get a liar to suddenly become truthful? What if this phrase is a blueprint to healing your body?

This truth is what we will uncover in this article. By the end, you will know if you have been sabotaging yourself with lies, incorporating wishful thinking, or trapped so deep in a world where the truth and the lies are indistinguishable.

How The Brain Processes Lies

In 2016, Nature Neuroscience published a study showing that whenever people utter words of dishonesty, there is a burst of activity in their amygdala. The amygdala is responsible for producing anxiety, fear, and feelings of guilt within the body. Very interesting.

So if lies do this much damage, then why do people keep telling them?

The answer lies within the same study.

The scientists had the participants play a game where they would win money by being deceptive. What was fascinating is that in this scenario, the emotional responses in the amygdala decreased.

However, the effects remained present in the body.

So why lie?

Why People Lie

To understand if lying has any benefits, you first need to recognize why you lie at all.

All the lies ever told can be fit into four categories as outlined by this article by National Geographic.

1. Promoting Yourself (44%)
   1. For a financial benefit (16%)
   2. For a non-financial benefit (15%)
   3. Creating a better self-image (8%)
   4. Appearing humorous (5%)
2. Protecting Yourself (36%)
   1. Covering a mistake or misdeed (22%)
   2. Avoiding others (14%)
3. Impacting Others (11%)
   1. Helping others (5%)
   2. Hurting others (4%)
   3. Being polite (2%)
4. Unclear (9%)
   1. Don’t even know why you’re lying while lying (7%)
   2. Are deemed as a pathological liar (2%)

Let’s break these down.

What does this all mean?

Looking at the first two on the list, 80% of the lies you tell come from believing one of two things. Either that you are not enough as you are or what you are can be lost.

There would be no purpose in promoting yourself or protecting yourself otherwise.

As one who is promoting himself, even within this article, this is a helpful reminder.

See also The 5 Ways Your Mind Betrays You.

Telling lies for any of these reasons reinforces your belief in your inadequacy, creating the circumstances for you to continue to lie.

Each one feeds itself in a perfect loop. You feel inadequate because you lie, yet you lie because you feel inadequate.

Another 11% of lies comes from wanting to impact others.

If you can impact others, then others can impact you. So the truths or lies you tell may not be of your own doing. They may have been pressed upon you by others.

The last 9% states that the reasons are unclear.

Since repeated actions become automatic over time, perhaps these lies are told out of habit.

What exactly is the truth and what is a lie?

Here is where it gets a little complicated. Your mind does not always know the difference between the truth and a lie.

Two opposing thoughts or statements can have the same effect on you. For example, look at the following phrases:

• People are awesome.
• People suck.

You have probably said both of these at one point. And both times, you meant it.

Yet neither declaration can be classified as the truth or a lie.

One causes you to be comfortable around people, and the other leads to you keeping your distance.

You were affected by both as if both were true.

No longer does validity matter. What matters is if the statement aligns with what you are and who you want to be.

By knowingly telling a lie, you are inviting conflict into your body.

Will unknowingly telling a lie do the same?

Healing the body with words

For hundreds of years, maybe more, patients have healed as a result of the placebo effect. The placebo effect is when a fake treatment is given to a patient, and this treatment leads to the patient’s healing.

One could argue that lies heal patients.

French psychologist Émile Coué introduced popular psychotherapy now called autosuggestion.

Autosuggestion is a self-induced suggestion (affirmation) in which you guide your own thoughts, feelings, or behavior. Instead of being affected by the words of others, you consciously pre-determine what to think.

For example, Émile Coué had his patients repeat many times a day, “Every day in every way I am getting better and better.”

Notice the careful wording of the above phrase. It prompts your mind to search for and find ways that you are getting better and better.

Naturally, the body follows what the mind tells it.

Since this is not a lie, there is no conflict. Or so it would seem.

If your previous thoughts were aligned with getting worse and worse each day, this new belief would oppose it.

There would be conflict, but only for a short time until your thoughts are singular in purpose.

Once the idea of health is fully accepted for yourself, you will be healthy.

So now truthfulness becomes an entirely different thing. No longer does it look upon a statement’s validity, truthfulness becomes how true you are to what you want in life.

Some examples would be:

• If you want health, but you are worried about and focused on ill-health, germs, diseases, etc.
• If you want to be pain-free, yet you disagree openly with others and verbally attack those with opposing views.

Any opposing thought will attempt to undo what the same mind created.

How To Accept Truthfulness For Yourself

I will point out 3 ways to go about this.

The first and easiest is using autosuggestion.

