How often do you listen to your intuition? Can you even recognize that inner voice? Women usually heed to their intuition much more than men do. Why? Most men seem to think of intuition in different terms than women, viewing it as emotion-based, rather than intellectual.

Your intuition speaks truth.

Rather than being emotionally-based, your intuition actually comes from a much deeper place. It speaks honest truth to you, when you listen. Some have argued that intuition the conscious being led by a Higher power. If this is so, then your intuition is not based on your own emotionally charged decisions, but rather a voice of truth.

Ignoring your intuition will not make it disappear.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you waffled with a certain decision because for “whatever” reason, you felt your heart pulling you towards one decision, when you wanted to choose something different? Your intuition was trying to guide you. Then, when you went against that gentle nudge you felt, you went with what you wanted instead, only to eventually discover that little inner voice was right after all. Ignoring your intuition will not make it magically go away.

Your intuition is the ultimate personal guide.

Some of the most irrational and uncontrolled people I’ve ever known are that way because they refuse to pay attention to their intuition. Because they can’t rationalize that inner voice, they think they have a better plan for their life and way of living. Their decisions are based on plotting and futuristic thinking, and often fail. Your intuition is best way to ensure you are making solid decisions.

At one time, positive affirmations were popular. Somehow, though, throughout the last few years, that phrase has turned into something of a negative connotation. There are huge benefits to using positive affirmations, though. Just to name a few of those:

• Better frame of mind
• More positive outlook on daily life
• Healthier relationships
• Change of perspective

If you find yourself fighting just to make it through each day, you should know you don’t have to live that way. By using positive affirmations, you can reclaim your life as a woman and earn the respect of yourself and others. As women, we each walk a different path in life. One is not better than the other, but somehow certain stigmas have emerged among the variety of choices women make. Positive affirmations can help you overcome these pressures put upon you.

Here are some great affirmations for women that will help you get started thinking more positive each day. Choose those that speak to you personally and practice saying them several times throughout each day.

General Affirmations For Women

• I am a respectable woman, who deserves the respect of others.
• My life is full and I experience happiness in little things, like my children, family, and church.
• I greet this day with joy and expectancy, knowing good things are in store for me today.
• I take delight in my career/job, because I help change people’s lives for the better.

Affirmations For At Home Moms

• I am an intricate part of the most important job in the world.
• As I walk each day with my children, I learn how to become the best mother I can be.
• My mother’s mistakes are not chains around my neck, but rather tools through which I learn to be a good mother.
• I am the best mother for my children.

Affirmations For Working Moms

• My job ensures that my children will have a better future.
• As I work each day, I am reminded of the blessing of financial support I am able to provide for my children.
• I am thankful for the supportive people I surround myself with.
• I am setting a positive example before my children, through positive leadership and work ethics.

The more you practice using positive affirmations, the easier it will become. At first, you’ll probably feel weird talking to yourself. But if you think about it, you talk to yourself every day. Your mind is in constant motion. So why not set it on a more positive track?  Keeping a journal will help you uncover new areas you need to concentrate that positive power on. The more you can uncover problem areas, the more you will be able to write your own tailored positive affirmations to help yourself out of those slumps. Give it a try and see what happens!

Your thoughts create your reality.

Whether or not you even realize it, you have created your reality up to this point with your thoughts. If you have a good life that you love, it is because you aimed your thoughts at creating such a reality. If you are miserable with where you are in life, then it’s most likely because your thought patterns were negative and detrimental to yourself. If you tell yourself you are unhappy, you will be unhappy. It’s that simple.

Change your thoughts to change your life.

If you don’t like your career, why haven’t you changed it yet? For most people, fear is a driving factor. When you become afraid of changing something in your life, the grip of fear will hold you right where you are, even though you are miserable. The only way you can change your life, starting right now, is to change the way you think.

Positive thoughts lead to a more pleasing outcome.

Beginning today, make a conscious choice to change the way you think. It won’t be easy, but you can do it. If you are pessimistic by nature, it will be a bit more challenging for you, simply because you are used to seeing the proverbial glass as half-empty. To get started, you might need to write down some positive affirmations, which will help create a mental shift for you.

Start looking for good things.

