Change Your Thoughts: FREE Chapter

Read Chapter 3 of Acquired Hope for FREE: click here

I am so passionate about sharing the ideals in my book "Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced Recovery and Empowerment" that I have posted Chapter 3 here for FREE, click here to download.

This is one of my favorite chapters, it discusses the negative thoughts and feelings that we may have when dealing with life's challenges such as addiction, chronic illness (I had all of these in my battle against MG!), spiritual losses and any life loss or struggle, in fact these negative, habitual chronic ways of thinking were my typical thought patterns on a normal day even though I was feeling ok....but look what it attracted to me...life problems and a major health issue...so I decided to change it...I changed my thoughts, I changed my life....and so can you, download the Chapter 3 for FREE, it gives you ways to supersize your positive affirmations and immediately attract life success!

My book also talks about the Butterfly Phenomena...basically small changes today, make big changes tomorrow...if you are traveling a straight and narrow path (your current life is giving you the same results due to negative thought patterns, chronic habitual thinking that is not focuses on abundance...) and you make a ONE DEGREE change, one mile down the road you will be an a whole new place...think about it! Make one slight change in your thoughts towards more productive and positive thoughts and in 30 days, 60 days, one year from now... you are a new you!!!

Download and read for FREE today! I am grateful for your interest and wish you great success in your life!

www.AcquiredHopeBook.com

www.AcquiredHope.com

FREE CHAPTER Acquire Hope Book

The Power of Gratitude

There is a natural Law of Gratitude, it is necessary for you to observe this law in order to advance your recovery. The law of gratitude is a natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. The grateful outreaching of your mind to the universe of Higher Power is an expression and liberation of energy, it cannot fail to reach whom it was addressed to, the reaction will be an instantaneous movement of that which you are wishing for, towards you.

The power of gratitude does not just mean however that you will be blessed in the future. Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thoughts regarding things, such as your health, as they are. The moment you allow your mind to dwell on dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you begin to lose ground on advancing your recovery, or in receiving those things that which you have wished for. If you fix your attention on the illness and lack, your mind takes the form of these things. More illness and lack will come to you.

On the other hand, when you focus your attention on all that you do have, the health and difabilities, and then express strong and continuous gratitude for these things, more ability and health will come to you. The mind and creative process within us makes us into the images of that to which we give our attention to. Focus on your strengths.

Faith
Faith is born of gratitude. The grateful mind continually expects good things and expectation becomes faith. The reaction of gratitude upon one’s own mind produces faith. Every outgoing emission of energy of grateful thanksgiving increases this faith and advances one’s recovery.
“Faith is not being sure… It is not being sure, and betting with your last cent.”
-Mary Jean Irion

One who has no feelings of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith; without a living faith, one cannot heal or fully recover using the creative process.
“Faith is not a passive but active virtue.”
-Bishop Fulton Sheen

Excerpt from my book: Acquired Hope! See also www.AcquiredHopeBook.com www.AcquiredHope.com and www.AbundantHopeBook.com

Create & Receive That Which You Want!

According to the natural laws of attraction, in order for a desire, wish or state of being to manifest, sometimes action will be required. This is the universe or Higher Power actually trying to put you in a place to receive that which you are asking for. This is step three of the creative process, this is the receiving step. You may get an inspired thought, an idea out of the blue, a gut instinct, telling you to do something. When this happens, take inspired action, follow your instinct. This may be an urge to call an old friend, send an email, search for something on the internet that may lead you to better medical treatment or a physician or friend who can provide you care or support. These inspired actions often lead to new opportunities or they attract people or events into your life that will in the end be part of your wish coming true. If these inspired thoughts feel true, then it is wise to follow them and act upon them. You may be surprised how people or things quickly fall into your life in the process of realizing your ultimate wish.

“All things are what you make them.”
-Plautus

Using the Creative Process to Attract What You Desire
The creative process involves stating what you are really wanting, allowing the universe or Higher Power to answer and then putting yourself in alignment, or that happy feeling place, in order to receive that which the universe is trying to bring you. An intense desire is the spark that starts the engine of co-creating your experience with the universe. It turns your thoughts into things, people and experiences. It raises your energy or vibrating frequency such that the universe or Higher Power has no choice other than to respond and bring you things or persons that match your frequency. Just like a magnet.