Set up your environment so that:

1. Nothing reflects the life you don’t want
2. Everything reflects the life you do want

This includes the websites you visit and the music you listen to.

Don’t worry about removing people from your life right now. That would just create more conflict.

Another way is to quiet your thoughts so that you don’t think them as much.

This is contrary to popular belief. Many believe that thinking is both healthy and needed.

It is not. When your thoughts aren’t present to distort reality, you will see things as they truly are, instead of how you’ve imagined them.

What is special about my album IAMNOBODY, IAMSOMEONE is that it does both for you.

It helps you to undo the illusionary thoughts that are present in your mind and it fills your mind with true, conflict-free ones. You could go from depressed to overjoyed in a matter of minutes with little effort on your part.

Order IAMNOBODY, IAMSOMEONE now!

The third way to accept truthfulness for yourself is to share the thoughts you want with everyone you come in contact with. The more people that share your thoughts with, the more these thoughts will be reflected everywhere you look.

When your thoughts and vision are not in competition with one another, you will know a peace so deep that it could heal the world.

The post How Telling the Truth Will Heal Your Body appeared first on JClay.

Do you know how many thoughts go through your head per day?

100? 500? 1,000?

Results from a 2020 study suggested that on average, 6,000 thoughts go through your head in a single day!^[1]

Since our core thoughts don’t change much day-to-day, most are likely the same ideas from the day before.

And if the majority of these thoughts are perceived as negative, finding peace of mind would prove difficult.

A study found that mental imagery directly impacts your visual perception.^[2]

It found that even a single instance of an image can tilt how you see the world, dramatically if the conditions are right.

This means that what you consider reality is simply a matter of the thoughts you repeatedly think.

And since the mind controls the body, we begin to see how illness is allowed to manifest and grow within that body.

It’s the placebo effect but in reverse.

This is why many make a big deal about saying affirmations, taking time to visualize, and even sit quietly to meditate.

Meditation allows you to silence all thoughts, especially those you did not create.

Visualization allows you to see the world as you would have it be. As they say, seeing is believing.

Affirmations allow you to affirm with confidence your state of being, which is a result of your thoughts. Hence the saying, think before you speak.

Music is a wonderful tool to accomplish all three.

One study showed that the patients who listened to music had less anxiety and stress hormones in the body than people who took drugs.^[3]

When listening to music, your mind goes to another place (meditation).

You can feel and imagine what the song invokes (visualization).

And what do you do while listening? You sing or chant along (affirmations) with full confidence even if the song has nothing to do with your life.

The big question then is, what happens when the songs you choose unknowingly reinforce the thoughts of distrust, loneliness, and even depression that led you to seek distraction in music in the first place?

Another loop.

You need music to calm down because you feel anxious. Yet you feel anxious because you’ve added more thoughts of fear rather than thoughts of joy to your mind.

These thoughts play in your head on repeat all day long to the tune of your favorite song created by artists that share this same distorted way of thinking.

So how do you get out of this loop?

The same way you got in.

By adding more thoughts, but this time thoughts of truth. And by letting go of the non-true thoughts you’ve clung to for so long.

But this could take years and a level of focus that a mind in this state isn’t capable of reaching alone.

This is where I come in.

I speak to the source of your conflicting thoughts using your logic patterns so that you can clearly see the truth from the illusion.

I do this using music, imagery, and nature’s gift … repetition.

By listening to even one of my songs twice a day, you’ll have enough thoughts of truth going through your mind in a week than you’ve had all year long.

As many have stated:

• “Man your rap really heals the pain, I’ve listened to this more than 100 times”
• “Your songs work like medicine”
• “Wooooooooow”
• “I suffer from depression and anxiety, this is gonna help me live my guy”

Music is medicine, but my album IAMNOBODY, IAMSOMEONE can be a cure.

What music do you listen to regularly?

The post The Emotional Alchemy of Music: Turn Down the Negativity, Turn Up the Joy appeared first on JClay.

I’ll admit, I’m late on this. I never placed great value on telling a person Happy Birthday. My thinking has been along the lines of … “Every day is special. Let’s celebrate all the days.”

I still agree with that, but I’ve come around to understand the extra magic that surrounds celebrating birthdays.

Besides, “Happy birthday” is a positive affirmation and today is my actual birthday.

So for a limited time, I’m accepting gifts.

