This past month has been very interesting in terms of internal evolution. I have found myself experiencing life without thought... read the article of the month further down to find out more :-)

On the practical realm, I got a new laptop! Thanks to a push and an economic contribution from my husband I can now type these lines from my brand new, fast and silent laptop.

I suppose it was time I replaced the worn-out, 5-year-old noisy (and I mean NOISY) laptop which has served me so well all these years - if it was up to me I'd probably only replace it when my fingers went through the keyboard - I'm one for using things to the max ;-)

I'm still busy loading programs that I need, but once I have it fully set up I'll be able to work as fast as I want, creating all the content for the web site that I want to share with you, even quicker.

I also took a day fully off (I'm normally quite busy with a number of things) to spend it with a friend at a lake in Milton Keynes, UK. It was the perfect summer day: sunny, hot, quiet, and with good company.

I specially loved lying on the deck at the lake, chatting away and feeling the soft movement of the deck on the water - that's us on the picture, lying on the deck :-)

Here's for more of this beautiful and enlightening summer!

Not so much news, but I so want to share this with you. The other day, as I was coming out of a grocery shop in central London, I saw a guy walking with a ginger cat on his back.

I stopped - I love animals, and couldn't miss the chance of stroking the cat and knowing more about why the guy walked with him on his back.

It turned out that the guy, James, sells "The Big Issue" - a magazine which is sold by homeless people in the UK, of which they can keep a large percentage of the benefits (mind you, the magazine is only £2).

As James told me, Bob started following him around one good day - Bob even jumped on the bus with James. So James adopted him, and ever since they've been best friends.

A pet is a great companion for most of us, but for someone homeless it can also be an anchor to life, a motor to keep on existing.

James pointed me to a video in YouTube that some guy made of him and Bob. By the way, if you happen to live in London and go around Covent Garden, you may just spot James and Bob some day.

Watch the video about Bob the cat and James - sweet and moving!

I have been experiencing lately a new way of living life: living without thought.

See, the reason why I suffered so much emotionally when I was younger was because I believed my thoughts. I believed that my thoughts defined who I was, and furthermore that those thoughts described "how reality was" for me, too.

But as you know by now, thoughts come and go, we don't need to believe them, and we can choose the thoughts that we want to pay attention to. We can choose to have thoughts that make us feel good.

Thoughts do not define the reality we see; we give meaning to the reality we see by choosing to think about it in a particular way - which is why no two people experience the same reality in the exact same way.

So fair enough, we can choose our own thoughts. We notice we're thinking something that is making us feel angry, or sad, or fearful, and we then choose to think about it in a different way or to think about something completely unrelated that makes us feel good.

However, if you've been in any way immersed in negative feelings for some time, you know that it does take that bit of effort to change your thoughts. Besides, for some of us women, when we go through our monthly cycle it feels even more difficult to find something to feel good about.

In those times it may feel particularly difficult to choose and maintain positive thoughts.

A few weeks ago I noticed that I tended to buy into a certain type of negative thought. Having learned how thoughts and emotions work in these past years, I chose to turn my attention to positive thoughts. After a few days of noticing negative thoughts, changing them, noticing negative thoughts again, changing them again, and on and on, I found myself, quite honestly, pretty tired of the whole game.

I chose to step out of thought.

The next day I got up. I noticed the Thought Machine already bombarding me; I was firm in my decision of living fully present where I was rather than living in my thoughts. Every time that I noticed thoughts, of any kind, I put myself back into the place of awareness without thought. I did that throughout the whole day.

What a delicious experience to live a full day of my life with awareness of the reality around me, and without thoughts about it. Time seemed to elongate, everything just felt so pleasant. It reminded me of when I was a kid, when I would spend the days playing and being immersed with joy in any adventure.

You may have consciously experienced a state of being without thought if you meditate. You may have also found yourself living without thought when you're having good times with other people, or when you're doing something you love doing. You're then fully in the moment, without judgement, simply being, simply living.

What I want to say to you this month is: if you find that choosing positive thoughts and maintaining them becomes tiring, perhaps because the circumstances around you facilitate negative thoughts, then step out of thought. It is relaxing, it provides relief, and it brings insights.

If you just don't know how to step out of thought, then start meditating daily for about five to ten minutes. This will eventually lead you to experience reality from a more aware point of view.

Living without thought: extremely rewarding, more than my words can describe ;-)

Every month I receive emails from readers - some of them contain questions or comments, and some of them are contributions, such as a positive story, an article or a tip.

This month Harisuthen, from Malaysia, shared this positive story:

"What is the most powerful thing in this world? Well, some will say money, some say weapons and some might say nuclear bombs. For me the most powerful thing in this world is our THOUGHT.

WHY? Because true power is in our thinking. When we truly believe in something and we have faith in it, it will surely happen.

We must have confidence in what we believe. It could be anything; sometimes we think it is impossible, however anything impossible will become possible if we believe it truly from our heart and our soul.

Well I learn this from a cartoon. We can gain knowledge from everything. Thank you."

You can read this positive story on its page at "What is the most powerful thing in this world?"

Thanks, Harisuthen! :-)

This month I'm passing along a cool web site. A reader of The Benefits Of Positive Thinking, Brandon, let me know about Guideposts.com.

In Guideposts.com you can find inspiring and motivating stories from a lot of different people, about all areas of life - relationships, money, career, personal change...

It's easy to spend some time reading through and feeling motivated by these people's stories.

Check it out and experience a burst of positive energy!

I believe that being grateful for something is one of the most powerful tools to feel better immediately. Here are the two thanking bits of the month:

Thankful for... the right thing at the right time. Hasn't this happened to you - you're finding yourself lost and in need of a new idea to move you forward, and the perfect book/person/movie/article comes along with the precise information you needed... I love that!

Thankful for... my new laptop! I'm grateful for the help from my husband, for both laptops, and for the smooth way in which the transition from one to the other is happening :-)

What are you thankful for? Send me an email through the Contact Me form and let me know!

Thank you for reading this issue of Dare To Play It Big, the free positive thinking newsletter of The Benefits Of Positive Thinking.

Care to send me your thoughts about this issue's topics? Email me and let me know!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please pass it along to your friends, family and colleagues, or send them to the Dare To Play It Big sign up page. I thank you in advance.

Stay well,

Cristina