Ever have that feeling of butterflies in your stomach or some other physical sensation that you associate with feeling anxious? What would it be like if every time you felt that feeling you understood it as a signal that something marvelous was about to happen, that a doorway to great opportunity was about to open? You can do and I'll tell you how.

All of our emotions and the rational justifications we have developed to explain those feelings are part of a cycle of experience, emotion and thought called mental synapses. Mental pathways usually created when we were very young and then strengthened over many years. Not dissimilar to exercising our physical muscles, each time we had a similar experience, emotion or thought, that synapse, that cycle, became reinforced, strengthened, carved deeper in our subconscious. It doesn't matter which aspect of the cycle we start with, it might be seeing a spider and there's a shiver up the spine and a scaring feeling or we begin with a that shiver and remember the spider and have the feeling, each time reinforcing that synapse, creating that irrational fear that's been with us for years.

The problem with synapses, good or bad, is that we have long ago forgotten their origin, all we have left are the feelings and then the momentary interpretation of their meaning. This interpretation however, is really a rationalization because at those moments another astonishing phenomenon of human mental processing takes place which I call the HPS, Honest Person Syndrome. There's no such thing as a dishonest person, from the perspective of that man or women running that rationalization. Each of us has a little voice deep inside explaining our feelings which allows us to legitimatize our resulting behavior. Perhaps it's the voice of a parent or teacher or friend or simply our own inner self that speaks to our subconscious mind with great authority. It's easy to see these strange behavior patterns in others but because of HPS, nearly impossible to see in ourselves.

Think for a moment of a celebrity with great hubris. Perhaps a real estate developer that may have lost millions in various transactions but whenever he speaks he does so with the voice of an infallible expert that knows no wrong. Bring to mind a politician that looks you in the eye and says I'm not a liar or I didn't have sexual relations with that woman; all these people justifying their statements because of an inner truth speaking in their ear. But you don't have to look so far to understand these inner voices, the smoker hears them when they light up and the voice says, I need this because it will relax me or the person battling weight chooses the caloric treat saying, I'm feeling awful, this will make me feel better. Even you might hear this voice when you have those butterflies in your stomach and feel anxious, the little voice whispering unpleasant reminders of past experiences and you begin anticipating, dreading what might be coming next.

Unfortunately, we usually get what we expect and expecting something dreadful, that's frequently what happens. Or even worse, when something good happens we feel distanced from it, fail to receive the joy it should have brought because the result is different, inconsistent with our previous experience with this feeling. The synapse in our subconscious mind has been strengthened so well that that we reject the good feelings we should have had. However, it's truly only a matter of exercise.

Know now that we create new synapse every day of our life, new relationships between experience, emotion and thinking, we need simply to strengthen the beneficial ones. If you've ever seen a hypnosis show you have experienced how easily these new relationships begin to be formed. The hypnotist gives the participant a piece of an apple, asks them to taste it, suggests it's an onion and the participant grimaces, mentally changing the sweet smell of the apple to that of an onion.

Imagine from this moment forward that each and every time you begin to feel that feeling of butterflies in the stomach, the very instant you have that feeling, you say to yourself, "Something wonderful is about to happen, I'm opening the doorway of my imagination to a new opportunity, a new opportunity to change, improve, empower my life. I'm the master of my destiny, I'm good enough, I'm worthy enough, I'm excited by this feeling; I'm going to make something wonderful happen!" Whether on the golf course about to make the winning shot, on the tennis court serving the winning point or at business making the big proposal, feel the butterflies and know that it's a signal that something great is about to happen; imagine that!

Call it self hypnosis or simply understand that we usually get what we expect, expect the better and you'll be amazed at what happens. Do you want to change your life? Then change your mind.