Here are a few suggestions for great gifts:

• Merch – $$-$$$ – you get something fly that reminds you to be your true self and it helps me to keep making great content that you love
• Follow me on my social accounts (links in the footer) – FREE – you will get positivity reminders throughout the day
• Donate – $-$$$$$ – you’ll feel all tingly inside and you’ll be helping me to extend this message of love to more people that need it
• Share your favorite song/post of mine – FREE – you’ll be directly enriching the lives of those that see your shares
• Do all of the above – PRICELESS – you’ll be recognized as an awesome person that loves life and the people in it

The Realization

Before a couple of years ago, I never really bothered telling people other than close friends and family “Happy birthday!” I always thought that they are already getting bombarded with text messages and phone calls that they don’t need another.

Well, I was wrong. I noticed two birthdays ago that every time a person said it to me, I felt good inside. It was weird. I even questioned this as I do all things. Why does this make me feel good and loved? The only answer I received from within was, “Don’t question it; just accept it.” Accept it I did.

From then on, I decided to tell everyone I knew Happy Birthday on his or her actual birthday. It’s a simple gesture that has a chance of adding joy to one’s day.

However, this wasn’t as easy as it seemed … at first.

I didn’t really know people’s birthdays. And since my birthday is so easy to remember considering that it falls on Christmas Eve, I used it as an excuse to not remember others’ birthdays like…”How dare they not have an easy-to-remember birthday?” Trust me, I know how this sounds.

Finding the birthdays

I used a few tools to make this process easier: Facebook, an app called hip, and Google. On Facebook, I have my notifications turned off. There are just too many and it’s easier for me to go on at free intervals and interact. So I’m not sure if Facebook notifies you of birthdays or not.

I started with my close friends whose birthdays I didn’t know. The easier way would be to just ask them but remember, I’m supposed to have already known this because they are my close friends. So I would look at their Facebook profile.

Then there are those friends that have hidden their birthday on Facebook. If that’s you, undo it. You’re missing out on hundreds of great messages on your day.

For these friends, I had to get help from good ol’ Google.

I live in TX and in TX your info is everywhere for free. I can type “Jelani Clay birthday” and a few sites would pop up claiming to know my information. The other information isn’t always true, but my birthday is.

I’m not really worried about my information being used maliciously, because I believe everything happens for our highest good. Plus if I really wanted to, I could opt out of all of these sites.

Anyway, I can usually find most friends’ birthdays via this method.

There were still a few friends that have managed to keep their birthdays hidden publicly everywhere. For that, I would contact a mutual friend and say something like, “Hey, when is Person’s birthday again. I always forget to wish him/her a happy birthday, but they always wish me one. I wanna be ready this year.”

Just make sure that the person you ask is a person that you’ve already been telling Happy Birthday to. If not, that could be awkwardddd.

After I found their birthdays, I saved them to the hip app. This app lets you get birthday reminders the day of or days before. You can customize per contact/group and be notified of anniversaries as well.

The Birthday Experiment

With an app full of birthdays, I was ready to proceed with my experiment. The experiment was to see the effects of telling everyone I know Happy Birthday for a year.

The first thing I did was set a phone notification to pop up at 7 am that says, “Tell friends Happy Birthday.” I also have the hip notifications pop up at 7 am.

For friends I have more of a relationship with, I will either call or text to wish them a happy birthday.

For those that I may not know too well yet, I’ll go to the birthday tab on Facebook and wish them one as well.

Pro tip: This is a great way to clean out your Facebook friends. If I go to a person’s page where they haven’t posted in over two years and I don’t remember who they are, I’ll just unfriend. If they haven’t been on there in over 2 years, chances are they won’t see your birthday message.

I’ve done this for a full year now. I’ve only missed a couple of days, in which case I’ll just say, “Happy belated birthday!”

The Birthday Results

I see why so many businesses will tell you Happy Birthday.

This experiment has led to renewed relationships, me feeling connected to each person, and overall gratitude.

I will definitely continue doing this.

Because you aren’t asking for anything, it seems weird to receive gratitude by telling someone else happy birthday. Yet, the feeling is there.

This serves as another example of how giving and receiving are one, and brings new meaning to being “selfish”. By wanting to receive joy for yourself, you can give joy to all and ensure it.

Give the freest, simplest, easiest gift you can give to your loved ones. Tell them Happy Birthday.

P.S. Don’t forget, I’m accepting gifts!

The post The Magic of Acknowledging Someone’s Birthday appeared first on JClay.

The mind controls both your body and how you experience physical reality. If allowed to control itself, the mind can bring about an experience of reality so twisted that you’ll never experience life as it is intended. Whether you experience a world of endless bliss or one of pain, it all starts with your mind.
I’ll be showing you the ways that your mind tricks you into bringing about such realities. I will also share some easy tips that allow you to realign your mind within yourself so that it will always work for you and never against you.
The most important thing to remember through it all is that you are not your mind. I will say this again, you are not your mind.
You control your mind. And since you control your mind, you are the maker of your current reality. Don’t allow yourself to be mind-controlled by any forces other than you.

