The two most important critical thinking skills are not keen observation nor logic. These help, but both of these come pretty naturally in humans (though we often choose to ignore logic). The skills I am referring to are less common, at least in their fully developed forms. That’s sad, considering that they lead to more powerful thinking just about anything else.

What are these critical thinking skills? They are habitual placing of truth above any other considerations, and the derivative skill of self observation and awareness. We all know how to look at something, yet we often see not what is there, but what needs to be there to confirm our beliefs. Truth has to be above even our beliefs if we are to have the most powerful mind possible.

We also all know how to use logic to support our conclusions. But our conclusions are often arrived at by a process we are only partially aware of. To see where they really come from, and therefore whether they truly align with the truth, we need to see into our own thought processes.

The Ego Problem

The humblest person still usually has an ego so big that he can’t see past it. By that I mean that whatever he thinks of himself, he sees that as important. This tendency to create and defend a ’self” clearly gets in the way of developing ones critical thinking skills.

Let’s look at a simple example. Have you ever noticed that you can predict some people’s behavior better than they can themselves? Amy will be late, though she thinks she’ll be on time. Eric is excited about the new get-rich-quick MLM business he’s in, but his friends all think he’ll be out of it in a year - and they’re right. Now, it would seem that a person should know more about himself or herself than any outsider, and therefore have a better ability to predict his or her own future behavior.

The truth is that we don’t see things as clearly when they involve our self images. You might say “that’s not true in my case!” If so, thank you. That immediate reactive need to defend yourself makes my point. A more rational response would be to say, “Hmm, is this true? Do I distort things to retain my sense of self?”

Okay, it’s possible you have investigated this thoroughly and found that you are indeed the rare individual who is truly and always objective. But if you haven’t done this “self work” and done it well, a reactive “not me” is premature, and a great example of the forces that distort our view of reality whenever it touches on our view of ourselves.

It is tempting to think that this is only relevant in areas directly and obviously related to ones self image, and that we can still be objective about things like politics, or science, or money issues. But that just isn’t the case. The “ego effect” is far more subtle than that. For example, you might think that a given political or philosophical view you have is correct, and it may be. But if evidence to the contrary is presented, do you find yourself automatically defending your belief?

Think about that. If truth was truly the goal, you would be happy to find it, even if it overturned everything you believed. But we identify with our beliefs in the same way we identify with our bodies, our families, countries, and even our houses and other things. They are a part of our “ego self,” and so are defended as though or true self was under attack. That is not a recipe for objective thought, is it?

Now if a man believes that stocks should sell for 40 times earning, or that donuts are healthy, we can see how these mistaken beliefs can be disastrous. But anytime we think and operate according to beliefs that are not in line with the truth, with reality, there is a danger. To have the most powerful mind you can have, then, you need to habitually look for truth more than confirmation of existing belief, and to do that you need to be aware of what is going on inside your own mind. These are the critical thinking skills that are most important.

The Law of Attraction can be explained as “like attracts like”. It is the most powerful force in our lives as everything that exists in our reality is a reflection of our consciousness. Our thoughts literally manifest our lives. What you are experiencing in your life right now are your thoughts and beliefs being made manifest. Like attracts like, so negativity will attract negative experiences. The universe allows us to experience our own negativity by reflecting it back at us so that we can learn from it and evolve.

Whether you believe an experience to be positive or negative, the Law of Attraction is always neutral and will create that reality for you regardless. The Law of Attraction will respond to our positive thoughts and beliefs by manifesting the things that we most desire.

To consciously apply the law of attraction to change your life you have to take responsibility for your life. That includes the things that you don’t like and that you might even blame other people for. Instead of blaming other people and situations for the things you dislike, become aware that they are simply the manifestation of negative thoughts and beliefs. They are the mirror in which the universe allows you to see the things in yourself that you are least fond of so that you can learn to change those things and evolve from the experience.

The universe is a field of vibration energy. Your thoughts are energy and negative thoughts vibrate more slowly than positive thoughts. Energy vibrations attract similar energy vibrations. For the purpose of this example imagine yourself as being able to receive frequencies like a TV set. A TV set is tuned to a certain channel which is energy vibrating within a frequency range. All of the different experiences that you could possibly have, can be thought of as being frequencies ranges of energy that occupy different wavelengths or channels. If you wish to have experiences that are not currently resonating with your frequency, then you have to tune your thoughts to match. If you are worrying about money, then you are tuning into the poverty channel. If you absolutely know beyond all doubt that you are already wealthy, then you are tuning into the wealth channel.Things aren’t usually as black and white as just switching between channels. 

It’s very difficult to stay positive or negative all the time and our energy will be the sum total of all our experiences both positive and negative.Our lives will normally be a blend of both positive and negative experiences.  But using the law of attraction we can learn to attract more of the positive experiences that we would like to have.When you begin to understand the law of attraction, you will probably begin to see negative experiences rather differently.There is no need to fear negative experiences if we welcome them as challenges and opportunities for change.

Many of the books and films about the Law of Attraction tend to over simplify the process and make it seem as though all you have to do to attract a life of wealth, health and happiness is to simply change your thoughts.Consciously changing your thoughts can be difficult, as your subconscious mind can often undermine your efforts.  There may well be deep rooted beliefs and fears held at a subconscious level that have a greater influence over what you attract than the conscious efforts that you decide to make.One of the biggest challenges you face when trying to apply the Law of Attraction is ignoring the attempts of your ego to convince you that what you are doing is ridiculous.In order to really take control of your life then you need to let go and heal these limiting subconscious beliefs.

For more articles like this one please visit…

http://www.blogging-the-law-of-attraction.com

NLP Training

Persuasion is a powerful tool and that is what this article is about. By simply using hypnotic language patterns, you can get amazing results. Not only can persuasion be incredibly powerful, it can be fairly simple as well. Once you see how powerful it can be, you will want to learn the skill yourself.

People think they have full control over their decisions, when most times they will decide with an unconscious mind. This brings us to the most useful skill of persuasion, hypnosis. Hypnotists have a simple goal and that is to get past your conscious resistance. You can learn powerful hypnotic language powers that can be used for persuasion, this only requires a few minutes of study.

This brings us to the “redefine formula”. The title says it all. You are simply learning to redirect the persons thoughts. This is a very short and powerful less, it can be learned is just ten minutes. How would you like to learn?

Here are a few prime examples. A car sales man might move the focus of your attention away from a vehicles hefty price tag, to the benefits the car will give you. When your child is crying, you may redirect their thoughts from how long the ride to grandmas house is, to how much fun they will have baking cookies with grandma when they get there. You can redefine virtually any situation. Learn to have a spin like effect on negative situations. As far as persuasion goes, this “redefine formula” can be a very powerful tool.

There are several more NLP concepts and techniques that can be taken from the field of hypnosis that can be used in the art of persuasion. Usually when you do NLP training you learn all this ones and you then you can use this NLP ideas to improve your life and way of thinking.

Another powerful and simple hypnotic tool, is called the “agreement frame”. If you act as if you are agreeing with everything someone is presenting or saying, you can often get them to do what you want on the side. This is one of the easiest ways to pass the conscious resistance. When used properly, you will make people think you agree with them completely, when you really have faced them to look into the issue you want.

Implementing these easy steps into your daily routine can have amazing results. A good example of this was a local sale man who used these techniques. He reported a 400% increase in his sales thanks to the use of many amazing NLP Products. Pretty impressive. Takes these simple set of skills and work on them. They will become more and more powerful with practice. Once you have mastered them, you will be ready to move on to the next set of skills.