Maintaining a focused attention on what you wish for, down to the detail, helps to provide a clear and consistent message to the universe or Higher Power, helping the wish or thought to be manifested. Focusing your attention means that you imagine your desires, the details, the senses, the feeling place of having it now and you following your inspired thoughts with inspired actions. Never take you eye off the goal. Focus on the end result. Do not change the goal until you have received it. You can make new goals once you get the hang of this. In life’s journey, our travels are filled with goals, experiences and feelings as we go towards our final destination.

Lastly, make the decision that this is what you really want, such as good health, full functionality, pain free movement, the return of strength and mobility, emotional and spiritual strength, settle for nothing less. Making this decision and holding fast to it creates the expectation that is it on its way to you. Act with faith and purpose and believe that your wishes truly are coming to you.

Excerpt from my book "Acquired Hope" see also www.AcquiredHopeBook.com www.AcquiredHope.com and www.AbundantHopeBook.com

A FAT Attitude? A FIT Attitude? What??

Here is what I call a FAT Attitude:
Is your attitude truly and fully FAT? I like to think of a complete attitude as one that is strong, effective, inspirational and attractive. It is one that has an alignment of Feelings, Actions and Thoughts. Our attitudes are said to be a composite of our thoughts, actions and feelings. When one is working with a fully FAT attitude, they are seeing the results that they imagine and desire, they are winning, they reach their goals continuously and effortlessly. They are successful in every way.

But many times I see individuals with incomplete or ineffective attitudes, as their attitudes are not fully FAT, meaning they may have positive thoughts, thoughts of a high vibration and yet their feelings are not the same or their actions do not reflect these thoughts.

For example, a person may think they are being positive and say positive things, but they have feelings of doubt and/or limitation deep inside of them in their subconscious. Or they think positive thoughts and perform actions that are in opposition to their thoughts. These people are not working with a strong and effective attitude; it is an attitude that is not complete or fully FAT. These people are not seeing the results that they want, they are not winning. (examples) Are you working with a FAT attitude?

Here is what I call a FIT Attitude
I also like to think of a full and complete attitude as FIT. A fully FIT attitude is one that has an alignment of Feelings, Intuition and Thoughts. I love the saying that Prayer is when a person talks to God or their Higher Power. But intuition is God or our Higher Power talking to us. A person who has a strong intuition listens to the guidance and Divine inspiration that is running through them. Many people work very hard at developing and maintain a strong sense of intuition. I do. I work at it, daily. So, a fully FIT attitude will be one that is strong and effective because their feelings, intuition and thoughts are all in alignment and they are all working with high, positive vibrations. A person who has a FIT attitude will also see the results that they imagine and desire. They are winning; they also reach their goals on continuously and effortlessly.

I see individuals who are thinking positive thoughts and feeling good, but they ignore that intuition, that Divine guidance and inspiration. It is that Divine guidance and inspiration, the message from your God or Higher Power that leads you to perform inspired actions. It is the actions that ultimately provide you with your results and your condition, circumstance and environment.

Inspirational Quotes

Here are some terrific Inspirational Quotes from my book of daily reads of inspirational quotes and actions "365 Days of Abundant Hope" bringing and keeping Hope in your life is the difference between the winning way and losing! There are some great resources on my AcquiredHope.com website, enjoy!

"Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road." -John Henry Jowett

“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.” -Brian Tracy

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.” -Liane Cordes

“We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do. We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do. We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do.”-Dale Carnegie

“Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential.”-Anthony Robbins

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

“Faith is building on what you know is here so you can reach what you know is there.” -Cullen Hightower


“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” - Buddha

WoW-Got An Article Published!

I am very excited to share with you that one of my articles on Acquired Hope has gotten published!

Please check it out!

"Acquired Hope" article

Drop The Four Letter F Word!!

Ah ha, that got your attention!

Drop the Fear! Drop this four letter F word from your vocabulary...once you do, you will be free... you will "get" it.

So many people let fear run their lives, they hold self-limiting beliefs and think that they can not achieve something, that they do not deserve it or are afraid to even try it.

"Fear itself doesn't exist in the world. There are only fearful thoughts and avoidance behaviors."