1) Making your past your present.

Time is a construct of the mind. You can find evidence of this in its inconsistencies. Time flies when you’re having fun, but slows to a crawl when you’re in a situation you do not enjoy. A second is not a second and an hour is not an hour.
Time changes only by the meaning you give it right now. Everything that has ever happened to you, happened to you now. Think about that for a second.
Whenever your mind travels “back in time”, you travel nowhere and you give control of your mind over to nothing. You are telling this moment that it’s meaningless and that the past holds value. You become a slave to what has already happened and you define it as all that could ever happen.
So the truth is regarded as false and the false becomes your truth.
Example 1:

• When a child is learning to walk, she cares nothing of her past. Her focus is on walking. She does not dwell there thinking, “I never walked. Every time I’ve tried, I’ve failed (fell). So why try again? Besides, they don’t want me to walk. Parents want their kids to just crawl all the time. So why bother?” This is insane thinking, yet this is the equivalent to attempting to hold the past in the present.

Example 2:

• In light you can never see darkness. If you bring darkness to light, only the light remains because the darkness has no foundation to stand upon. But when your entire focus is on darkness, this is all you will see. Leave the past in the darkness and let your present be light.

The truth is that everyone enjoys being happy. The only way to be happy all the time is to be in the present all the time.
Here are some things you can do to stay present:

• Ask yourself regularly, “Am I choosing happiness right now?”
• Do what you love.
• Meditate.
• Play!

Make the above a priority. Create habits around them. They will have a profound effect on your wellbeing.

2) Being down with OPP (Other People’s Perceptions).

As you’ve successfully been made aware, you notice that many people aren’t living in reality. They are living in the past overlooking the perfection that exists at this moment.
To give weight to their perceptions is to attempt to make what is untrue true. When their entire life is built upon what could never be, they are never being. This goes against the very nature as a human being. They are going against themselves thus becoming their own enemy.
Since even within yourself you can’t always trust your own thoughts, there is no sense in putting another’s thoughts over your own. And until you hold everything up to the light of truth, you will not see anything as it truly is.

So how can you let go of OPP?

Use compassion. Understand that whenever someone is communicating with you in a way that is not aligned with love (truth), they are speaking as a person trapped in their own illusion.
But this should not stop you from showing love to them. Love is the light that will help them to see their way out.

• The more you teach love, the more you will learn about it.
• The more you learn to love, the more you will embody it.
• The more you embody love, the more you will become love.

Once you’ve become love, you will realize the reality of your being, which is being love itself.
So in order to not be affected by OPP, practice love & compassion always.
You may be thinking, “Well what if a person…” It doesn’t matter what a person does. They are giving you an opportunity to practice what you’ve taught. Teach them well and receive the lesson.

3) Having enemies & haters.

Defining, judging, and/or acknowledging someone as your enemy or hater actually weakens your ability. You are holding onto the belief that someone other than you can control your reality. You are giving away your control to another.
As pointed out in the article Why You Keep Losing To The Enemy, enemies aren’t your enemies at all because they:

• inspire you to go beyond your previously perceived limits
• reveal the things you’ve allowed to have power over you
• unite you with others

Once you switch from perception to true sight, you will see others in a new light. You will no longer look for enemies, but more versions of yourself that are capable of all things.
The way to not be affected by enemies/haters is to see them as they are. They are revealers of your true self and your unlimited potential. They are love made manifest, just as you are.

4) Seeking distraction instead of joy.

Movies, shows, concerts, games, etc are forms of entertainment, yet they don’t always bring you joy. If left unmonitored, they become some of the biggest distractions keeping you from your joy.
Let’s take television for example. Some shows actually leave you angry and unsatisfied after watching. Other shows you may be watching only because you’ve already watched so much of it and you just want to finish the series. Does this sound like joy to you?
According to a Nielsen report, the average adult in the United States watches 5 hours & 4 minutes of TV per day. That’s 35.5 hours per week, almost as much as another full-time job.
I’m picking on television, but this could easily go for other entertainment forms like social media and playing video games.
If these activities are bringing you true joy, then great. But for the majority, it isn’t. It’s bringing up feelings of loneliness or regret for watching another experience the life you want to experience.
Now that you are aware of this, take a mental inventory while you’re performing one of these activities. Check-in with yourself to see how you feel. Ask yourself would you rather be doing anything else?
If your answer is “yes”, it’s time for a switch-up. Switch your attention to joy. What you focus on will expand.

