Bedtime Reading: "Thoughts Are Things" by Ernest Holmes & Willis Kinnear

In a recent trip to my favorite hang out, the Iliad Bookshop,  I stumbled across a wonderfully inspirational book called "Thoughts are Things" by Ernest Holmes and Willis Kinnear. It has become a calming yet motivating way to drift to sleep as it addresses the issue of the power of one's thoughts in shaping one's life experience.

When I find my mind racing through the problems of the day or stewing over comments others made that got under my skin, this book and a number of Ernest Holmes' other writings have helped me to refocus and stop the runaway train of negative thinking in its tracks. It is a useful tool for me to break lifetime patterns I developed of focusing on the negative even when I struggled to appear positive.

I have decided to create a little ritual for myself of randomly opening to a page or two each night before bed. It quiets the chatter and has worked wonders for my insomnia. These days I am sleeping like a baby.

Below is a page long selection which I have been randomly attracting quite a few times lately. Clearly the Universe is trying to tell me something.:)

"Success"

There is an old familiar saying that "Nothing succeeds like success." To this rather obvious idea perhaps we should add the not-so-obvious one that "We always succeed." What is meant by "success"? It may be defined as the fulfillment, accomplishment, or achievement of those ideas which preeminently occupy one's thinking.

There is one individual who has been a success all his life- he has found joy, happiness, wealth, health, and is still enjoying them at a ripe old age. Another also has been a success- he has never had a dime, his health has been poor, his family life was a flop, and everything is still going on in a dreary way. Each man has been successful in experiencing those things which he expected to happen to him! 

Perhaps it might be wise to take a look at the state of our own affairs. Are they all that we could wish them to be? Or, on the other hand, are they just what we expect them to be? There is a vast difference.

Inasmuch as we are always a success, we should be more careful in what we are successful at. Are we successful in experiencing what we want, or what we don't want? This brings us to the question: What do we think about most of the time- the "wants" or the "don't wants"? Here lies the big secret of why some people appear successful in experiencing the good things in life while others appear not to have been around when they were passed out. The good things of life are always being passed around. But apparently the only way to have your share of them is to continually mentally accept them and not reject them. You can't have what you refuse to accept. 

 I read this page many times while in my dressing room waiting to go on the set for "2 Broke Girls". It put me in the mental space I needed. It just spoke to me. Perhaps it may speak to you as well..