"If you believe it will work out, you'll see opportunities. If you have fear and believe it won't, you'll see obstacles." -Dr Dyer

Fear is something that has affected me, I am working on eliminating it from my life and mindset. But it does require some reconditioning, some introspection, some changes and some monitoring of my thoughts.

Having the chronic illness, I lived in fear for awhile immediately after my diagnosis and worst of the illness. I was terribly sick and started to live in fear that everything I did would make me worse. I happened to come across horrible stories and books about the debilitation of the illness and lived in fear that my life was now going to be lost due to the crazy disease. Over time, I studied and began to understand, despite the illness, I don't have any limitations, I can achieve anything I want to, it may not be on the time schedule I think or want, it may not be in the exact way or as easy as I think it should be or want, and it may not always be perfect. But I have eliminated the presence of fear from my mind and daily dialogue.

I do notice it in others. They speak of fear, fear of their debt, the bills, aging, the economy....that what you focus on expands.... the greatest thing about being human is that we have this incredible mind, we can actually choose our thoughts.

We can choose to reject those bad statements about our economy, we can reject the limitations the doctors put on us based on the label of our condition. We can reject the idea and fear that comes when we look at our bank accounts, and choose to think of abundance and infinite possibilities. We can choose to study ourselves and the universal spiritual laws to live in peace and develop hope and faith. We can acquire hope for any challenge that meets us head on.... as Bob Proctor says in the SGR program.... "when fear knocks on the door and faith opens it, lo and behold, there was no one there."

So, let me ask you this, what is present if there is no fear? The answer is faith...trust and belief. Faith that everything you need will show up for you right on time and allow you to be successful, trust in everything that is presenting itself, as there are no coincidences, you are right where you should be all the time, and believe that it is here to stay...that you can do it and that you deserve it. In the absence of fear, you will find bliss.....as Joseph Campbell once said "follow your bliss". your bliss will lead you to your life journey, purpose and happiness.

Why is it that so many of us immediately go to fear and doubt rather than faith and trust?

Why is it that so many of us are missing out on what life has to offer because we stay in fear?

When we drop the Fear, our awareness and perceptions expand---we have absolute awareness and can embrace the blessings that are coming our way.

I read recently that FEAR equates to False Evidence Appearing Real. You can change that false reality by choosing to reject it. Accept only those thoughts, actions and beliefs that live in hope and faith. Believe it is possible, see yourself with it and practice surrender, let it go and ride the wave of trust and belief to you bliss.

"Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul: unbelief, in denying them." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Drop the F word, drop the Fear from your life and endeavor to live!

Life is a Journey! Enjoy the Journey, Not the Destination

Life is a journey, a journey filled with off road stumbles and on road bliss. This journey can feel like it is all uphill for those who are coping with a chronic illness, addictive disease or injury-related condition. But life is a journey.

“He who chooses the beginning of a road, also chooses its destination.”
-Anonymous

For every journey, a roadmap is helpful in order to get to the destination timely and see all the sights and do all the activities along the way, which one has planned. Many of us travel or have traveled on our journey of life, without such a road map. We all need direction at some time, although many of us don’t typically ask for directions. But how will you know where you want to go if you do not have a goal or destination in mind? Or if one has a destination, but no road map, one may circle around endlessly, reaching the destination long overdue or even worse never at all. Everyone should have a road map for their journey of life. On this road map, it is important to establish what you really want, who you really want to be, your purpose and how you will travel.

“A man without a plan for the day is lost before he starts.”
-Lewis K. Bendele

This is an excerot From Acquired Hope Book More references on Acquired Hope.com

Top Ten List of the Positives of Living w/ Chronic Illness

Coping with a chronic illness, such as Myasthenia Gravis, is filled with challenges. However, in every day, it is important to find the hope and faith that your condition will improve, and it will when you have a positive attitude and a strong focus on abundant hope and abundant health.

The chronic injury or illness experience can be a good thing. In David Letterman fashion, I have created my own top ten list of the positives of the chronic injury or illness experience:

10) Your pharmacist knows you by name.

9) Otherwise complete strangers are your instant friends, as they now share a common bond of the injury or illness experience. Look we are all meeting here today!

8) You find an inner strength and sense of empowerment that you never knew existed.

7) You grow closer to those who love and support you.

6) You find out who your true friends are.

5) You have an opportunity to re-invent your self.

