Attitude Seminar
For a number of years I have been doing an attitude seminar for the inmates of Stearns County Jail in St. Cloud. I am scheduled to go there on the second Thursday of every month late in the afternoon. The notes that the seminar are based on are as follows:
Effective Living Seminar Notes
Sister Ten-Tie Saniel facilitated a weekend seminar at a retreat house in April of 1977 at the Cenecal Retreat House in Wayzata, Minnesota. The sisters had borrowed from a seminar that they had attended in Wisconsin given by John Boyle, called “God’s Work of Art”, which had been built around the statement, “I am God’s work of art. God makes no junk.”
The premise is that the innermost core of the nature of man is positive.
There is a one to one relationship between your own self-concept and your potential as a human being. The effective level of your self-concept is established between the ages of five and seven. In each of us there are many areas of self-concept. One of the most important is our own human relationships. Your self-concept can be built up by unconditional love, acceptance, and your attitude. Conditional love diminishes your self-concept. Dominant parents often use the child’s love to satisfy their own needs, greatly affecting the child’s self-concept.
The result of a diminished self-concept is negative expressions, which lead to what is referred to as “negative habit patterns”. Your NHPs are the causes of your limitations. There are two kinds of negative habit patterns, inhibitory and compulsive. Some examples of a person who has a low self-concept would be:
Hyper sensitivity, hyper critical, chronically indecisive, overly scrupulous, constantly irritated, extremely punctual, rigid, inflexible and a person who is afraid to let their emotions out.
Thoughts that indicate the presences of inhibitory NHPs are, “I can’t…”, “I wish I could…”, “I envy…”, “If only…”. Thoughts that indicate compulsive NHPs are “I must…”, “I have to be…”, and “You must”. Signs of healthy thinking would be thoughts such as “I can, but I don’t have to….”
As we were parented, many of us experienced destructive and devaluing criticism. This was a prime cause of our negative habit patterns.
At an early age we begin to move toward pleasure or comfort. We learn to use our conscious mind to scan incoming stimulus and Compare, Analyze and move in the Direction of action or inaction. Our sub-conscious mind is a memory bank containing four areas, Easily Accessible Data, Accessible Data, Positive Habit Patterns and Negative Habit Patterns. Our conscious mind processes all stimuli using the CAD steps and refers to the four areas of our sub conscious and we act according to a combination of either EAD or AD and Positive or Negative Habit Patterns.
The reasons for mistakes on our part are due to either lack of data or the negative habit patterns that have been formed. If we are interested in inner healing, we need to red-tag all negative habit patterns.
The formula for spiritual and personal growth that was taught at this seminar was based on the idea that we need to feed five basic affirmations into our sub-conscious mind. These five basic affirmations are designed to override the problem belief system by in effect: 1. Increasing our self-concept. 2. Stopping destructive self-criticism. 3. Developing superior or excellent human relationships. 4. Increasing our ability to relax. And, 5. Increasing our own self-determination.
Affirmations are “stating a future goal in the present tense”.
The five basic affirmations are as follows:
1. I am loved; therefore I like myself, unconditionally as I was created. (Repeat five times)
2. I never devalue myself with destructive self-criticism. (Envision yourself doing something that you are very proud of)
3. I see love in others and have warm regard for all persons at all times. (Envision yourself doing something nice for somebody else)
4. I am easily able to relax and with every affirmation I become physically and mentally healthier. (Envision yourself doing something relaxing)
5. I am completely self-determined, inner directed by love and allow others the same privilege. (Repeat five times)
It is possible to add up to ten more affirmations after the basic five. Suggestions are:
I especially love and enjoy weighing (fill in goal weight).
I especially love and enjoy working on (fill in a project that you have been avoiding)
It is recommended that you start each day by getting up and sitting on your bed with your feet on the floor, holding your hands palms up on your knees, closing your eyes and speaking your affirmations. At the end of the day, do the same routine as you are preparing to go to bed.
Do this routine for sixty days and you will believe. The sub-conscious mind will begin to aid in your daily decision making to make “your future goals” become reality.