The law of attraction isn’t difficult to understand or use. What it boils down to is putting your mind in the right place, so that your thinking can change and you can start to believe and look for good things to happen in your life. Until you can do this, you probably won’t see many, if any, results. You can’t attract $100,000 if you don’t believe it is yours already. You won’t attract your dream career if you can’t envision yourself in that position. Dream and believe that anything is possible.

Are you a Negative Nelly? Do you find yourself automatically jumping to the wrong conclusion, or expecting the worst to happen in every situation? If so, you’re probably stuck in the negativity trap. Here are some pointers on how to keep yourself from being trapped there forever.

Create your own path.

People who tend to follow others without even considering another path tend to end up in a sea of negativity. Why? Mostly because after you’ve done that for a long time, you start to wonder why in the world you aren’t doing things differently. This leads to feelings of regret and then anger and resentment towards other people who swayed you. To prevent this, forge your own path ahead. It’s not necessarily bad to listen to others’ opinions or follow sage advice, but be certain you are staying true to yourself as well.

Stay away from the nay-sayers.

It’s no big secret that hanging around negative people will eventually make you become one of them, too. If you don’t want this to happen, you have to be extremely cautious about who you spend time with. Are your friends negative? Do they get together often just to have gossip sessions about other people? Do they laugh at and make fun of others? You have to stay away from negative people, and people who do not support and encourage you and others. You can be sure if they are laughing with you when you’re together, they will laugh at you as soon as you turn your back.

Practice positive thinking.

The one sure way to make sure you don’t get trapped in negativity is to practice being a positive person every single day. This doesn’t mean you won’t ever have bad days. And in the beginning, it won’t be so easy to stay positive despite all the setbacks. But the more you practice smiling and speaking positively to yourself and others, the easier it will become, until eventually over time it will become second nature to you.

Additional Resource: The Power of Positive Thinking

• I am full of courage.
• I am strong and have nothing to fear.
• My fears are based on imaginations. Reality tells me everything is okay.
• I am in control of my mind.
• I live my life with bravery.
• There is nothing too big for me to handle.

For more help on combating your fears, read Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears and Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear.

Depression List

Here are five very simple ways to deal with depression…

1. Get plenty of rest. Even if you don’t think you have trouble sleeping at night, you may not be getting enough rest. When your mind is in turmoil and you deal with feelings like guilt, your sleep may become restless. Or, maybe you aren’t sleeping very much. Allow yourself afternoon naps or an early bedtime to catch up on the rest you’re losing.
2. Listen to soothing music. Music has been proven to stimulate the brain. Rather than listening to pop or country tunes, whose lyrics might make you think about things that won’t help your depressive mood, turn on soothing classical or jazz music.
3. Relax. In addition to getting plenty of rest through sleep, you need to allow yourself time to unwind and just relax each day, especially if you have the added pressure of a stressful job or home life. Something as simple as a bubble bath, or a special trip to your favorite coffee shop could help relax you.
4. Seek weekly counseling. If you aren’t already seeing a counselor, this could be a productive way to spend an hour or so of your time each week to help you deal with depression. You might need a third party that you can vent to about what’s bothering you. All too often, people who are depressed hold in a lot of fears, anxieties, and problems, which only feed into the depression.
5. See a doctor. If you are experiencing severe symptoms of depression and know that you aren’t just sad, perhaps it is time to schedule an appointment with your family physician. Your doctor can assess the situation and determine what kind of treatment you require. Don’t wait until you are too depressed to lift your head. Seek help as soon as possible.

Need more help? Read Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness

Low Self-Esteem Symptoms

Low self-esteem symptom #1: I’m worthless. Do you feel like you aren’t good enough? Like you just can’t measure up, no matter what you do or how hard you try?

Low self-esteem symptom #2: It’s hopeless. Do you feel like even though you try, your situation remains hopeless? Like you will never find hope in it?

Low self-esteem symptom #3: I can’t do it. Do you constantly tell yourself you can’t do something? Or you aren’t capable of accomplishing something?

Low self-esteem symptom #4: I’ll never amount to anything. Do you often berate yourself, rarely giving yourself credit for any of your skills or talents?

Low self-esteem symptom #5: Everybody’s laughing at me. Do you feel like others are staring at you or talking about you behind your back? Is it hard to receive constructive feedback from others?