Make it easy for yourself.

While you’re energized from reading this article, delete those time-wasting apps. Cancel or downsize your cable subscription.
And similarly, plan out a way to do at least one hour of a joyful thing per day.
What can you add to your life daily that will bring you more joy?
By focusing on and adding only what brings you joy, there will be little room for anything else. Those distractions that don’t fulfill you will fall away unnoticed.

5) Becoming addicted.

The sneaky thing about addiction is that you don’t always know what you are addicted to. Everything you do becomes easier and easier because you are designed to continuously become more efficient.
The more you sit on the couch watching TV, the better you’ll become at sitting on the couch watching TV. Your body will adapt.
This is similar to athletes. Most basketball players have growth spurts and end up being the tallest ones in their family. The same is true for gymnasts. The more centered and tighter the core, the better spins and tumbles that can be achieved. So they often grow stronger, but not taller.
In all cases, your body adapts to help you do better that which you do often.
Common addictions that aren’t always noticed are:

• sharing your opinion without being asked
• reacting negatively to bad news
• scrolling on social media
• listening to gossip
• eating addictions
• thinking

Yes, thinking is an addiction. Thinking is the opposite of knowledge because it’s the opposite of knowing. When you know something, you don’t think about it. Think about it.
None of the above addictions mentioned are necessarily bad. Just when done unconsciously, they won’t serve you as well as they could if done consciously.
So how do you overcome addiction?
All of the elements in this article work together to help free you from addiction. By staying in the moment, you increase your awareness. This way the object of your addiction becomes a conscious choice. You may still choose to indulge, but it’s not a mindless habit.
Similarly, by adding more joy, you won’t have “time” for addictions. Many people don’t even think about eating when they are highly engaged in something they love.
The true test to see if you’re addicted to something is to not do it for a while. If every fiber of your body is calling out for the thing, you are addicted.
Remember, you are in control of your body. It isn’t in control of itself. It adapts to the beliefs you give it.

Regain Control of Your Mind

Your mind is your mind, nobody else’s. You are the one that controls it and you should be the only one that controls it.
Train your mind to not be so reactive. Control your mind so that you can experience what you want to experience when you want to experience it.
You are powerful. You are perfect. You are.
Which one of these 5 are you currently overcoming? Let me know in the comments.

The post The 5 Ways Your Mind Betrays You & How To Control It appeared first on JClay.

How to be happy is a question we have asked ourselves for lifetimes. A lot of what we do daily is our attempt to find happiness and try to recreate past moments that have made us happy.

But what if there was a way to be happy all the time? Literally ALL THE TIME. You lose a job or a client, happy. When you end a romantic relationship, happy. If you perceive that something was stolen from you, HAPPY!

You get my point. The questions we’ll explore in this article are:

1. How does society currently define happiness?
2. What is happiness really?
3. Can unceasing happiness be achieved?
4. Would you really want to be happy all the time if you could?
5. How to do it?

I will also give a bonus tip on how you can instantly boost your mood.

By the end of this article, not only will you be happier for having read it, you may even begin to see the world in a new color.

Let’s start at the beginning.

How does society currently define happiness?

According to the Google dictionary, happiness is the state of being happy. Duh! So what’s happy. According to the same dictionary, the word happy means feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

Here’s a few more just to get on the same page:

• Pleasure – a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment
• Contentment – a state of happiness and satisfaction
• Satisfaction – fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this
• Enjoyment – the state or process of taking pleasure in something or the action of possessing and benefiting from something
• Something – a thing that is unspecified or unknown

I also do computer programming from time to time and I’m going to do the nerdiest thing ever. I’m going to substitute the definitions for the word like it’s a computer variable to see what we come up with.

• Happiness is the state of being feeling/showing pleasure or contentment.
• Happiness is the state of being feeling/showing a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment or a state of happiness and satisfaction.

The last part is saying the same thing so we’ll scratch that out.

• Happiness is the state of being feeling/showing a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment or a state of happiness and satisfaction.
• Happiness is the state of being feeling/showing a feeling of happy fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this and the state or process of taking pleasure in something or the action of possessing and benefiting from something.

This is getting complicated, but we’re getting somewhere.

The new definitions of happiness

It looks like the dictionary’s definition of happiness is one of two things.

1. Setting an expectation and then meeting it.
2. Taking or possessing something that you benefit from.

And if we substituted the word something with its definition, the above would be:

1. Setting an expectation and then meeting it.
2. Taking or possessing a thing that is unspecified or unknown that you benefit from.

