3. Hold for a second and then, as you release this muscular tension, exhale slowly and fully.

4. Repeat this five to ten times. Note distinction between how your muscles felt to begin with and now, after having let them relax from a contracted position.

5. Note – If you are looking for a quick way to loose tension all over your body all you need do is, from a standing position, inhale and squeeze your entire body and then on long slow exhalation release all tension. Try this five times and feel positive effects!

Whether you squeeze and then relax one muscle at a time or your whole body you should have feeling of almost deflating like a balloon and loosing undue tension.

It is also worth bearing in mind there are no long periods of squeezing muscles and holding breath! It is not required and is dangerous.

You can utilise this method whenever you feel stressed, tense, or angry and it will go a long way towards reminding you that a relaxed body is almost always better and happier than a tense one.

Give it a whirl and feel for yourself!

© Tim Webb 2005

#3 – Talk Yourself Up The third thing you can do to develop necessary positive mental attitude is ‘talk yourself up’ with positive affirmations. All too often our internal dialogue expresses a constant stream of self-doubts, false limitations and negative commentaries which can all prevent us from achieving are true potential. Positive affirmations, when used regularly, allow us to gently ‘re-programme’ this internal chatter so that it begins to encourage and support our efforts instead of trying to sabotage them.

The best way to use affirmations is to start by sitting down and identifying any negative or disempowering self-talk which currently runs through your mind on a regular basis. Here are a few very common negative affirmations which you might look out for, but bear in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive:

•I am too old / young / thin / fat / tall short. •Life is hard. •Change is difficult. •I am stupid / ugly / incapable / slow. •No one likes me. •Problems are insurmountable. •I can’t! •I am a poor student / wife / husband / lover / businessman.

When you are convinced that you have identified all disempowering beliefs you currently hold about yourself and world, replace them with new empowering affirmations, such as:

•I am growing as a person. •Life is a breeze. •Change is easy if I am committed to changing. •I am intelligent / industrious / creative. •Everyone likes me. •Problems are opportunities in disguise. •Life is an Adventure and a Game. •I am a great student / wife / husband / lover / businessman.

Write your new positive affirmations down on a few index cards which you can carry around in your pocket and read them aloud to yourself three times each day. If possible, stand in front of a mirror to do this and speak each affirmation with as much conviction as you can muster. You might feel a little embarrassed doing this at first, but after a week or two it will become more natural, and after 21 days or so you will find that your mental attitude has improved quite noticeably.

#4 – Expect Success A final tip for developing a strong positive mental attitude is to expect success. Each morning when you get out of bed, tell yourself that something wonderful is going to happen during day, then continue with your normal routine with an expectant attitude.

This technique is incredibly simple, but very powerful. As you go through each day expecting success to show up, you will begin to think, speak and act a little differently. The changes in your attitude will be subtle at first, but before long you will find that you have actually become one of those positive, optimistic people that tend do so well in life. Even better, you will find that more you expect success, more it tends to show up. I can’t pretend to know how or why this happens, but it does, so start expecting success from this moment on.

By applying four principles I have just described, you will automatically begin to create a positive mental attitude for yourself. Whilst a positive attitude alone won’t make all your dreams come true, it will serve as a strong foundation on which you can build kind of life you have always wanted to have.