Here's a crazy exercise to try to get your week started out on a positive note. You're going to need to stand up, so if you're at work save it for later, or just say you had to stretch out.
This is an exercise I did at a leadership conference in high school with two amazing motivational speakers:
1. Stand up with your feet shoulder width apart
2. Lift your right arm up so that it is parallel to the ground at about shoulder height and point with your right hand.
3. While keeping your lower body still, turn your upper body clockwise as far as you possibly can and remember where you were pointing.
4. Now close your eyes and take a deep breath.
5. While your eyes are closed, imagine yourself doing the same exercise, except for this time you can turn your upper body 180 degrees.
6. Exhale
7. Now take another deep breath and still keep your eyes closed. Visualize yourself doing the same exercise, but this time you can turn around completely, 360 degrees.
8. Exhale
9. One last time, take a deep breath in and imagine that your upper body can spin around and around and around like Stretch Armstrong, the action figure from the 70s whose arms and legs seemed to stretch forever.
10. Exhale
11. Open your eyes and try the exercise again.
It seems crazy doesn't it? I can almost guarantee that everyone could turn more the second time. It still works every time I try it even though I know the outcome. The main message they wanted to get across is that you can always go farther than you think you can and to show us the power of visualization.
The challenge is for you to try the power of visualization in all aspects of your life for the next week or so and see what happens.