This is very interesting. The first definition of happiness implies that you set the standard for what happiness is. The second definition implies that you have no idea what thing or things would make you happy.

No wonder people can’t “find” happiness. It’s because they don’t know what they are looking for, which is also just an idea they created for themselves.

Are you with me or did I go too deep too fast? “That’s what she said!” Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It made me “happy” to do it.

In other words, you have the power to create what happiness is for you.

So if, for example, you decide that happiness is having a million dollars in your bank account, you won’t be happy until you achieve it. Similarly, if you define happiness as just having a bank account, then as long as you have one you will always be happy.

This is all, however, assuming the dictionary’s definition of happiness is correct.

Even according to that same dictionary, we don’t know what happiness is. So could we truly “know” anything else?

What is happiness really?

One thing is for certain. Everyone has experienced happiness at some point. Even if at an unliked job or in the presence of a loved one, we’ve all had a glimpse of bliss.

Travel with me to one of those blissful moments.

1. Close your eyes.
2. Select one of those moments.
3. Then open your eyes again.

What did you notice about when you were in that blissful moment?

You may have noticed that you didn’t have a care in the world. No matter what anyone said or did, you found a way to share your happiness with another. Soon you were joined with that person in that happiness, even if for a second.

What can we use from this information?

Quite a few things, actually.

The first thing is that time was not a factor at that moment. We weren’t reveling in our past to relive a moment as we just did. We weren’t even thinking about our future. We were fully engaged at that moment. In doing so, we received all the pleasure that moment had to offer.

The second thing is that no matter what someone said or how our environment was, we never let anything diminish our happiness. We actually increased it by giving it freely to another.

This is actually perfectly aligned with the original definition as recorded by Google. Happiness is the state of being happy.

You may have already realized, I missed an important phrase within that definition, state of being.

I believe to know what the state of being is, but let’s double-check.

• being – existence or the nature or essence of a person.
• existence – the fact or state of living or having objective reality.
• essence – the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.

That got complicated real fast.

In layman’s terms, we cannot explain our existence. We just know that we exist.

Now, what if we combine the state of being with timelessness or with being fully rooted in the present moment? This means that you fully accept what is happening right now.

This may not even be able to be correctly executed because who we think we are is a collection of our past. So even our view of now is altered.

Let’s not go down that road yet. Instead, let’s compare other extreme states of being such as sadness, madness, and scaredness.

Exploring other states of being

Sadness is a state where you’re sad about something that happened in the past. The same with madness. If it were happening to you now, you would be more concerned with changing it then dwelling in it. So those aren’t a true state of “being”.

How about scaredness. It’s when you’re afraid of something or someone. To be afraid of something or someone, you must have defined it as a threat. That also exists in time. The only way we could be afraid of something is if we heard a frightening story about it or we experienced firsthand in the past something we perceive like it.

Back to the state of happiness

With happiness, however, there’s nothing to compare it to. We’re just happy. We could even hypothesize that happiness is our natural state of being or even the only state of being.

Some of the happiest humans in the world that we know are babies and children. It’s how we get the saying, “Ignorance is bliss.” We are so conceited as to think we know a secret about life, yet we’re the ones that aren’t happy all the time.

Even our old are rejuvenated in the presence of happy children.

Yet we teach kids of time and its effects, which seems to take away from their happiness throughout time. Or more accurately stated, people give away their happiness to time.

Happiness is really as Google stated. It’s the state of being happy.

We can even enter this state at any moment by letting go of the past and any idea of the future.

But is this sustainable? Can we achieve a constant neverending state of happiness?

Can unceasing happiness be achieved?

Based on what we believe to know about happiness, this is possible, but it will take practice.

Remember:

• The thoughts that we think are in fact influenced by our beliefs.
• The words we speak are influenced by our thoughts.
• Our actions are influenced by our words.
• Our habits are influenced by our actions, which become part of our beliefs.

Beliefs and habits aren’t as easy to recognize or control as much as our thoughts, words, and actions.

We know that we need to do two things in order to be happy.

1. Be in the moment (don’t be thinking about the past or the future).
2. Think happy thoughts.

The first of those two will definitely help, but the second seems incomplete or a bit off.

The problem is that most of our beliefs are based on past beliefs that may or may not be true. So what we consider to be a happy thought could be working against us.

For example, someone could think a happy thought would be to slap someone upside the head and cause him or her pain because it’s perceived that they deserve it.

As we have discovered earlier with happiness, the more you give of something, the more of it you have to give. Those that gave happiness freely increased their own because now their environment reflected it back.

So to give anything but happiness to another is to receive it.