4) You can explore and create new work skills and talents, that otherwise may have been left undiscovered.

3) You simplify your life.

2) You slow down and start to focus on the things that are really important to you.

1) You have an opportunity to explore and expand your current balance of the mind, body and spirit. You can become more resilient.

You can learn to Acquire Hope and abundant Health and advance your recovery! I offer two books that I have authored to help others with Myasthenia Gravis and other chronic illnesses to learn a proven method on improving your situation. These books “Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced Recovery and Empowerment” and “365 Days of Abundant Hope” are both available on Amazon.com. This process works, guaranteed!

Visit http://www.acquiredhope.com/ for more information and details on advancing your recovery. A portion of the book profits go to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America to help support the fight against MG!

A Change Of Focus: Advancing Recovery From Anything

One of the most critical steps in recovery of a chronic illness or injury is changing the chronic ways of thought. It is these chronic, negative thoughts that often are what keeps people ill. When one is preoccupied with health, when it is all one talks about and focuses on, it remains. If one explores the most common thoughts and emotions an individual has when coping with a chronic illness, injury or disease, one will see that the majority of these emotions are negative emotions. Negative emotions do not make us feel good. These negative emotions can be detrimental to a patient’s recovery if they remained focused on them. Some of the negative emotions that one can experience when coping with the loss of health or function are described below.

Powerlessness
Chronic illnesses and accidentally injuries can often times appear uncontrollable and unpredictable. People may feel as if they have lost control over their bodies and their future. Loss of control feels like powerlessness. When people feel powerlessness, they may also feel hopeless, anger or rage, or even have feelings of despair, worthlessness, panic and fear. The less powerful an individual feels, the harder they may try to maintain control over their world.
However, if they learn to change the feelings of powerlessness and replace them with positive thoughts, such as passion, optimism, hope and enthusiasm. They can see that they are indeed capable of many wondrous things, and that they have control and power over many aspects of their health and body.

Fear and Anxiety
Fear plays a big part in the emotional pain of chronic illness, injury or disease. A person may become afraid of many things, including the progression of a disease, the increasing loss of control or increasing disability, the outcome, the relapses or re-injuries. A patient may be afraid of our how family members, neighbors, friends and co-workers feel about them, now that they have an injury or illness. They may have financial fears, fear of losing the ability to work or not sustaining a current income or position. They may fear not being able to support their loved ones. Fear can sneak up on them and fear can overwhelm them on a continual basis.

An individual may also experience anxiety. Anxiety is an emotion that arises as one anticipates fear or thinks that bad things are coming in their direction. Anxiety can be a disabling emotion and can leave one functionless. The fear and the anxiety of a chronic illness or condition can alone leave one chronically disabled. It is important to learn how to replace these feelings of fear and anxiety with good emotions and focus on abilities and good health.

Self-Pity
The chronically ill, physically challenged and those coping with other conditions often regret their condition and situation. This is a natural reaction. However, if this reaction becomes a chronic way of thinking, this individual will always be chronically ill. For many individuals enduring these circumstances, who feel self-pity don’t see any way out of their situation. The path of self-pity leads only to isolation. It is important to change the focus from self-pity to a focus on ability and health.

Isolation
The feeling of isolation is another strong, negative emotion that can become overwhelming and self-destructive. Whether an individual is dealing with a disabling injury such as a spinal cord injury and paralysis or a chronic illness like diabetes or multiple sclerosis, that individual may often times feel alone or outside the norm, that nobody understands what they are going through. That individual may feel that they have been rejected and are not wanted or unloved. That they are different, and that this difference is a bad thing. They may become self-conscious, suffer from poor self-esteem or feel ashamed of their condition. All of these negative emotions and thought patterns only add to the isolation and a vicious cycle is created.

It is important for the person to change this negative thought pattern by getting involved with others to feel the support from others, join support groups so that they understand that they are not alone and change their thinking by focusing on the positive aspects of their condition.

The chronic injury or illness experience can be a good thing. In David Letterman fashion, I have created my own top ten list of the positives of the chronic injury or illness experience:
10) Your pharmacist knows you by name.

9) Otherwise complete strangers are your instant friends, as they now share a common bond of the injury or illness experience.

8) You find an inner strength and sense of empowerment that you never knew existed.

7) You grow closer to those who love and support you.

