A NEW LOOK AT POSITIVE THINKING By Alan Handelsman

 

 Your Attitude has a LOT to do with how your dowsing turns out.  First rule:  be objective.  What’s that?   Well being objective is not being attached to the outcome or the answers your system gives you.  Ed Stillman (Master Dowser, Teacher) always says to ask “I wonder what the answer will be?” Here Alan Handelsman shares how being positive can lead to curiosity and confidence in dowsing. Alan Handelsman, dowser, hypnotherapist and musician will be the keynote speaker at the 2014 West Coast Dowsers Conference, (Friday July 4).   A New Look at Positive Thinking, by Alan Handelsman Imagine a coach in the locker room with his (I know I could use female pronouns, but even in my imagination, it was easier to gain access to the men’s locker room. I encourage you to access whichever works best for you.) team, just before the championship game. Coach #1 says, “Men, winning is hard, and you have to give 110% out there. And if you do that, and you don’t make any mistakes, I know you can win this thing!”
 Coach #2 says, “Men, today one team will win the championship. In fact, one of only two teams has to win it! Let’s go out there and see if that team is US!  Which coach is more positive? Which would you rather play for?   Now imagine that you are starting a new job or activity, and you have some fears and doubts. Friend #1 says, “Fear is a negative emotion. You shouldn’t be afraid. Dowse the fear and clear it, and then you will be fine!”
 Friend #2 says, “I know that starting a new job has unknowns that can be very scary. Of course you have some fears and doubts. Please call me, because I’m really interested in how your first day goes.” Which friend understands you better? Which friend is more positive?
Much of what passes for positive thinking is simply judging thoughts and emotions (and energies, but I will concentrate more on the first two) to be good or bad, and trying to eliminate the bad. So positive thinkers spend roughly half of their time fighting the negative, and feeling wrong or inadequate if they don’t win that fight. However, I believe that most of our problems with how we think and feel started with trying to fight our own thoughts and feelings. As children, we were told not to feel sad, afraid, or (especially) angry. But we were also taught not to feel joy. (“What’s all the noise in here, keep it down!” Or, “Those are good grades, let’s see if you can keep them up next term.”)  Notice that a lot of what passes for positive thinking puts more pressure on a person, starts from a position of wrong and inadequate, and often doesn’t achieve the desired result. My definition of being positive is saying, “Yes.” Using this new definition, if we are afraid, instead of telling ourselves that we shouldn’t feel that way, we can tell ourselves, “Yes! I feel afraid!” Now that we own it, we can change how we experience any emotion. And we can put any emotion to positive use. (There’s that word again!)If we say yes to our thoughts and emotions – not as truth necessarily, but simply as what we are thinking or feeling – then we are already being positive, and it leads to two things. Curiosity and confidence.   To me, curiosity is a much better motivator that the old positive thinking.   Imagine going into an activity. You can tell yourself one of two things.“I know I can do this.” If a part of you doesn’t really know this, or has doubts, then you may have the vague sense of lying to yourself, which creates greater stress and more doubts. Or you can say, “I’m looking forward to this. I’ve done my work and preparation, and I wonder what my experience will be like.”Which feels more positive to you? Which way allows you to be more confident?  Confidence doesn’t mean you are sure that you can do perfectly. True confidence means that you know you are capable, you are equal to the situation, and whatever the outcome, you will be able and capable. To be confident, you don’t have to be perfect, (which you’ve never been), but simply able to handle a situation, which you’ve already been doing. So maybe that means that confidence isn’t something you need to achieve, but something you already possess that you can recognize, express, and use more and more to your advantage.Yes, true confidence starts with thinking a positive thought. “Yes, this is how I feel right now.”What does all this have to do with dowsing? A lot. It may change the types of questions you ask your dowsing system. For instance, instead of “How can I clear this?” you may ask, “How can I use this?” Instead of,  “How can I achieve more?” you may ask, “How can I more easily enjoy the person I am?”
 Think of sitting down to dowse. Now you may be asking yourself, “I wonder if I’m — good/relaxed/hydrated/special/ allowed/capable/experienced — enough to do this well.”
 What you are asking is something you may always be asking yourself.   “Am I enough?” Just for fun, do something different. As you sit to dowse, simply ask yourself, “I wonder what the answers will be?”  Be curious, and know that whatever the results are, you are enough.[AlanHpic2]