Happiness rewrite

Let’s rewrite the two things that need to be done for unceasing happiness.

1. Be in the moment (don’t “be” thinking about the past or the future).
2. Give happiness always (don’t “be” giving words/actions of attack or judgment).

That’s a little better, but there’s still a question that remains unanswered.

How do you give happiness? Well, you give happiness the same way you give anything else, with love.

Giving implies you don’t expect anything in return. Although you know it will be returned because it will create a ripple effect in your world that adapts to what you gave it.

So even when we give an attack, it’s with love. We’re saying we love to attack and we wish to receive it (or be attacked) as well one day.

This is insane thinking when you think about it. Yet this is what we create with our words and actions.

It seems that the only way to give happiness is to have the happiness to give. And in order to have the happiness to give, we must be happy.

That brings us back to our original definition once again, the state of being happy.

Is it really that easy? Just. Be. Happy.

…

I am pausing the writing of this article to “be happy” for the next 24 hours.

To symbolize this break, take a listen.

Wow! The results of my 24-hour experiment were enlightening indeed. More on that later.

For now, let’s answer this. Would you really want to be happy all the time if you could?

Do you want to be happy all the time, really?

The obvious answer should be, “YES!” But for many, there’s resistance.

This resistance is a clue to your current state of being. You value non-happiness more than happiness.

How could this be, especially when everyone enjoys happiness?

As we learned above, the hierarchy of our being is beliefs > thoughts > words > actions > habits > character > beliefs.

By thinking thoughts of non-happiness or speaking those words, it becomes a part of who you are. You habitually value non-happiness.

Since your values have now become skewed, you may often resent the happy person.

To be happy all the time means you smile often. It means that you see others as loving human beings no matter the face they portray. To be happy all the time means you enjoy every second of every day.

Before you started reading this, were you enjoying your day? What about yesterday?

Actually, don’t answer that. There’s no value in previous moments. Or better yet, this moment will always be more valuable than any other moment.

Instead of asking do you want to be happy all the time, let’s ask something more aligned with your beliefs.

Are you ready to try to be happy all the time? Are you ready to try and try again until it is your reality?

For me, the answer is yes. Join me in my pursuit of this endless state of bliss.

How to be happy all the time no matter what

So now we’re getting to what we all want to know, how to be happy, and how to keep this happiness forever.

I’ll start with the 24-hour experiment I mentioned above.

Throughout that day I checked in within myself constantly to ask myself, “Are you choosing happiness at this moment?

A lot of the time, the answer was no. This was a big wake up call for me. No wonder I wasn’t being happy. I wasn’t choosing to be happy.

So I compiled a list of things you can do that will lead to you being happy all the time. Memorize this. I will go into further details of each item including making affirmations of these.

1. Ask yourself multiple times a day, “Am I choosing happiness at this moment?”
2. Stay firmly rooted in the moment.
3. Surround yourself with happiness.
4. Give only happiness to others.
5. Forgive.

Ask yourself multiple times a day, “Am I choosing happiness at this moment?”

Out of all the steps, this is the most important and takes the most effort. As long as you continuously ask yourself this, all the other steps will fall into place.

So do what you need to do. Here are some suggestions:

• Put sticky-note reminders everywhere (near your bed, on your bathroom mirror, as your phone’s background image, etc.)
• Set your intention just before sleeping and just after waking to ask yourself if you are being happy.
• Ask a friend to be your accountability partner where you remind each other all day long.
• Download a task app and a put reminder in your phone that pops up every 30 minutes.

Ask Nike and Shia LaBeouf have said, “Just do it!”

Stay firmly rooted in the moment.

It’s so easy for our minds to wander to moments that aren’t here. It could be to thoughts of the past or thoughts of a non-existent future.

Whichever the case, those moments are not here.

Train your mind through practice to stay here, now.

I know. This means not sharing your painful story with others. It means not speculating what could possibly happen if you make a “mistake”.

You will be fully untethered to anything, yet free to experience everything.

Surround yourself with happiness.

Do a check of your environments in order to determine what your mind eats.

Yes, a mind can eat. It takes in many images, words, and ideas per day.

Really listen to the music you’re listening to. Are the words expressing more happiness or are they sewing seeds of separation?

Many that listen to my songs have expressed how they were able to become happier people almost overnight.

This is mostly because my songs are written in a way that shows you your thoughts for what they really are. You’ll be able to distinguish the real from the illusion.

There’s nothing to feel bad about when it comes to believing false-truths. We’ve all been there and they are the easiest things to overcome.

Give only happiness to others.

I read an interesting quote from the book A Course in Miracles. “What you perceive in others, you strengthen in yourself.”