These are just a few symptoms of low self-esteem. These could give you a clue that this is an area of your life you need to work on.

Extra Resources:

To help further promote your self-esteem, try some of these resources:

• The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life
• Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life
• Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Revised and Updated

Help her seek professional counseling.

Whether her depression is severe or mild, one thing that helps many people is professional counseling. Being able to go weekly and talk about what’s bothering her could help her a great deal.

Open up the lines of communication at home.

Are you communicating clearly with your wife at home, or are you only arguing with each other? Keeping a strong, open line of communication with your wife will not only help you recognize when she’s having a bad day, but if her depression symptoms seem to be worsening, or getting better.

Be aware, but loving.

Far too often, what happens in a marriage where one spouse is depressed, the other spouse eventually becomes calloused to the problem. When this happens there is often a lot of finger-pointing and the blame game, as the well spouse becomes frustrated with the depressed one. Be kind and loving in your actions and words.

Be there for her.

Probably the most important thing is that your wife knows she is loved and that you are there for her, no matter what. Giving her a sense of security will greatly help her.

For more help…

Many readers have found great comfort in Max Lucado’s book Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear. This makes a wonderful gift for someone who might be struggling with fear, anxiety, and depression.

• afraid to leave your home.
• afraid to talk to people you don’t know.
• afraid people you do know will judge you if they knew the truth.

Fear just builds constantly on itself until you reach a point where you are totally out of control and you don’t even know how you became that way. The good news is, fear can be conquered. It will take diligence and hard work, but you can do it. Here are some tips to help you start removing fear from your mind.

Redirect your thoughts.

The first step is to change your way of thinking. You can talk yourself into, or out of, many things. When you can learn how to change your thoughts, you will begin taking the first step to remove fear. Become consciously aware of your thoughts, when you begin feeling fearful, and the role your thought process plays in this. As you become aware of your thoughts leading you to a fearful mindset, you can start actively redirecting your thoughts to positive, happier things that will reduce—or eliminate—the fear you feel.

Face your fear head-on.

Often times, the thing you fear will never come to pass. Because you have trained your mind to allow negative thoughts snowball into a mindset of fear, you often shy away from fully living your life. It is important, then, to attack these unfounded fears by meeting them head-on. When you do this, you will discover two things. First, your fears are not based on truth or evidence. Second, the only thing holding you back is…YOU.

Practice a more positive attitude.

The quicker you retrain your brain to start speaking positive thoughts to yourself, instead of terribly negative ones that stirs up that inner fear, the faster you will see a recovery. Shaping a better thought process for yourself will help in reducing your fears. To do this, though, you have to actively change the way you think. Creating a more positive attitude with positive affirmations is a great place to start this process. As you repeat positive thoughts to yourself every day, you will eventually begin to experience a shift in your mind and thought process. For example, if you are fearful of driving a car because you are afraid you’ll be in a car accident, you need to learn how to reframe that negative self-talk to create a more positive attitude for yourself. Using positive affirmations can help you pinpoint your fear and change the way you think about driving to make it a more positive experience.

Covering up your holey underwear with pretty clothes doesn’t negate the holes. Think of the holey underwear as your self-esteem. When you feel low and don’t believe in yourself, it’s like you’re wearing a pair of ratty, worn-out undies. Sure, maybe they are comfortable. Poor self-esteem, when unattended to, becomes second nature. Many do not even realize their self-esteem is deficient because they have lived with it like that for a very long time.

Some people have a tendency to attempt to cover up their low self-esteem with things like humor. Rather than taking actionable steps to cultivating a better thought process about themselves, it’s easier to try to cover it up. But no matter how many layers of pretty clothing you stack on, you can’t hide the fact that underneath all that, you are suffering within yourself.

Ditch those old undies.

The truth is, no matter how good you might be at doing just that, hiding how you truly feel deep inside about yourself is never a good thing. At the end of the day, you still go home with holey underwear. Instead of walking around trying to hide the fact that you feel like your world is crumbling to pieces around you (or, that your holey undies are about to fall down around your ankles), start working on your inner issues. Raise your self-esteem and uncover the ugly hidden things that make you feel like you’re dying inside. When you can do this, you’ll be able to replace those holey undies with pretty panties!