These are important lessons that Kevin Spacey is looking to teach these young actors.

One of the most insightful thoughts was when he clearly states, “there is no prize OUT THERE, the only prize is inside.”

It’s short and to the point. Enjoy…

She has cracked the code on creating and committing to affirmations.

They are short and sweet, powerful, and she recites them from her core with total conviction.

Little does she know that this “learned skill” will create amazing result for her in the future.

GREAT WORK JESSICA! A+

Simply put, negative thinking is destructive and it’s essential to avoid negative thoughts as much as possible. These thoughts put a damper on the way we see life in general and the way we view ourselves and others, specifically. For many, it paves the way for a life of depression and anxiety and distances us from loved ones who’d just rather not be around us. I know I don’t like to be around negative energy…

Negative self-talk is the worst. It limits what you can do and forces you to pre-label yourself as a loser. You stop taking chances and constantly set yourself up for failure.

Positive thoughts, in contrast, promote happiness, good health, and result in positive outcomes, while negative thinking produces unhappiness, depression, frustration, and an overall defeatist attitude. Hence, when you avoid negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones, you’ll find yourself on the road to leading a happy and healthy life. But it’s not always so easy to avoid negative thoughts, especially for those who’ve always had a defeatist attitude.

The first step to avoiding these gloomy thoughts is identifying them. It’s necessary to begin by listening to yourself. Think about how you view your life and journal your feelings whenever possible. This will allow you to identify the triggers of negative thoughts – school, family conflict, relationship problems. As you become more and more aware of these bad thoughts and why they happen, you can be cognizant about replacing them with more appropriate self-talk or attitudes.

A simple example might be how you react when you’re not feeling well. If you have a pain in your knee, instead of saying, “My knee hurts again”, simply dwell on the fact that the rest of your body is in good condition and that you feel well otherwise. If you get a C on a particularly test, instead of chastising yourself for being “dumb”, dwell on your other good grades and think about all the things you do well.

All this doesn’t happen immediately. It takes practice to avoid negative thoughts and turn from being a negative thinker into a positive thinker. You might even consider helping yourself along by reading some of the world’s greatest positive thinking books, like Normal Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, a true classic, or 1001 Reasons to Think Positive by Ella Patterson.

At the end you that day, you have one life to live. You can decide what to focus on positive or negative. The choice is yours. One thing is for sure, positive thinking ALWAYS produces better results.

We’ve also heard the other side of the story…the power of forgiveness. There’s the Amish community in Pennsylvania who promptly forgave the man who gunned down several of their innocent children, the families who’ve forgiven the drunk drivers that killed their loved ones, or even individuals who forgave criminals for the rape or murder of a family member. Those are true acts of compassion that some of us are hard-pressed to understand. Yet those who practice the power of forgiveness see these as normal and expected.

Experts point out, however, that forgiving doesn’t mean condoning the behavior. It merely provides the opportunity to unload a lot of pent up resentment and other ill feelings, generally resulting in a significant reduction in anxiety for the forgiver. Fred Luskin, PhD, director of Stanford University’s Forgiveness Project and author of Forgive for Good, performed a study in which he discovered that forgiving someone for their transgressions can reduce the forgiver’s stress level by as much as 50 percent.

Similar studies show that forgiving reduces chronic back pain and limits relapses in those who are battling substance abuse. In contrast, harboring resentment increases adrenaline and cortisol levels. Consistently increased levels of these chemicals can cause all sorts of health problems including cell atrophy, memory loss, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, hardening of the arteries, and depression. That’s a big price to pay for holding a grudge.

Instead, taking hostile feelings towards a person or persons and converting them to positive ones – aka practicing the power of forgiveness – promotes a feeling of calm and relaxation, Luskin points out. Hence, health improves over the long term and most forgivers even note an immediate feeling of peace once the forgiving words leave their mouth.

You can’t change what happened in the past, experts stress, but you can alter what’s going to happen in the future. Luskin and others that tout the power of forgiveness hold out hope that more people will take the route that allows them to let go of their bitter feelings and permits them to live a more stress-free life in the future.

So I just want to briefly explain it at a very 101 level for those of you that have never heard of it.

While eons ago the Law of Attraction referred to romantic relationships, these days, it’s taken on a new meaning. In self-development circles, the Law of Attraction refers to the belief that “like attracts like” or “you get what you believe in.” Other proponents of the Law say: “That which is like unto itself is drawn.”

Made popular by an Australian movie called “The Secret”, which was later made into a book and audio-book and has sold more 16 million copies in 40 languages, the Law of Attraction lets individuals know that “every human being has the ability to transform any weakness or suffering into strength, power, perfect peace, health, and abundance.” Author Rhonda Byrne wanted her audience to know that “we create our lives, with every thought every minute of every day.” The more dominant the thought grows, the more powerful it will become.

In short, we attract those things in our life that we focus on, say Byrne and other promoters of the Law, and as teachers, these individuals strive to make followers understand that there are three required steps that are the essence of the Law of Attraction.

1. Ask – Know what you want and ask the universe for it.
2. Believe – Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.
3. Receive – Be open and fully ready to receive it.

The principals of the Law of Attraction also state that thinking of what one DOES NOT HAVE manifests itself in not having. However, if one follows the three steps listed above and avoids any and all negative thoughts, the universe will manifest a person’s desires.

Anyways, this is a very broad stroke and there are many teaching around the law of attraction. However, the overall concept is very basic.

Now, that you understand the concept begin putting it to work in your life. The best way to learn more would be to watch “The Secret,” which will really drill into the teaching of the law of attraction.

Start manifesting…