6) You find out who your true friends are.

5) You have an opportunity to re-invent your self.

4) You explore and create new work skills and talents, that otherwise may have been left undiscovered.

3) You simplify your life.

2) You slow down and start to focus on the things that are really important to you.

1) You have an opportunity to explore and expand your current balance of the mind, body and spirit. You can become more resilient.

Anger and Rage
Individuals with a disease or condition may experience anger and rage. There may be anger against their bodies for “failing” them. There may be a sense of betrayal. There may be anger at the meaningless of their disease, injury or condition. Or they may blame themselves or others for their condition and current situation. They may express anger or rage at nature, life, the medicine they take and their side effects, the doctors/therapists for not curing them and their friends and family members for not understanding them or responding to them the way they would like at that exact moment. There may be anger when people make allowances for them and then when they do not.

It is important to understand that anger and rage are very powerful negative emotions. If a patient does not harness these emotions, the negativity may turn into self-destruction. However, if the patient can learn to harness and control it and turn it into positive energy, such as determination, passion, optimism and hope, the rewards can be staggering. It is really all about a change of focus.

Jealousy
Envy, resentment and jealousy are emotional reactions that are hard to separate from one another and are difficult to eliminate from our thought patterns. To be envious, is to wish you had something that someone else had. To be resentful, is to be angry and bitter because you do not have something that someone else has. For those with a chronic illness, injury or disease the thing that they want and do not think that they have, is health and full function. Because our culture is competitive in nature and there is such an emphasis on perfection and images that reflect the “perfect” person in magazines and in movies, when a patient is coping with an illness or condition, these feelings and emotions can be a monumental influence on their lives. A person will need to learn to stop comparing themselves to what others have and what they look like and take themselves out of the competitive plane and focus on the abilities and strengths that they do have.

Grief
When coping with the onset of a chronic illness, injury or disease, grief can be one of the stages a patient may go through as they progress towards acceptance. There are typically three phases of grief:
1) Denial
2) Emotional pain
3) Acceptance.

Change can involve loss. Grieving involves focusing and feeling sad for our losses. Grief becomes a debilitating emotion when one cannot get through all the phases to the acceptance phase, but rather adopts a chronically negative way of thinking instead.

There is a blessing in the grieving process. As one goes through the three phases, one feels pain and agony and then finally the peace of acceptance. To go through the entire process, gives us a deeply rooted faith that all bad things do pass, that there is some way to deal with everything, no matter how hard or how bad it is, and that we will come out in the light. We are left ready and fully prepared to start over and rebuild.

Summary
A change of focus is required in order to maximize recovery and functional restoration. A change of focus from negative emotions, to more positive emotions such as; passion, optimism, hope, gratitude and acceptance. These are the emotions a person must take to heart in order to advance their recovery and fully restore function. Changing focus can be easy, once you learn the process in acquiring hope. To learn how to change your focus and attract good health, please read “Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced Recovery and Empowerment”.

Ref: “Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced Recovery and Empowerment” book and Acquired Hope website

Book Reviews for "Acquired Hope"

I am grateful for my readers and to those who offered such kind words in reviewing my book "Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced Recovery and Empowerment"....thank you!!!

"The author does a wonderful job of not only offering excellent tips for coping with recovery but also relating how a personal journey through a difficult experience utilized these methods to achieve a sense of purpose and "acquired hope". There are several good suggestions and exercises that help the reader to accept their situation and see the hope for the continual effort to move forward, stronger than before." - N. Beaulieu


"I just finished reading Nicole's uplifting book Acquired Hope. I could feel Nicole's strength and courage eminating from this book. It was always upbeat, positive, encouraging and inspiring. I loved her 'gratitude list'. This book reminds me to be grateful for everthing that I already have and not be jealous of what others have. The goal setting exercises is something I have done for the start of 2008. I am passing this inspiring book along to my daughter who also lives with an illness. Everyone should read this book. Great book Nicole. Thank you, Colleen Braun"


I hope you also enjoy Acquired Hope as much as I did writing it!

For more information on Acquired Hope and 365 Days of Abundant Hope as well as resources to help you achieve optimal health, fuller life expression, achieve your life goals, master the law of attraction and to achieve success in what ever you desire, please visit my AcquiredHope.com website.