This is another way of saying you reap what you sew. It is also another way of saying Newton’s Third Law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

We can now see the relationship between giving and receiving.

If we give happiness to others, we will receive it back from others. Happiness will be reflected to us at every turn.

Sometimes to get what we think we want, we give guilt to others. We give attack and pain.

To give these things is to strengthen the idea of them within ourselves. We are telling ourselves that things like guilt, attack, and pain are precious and worthy to be shared.

Then we wonder why we receive them so frequently.

This can be undone easily by only giving what you want.

Love all with all of your heart and you will receive love.

Forgive.

Since everyone is led by different desires it’s not possible for each to know what’s best for another, especially when you are not in your own happy state.

So to judge a thing is to create the way that makes you unhappy. And if you make 30 judgments per day, for example, you now have 30 things that won’t ever bring you happiness. Multiply that by 365 and in one year you have 10,950 ways to be unhappy.

If you’re older than 10, then you possibly have more than 100,000 ways to NOT be happy. That’s no fun.

Focus only on what you want, not what you don’t.

Forgiveness is the way to rejoin what was separated through judgment.

It’s easy to let go of judgment because you don’t know for sure if what you’ve judged is correct or not. You only see the world through your eyes.

By being accepting of all, you will always be accepted by all.

8 Affirmations To Say To Stay Happy

I went ahead and made a list of affirmations out of the above list to help you remain in your natural state of happiness. Say these 8 to yourself twice a day, every day.

1. I only share happiness with others because I can only share what I possess.
2. Right now I am choosing to be happy.
3. I am surrounded by happiness.
4. I am here now.
5. I am happiness.
6. I am forgiving.
7. I am forgiven.
8. I am happy.

You can combine them with this list of 7 affirmations you should say daily and really watch your life transform.

Bonus Tip

Set aside 5 minutes a day to reflect on everything you are grateful for. This is an instant mood booster.

Get Help Staying Happy

Not sure you’ll be able to focus on happiness right now. Worry not. Join my email list where I send songs, tips, and interesting tidbits that will be sure to keep you in the right mindset.

The post How To Be Happy All The Time appeared first on JClay.

Words can seem powerful. The words you choose reflect your financial status, your level of education, the culture you identify with, and even your well-being.

Every word you utter creates a ripple in time where the echo is felt by all.

Words alone aren’t as powerful as the energy you put behind them, but as creation goes …

And since you think in words, you can see how words shape your destiny.

The Effects of Speaking

The words you share with others are the beliefs that you would have strengthened within yourself.

So to share words of kindness with another is to receive it back and strengthen your belief in kindness.

This is easy to accept when it comes to kindness and what is considered good. However, when it concerns things you no longer want, you think the opposite is true.

You believe that by sharing guilt you can rid yourself of it. Yet the more guilt you try to give, the more you seem to have.

Remember that giving and receiving are one and the same. Both the giver and receiver experience the same emotions whether it’s a gift or a harsh criticism.

So instead of using words to attack or curse, use words that bless and heal.

Besides, our culture already uses many phrases in this way. “Good morning!” “Happy birthday!” “Peace!” Etc.

Attack words / phrases to start avoiding immediately

I created a list of common phrases we say to one another that reinforces a belief in attack, pain, and even death.

Read through the list below. Take note of what you commonly say so that you can rephrase it in a way that benefits you.

Killing two birds with one stone.
We’ve slashed the prices in half.
I’m hammered or wasted.
Whip you into shape boy.
I killed this performance.
I smashed on this food.
Start it off with a bang.
I murdered this beat.
Shoot me a message.
Dude, you’re ripped.
Talking your ear off.
I wrecked this song.
Knock it off my list.
Work is killing me.
Stumble upon it.
Let’s bang it out.
I crushed it bro.
Fighting a cold.
Breaking news.
Tackle it now.
Beat cancer.
Take a shot.
Nailed it.
Hit me up.
Tag me.

Give Your Words More Power

I know little phrases like the above seem irrelevant, but it all adds up.

Every phrase you speak affects you whether you believe it true or not. If you knowingly speak words that are untrue (lies), you are lessening the power of your word in your mind.

But the more you follow through with what you speak and speak only that which you want to represent you, the stronger your word becomes.

It can become so powerful, that you can manifest an entire universe by a simple phrase.

So let there be light within your words.

You share what we want to keep alive. If you don’t like pain or having enemies, don’t speak in terms of attack.

Change your word, change your world.

What are some attack words or phrases that you catch yourself saying?

The post Stop Using These Attack Words If You Want Peace appeared first on JClay.