Positive affirmations are statements about yourself and your life that are designed to produce a positive outcome in emotion. As mentioned, how we feel affects the world around us. This is why shifting how we feel can powerfully shift everything else as well. However, this is also why no amount of positive affirmations can create the change you’re seeking. Probably sounds contradictory but it’s not. If you’re going through intense anxiety and you affirm: “I’m relaxed,” do you really feel relaxed? If that works for you - awesome!  If it doesn’t, then you are like most people. In this case it’s important to come up with affirmations that help you shift forward. You can’t just affirm something that feels like a lie to you and then have a shift in emotion. Affirmations are powerful, but only when we choose ones that feel true or possible to us. The reason we’re discussing this now is that in the next chapter you will learn what I believe to be the most important exercise in the book. As part of this exercise, you will be working on changing beliefs. This is much like writing your own affirmations. If you write an affirmation that you cannot believe in, then your feelings around it will not change. You gotta believe in the affirmation you are writing or saying because really, it’s just words. What makes it real is how you feel. Ooh! That’s a fun rhyme! “What makes it real is how you feel.” That goes for pretty much everything. It’s not what you say that matters, but how you feel about what you say. If you want to feel peaceful but saying “I feel peaceful” just makes you feel resentful that you don’t feel peaceful, well then you’re just perpetuating the belief that you’re not peaceful. If you want to feel peaceful but aren’t sure if you can feel that way so you say “I am willing to believe I can feel peaceful,” now you step into the energy of willingness. You’ll see why this is so important in the next chapter. If you’re willing to have a new belief, anything is possible!

Super Intense

Chapter 8: Feelings Speak Louder Than Words

“You are stronger than you believe. You have greater powers than you know.” ~Antiope From Wonder Woman Not that long ago, I thought I was a complete victim to my emotions. I believed the way I felt was 100% the fault of the outside world and genetics.    I believed there was no other way, nor any other explanation for why I felt the way I did.   Today I take responsibility.   And to be a hero, you must too.   Chapter 7 of Super Intense, narrated by Marisa Imon

Chapter 7: Take Responsibility

Good bad, who's to say? This one concept can change everything about how you handle your intense emotions.

Chapter 6: Bad

“You think you know how the world works? You think that this material universe is all there is? What is real? What mysteries lie beyond the reach of your senses? At the root of existence, mind and matter meet. Thoughts form reality...who are you in this vast multiverse, Mr. Strange?” ~The Ancient One, From Doctor Strange The first lesson in your hero training is about how important it is to understand the power of your mind. You create your own reality. The last time you were depressed (maybe it’s right now), did you have people telling you that you should be happy? Isn’t it the worst? You know their intentions are good. You know they mean well. You know you probably should be happy. So why is it so annoying to be told that? It’s because it goes directly against a belief you are holding within you. A belief that you are depressed. A belief that it’s too hard to change. A belief that it’s hopeless. It annoys you for the same reason you feel like scratching someone’s eyeballs out when you play them your favorite song - you know the one that gives you goosebumps all over? - and they go, “I don’t really like that song.” How could they not like the best song ever? What is wrong with them??? It’s the same annoying feeling we have when we wonder, how could they tell us to be happy when we clearly can’t be? We get frustrated because it goes against what we feel and what we believe. And depression is one of the hardest beliefs to change, in my experience. But when we start accepting that we are the ones who choose our beliefs, and that everyone else is choosing their own, we can’t take it personally any more. Their thoughts and opinions have nothing to do with us and everything to do with their own beliefs and biases. Once I realized I can create my own reality by changing my beliefs, I started to get curious about where my beliefs came from anyway. If we’re not choosing them for ourselves, then society and outside influences are choosing them for us.

Chapter 5: Virtual Reality

Chapter 4: It Starts... Listen to Chapter 4 of the International Bestselling Book, Super Intense...   I don’t remember a lot from my sophomore semester in college when I experienced my first manic episode. That moment where I was overlooking the swan pond, I knew for sure that I was a superhero here to fight all injustices in this world.   Unfortunately, on any given moment I also believed I was an evil villain sent to destroy the superhero version of myself. As soon as the hero would get to work, the villain would do whatever she could stop her. You can imagine how messy this became.    At this point in my life leading up to this, I hadn’t yet been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In fact, I had only just been diagnosed a few months earlier with depression, anxiety, ADD, insomnia and bulimia - even though the earliest I can remember feeling long-lasting, life-impacting depression was age ten, and I started binging and purging at fifteen to cope with anxiety. I never could focus in class and got by because I had friends who always made sure I knew what class to go to when and what homework was due (heaven forbid I kept track of my own schedule!). And I never would have considered myself someone who sleeps - even as an infant (sorry for all that night time screaming mom and dad!).   Looking back on my life now and recognizing how I experienced extended periods of intense lows and highs all my life, coupled with difficulty sleeping, it all feels so obvious. But at the time I thought bipolar just meant someone who was “moody” - something I thought was totally lame, because I proudly was way more intense than just being moody.  I had no idea it was a serious condition that could result in clinical insanity.   And then, there I was.    Convinced my friends were plotting against me any time I wasn’t around.    (Who “plots” against people anyway?)   Watching my face shape shift in the mirror every night after my roommates went to bed.   Listening to aliens talk to me through my headphones that weren’t plugged into anything....   And of course...spending time as a hero here to save the world, or an evil villain trying to destroy the hero version of me.

Chapter 4: It Starts...

Chapter 3 of the internationally bestselling book, "Super Intense: How Working with Your Emotional Intensity Makes You A Total Superhero", by Marisa Imon. Narrated by, Marisa Imon Learn more here. Follow Marisa here.  Discover your superhero name here. Be your own superhero here.

Chapter 3: Prepare Yourself

Chapter 2 of the internationally bestselling book, "Super Intense: How Working with Your Emotional Intensity Makes You A Total Superhero", by Marisa Imon.  Have you ever felt like your emotional intensity is "too much"? It's time to take it back as a total superpower because it is a strength worth celebrating. Narrated by, Marisa Imon Learn more here. Follow Marisa here.  Discover your superhero name here. Be your own superhero here.

Chapter 2: Intensity

Chapter 1 of the internationally bestselling book, "Super Intense: How Working with Your Emotional Intensity Makes You A Total Superhero", by Marisa Imon. Narrated by, Marisa Imon Learn more here. Follow Marisa here.  Discover your superhero name here. Be your own superhero here.

Chapter 1: Swan Pond

This is the preface to the book, "Super Intense" - please do not begin the book until you've listened to this preface. In this introduction I give backstory about living with Bipolar Type 1 and insight on my views about medicine and provide medical disclaimers.  If you must skip it, just read this: I'm not a licensed mental health professional. I'm just a human sharing my experience of living with intense emotions. This is not medical advice. This book (and myself) is neither for nor against medications - that's a decision between you and a mental health professional (and has nothing to do with me or this content).  This is essentially a quick-use handbook on how to live with intense emotions as a superpower. 

Preface: Start Here

This podcast is the audiobook version of "Super Intense: How Working With Your Emotional Intensity Makes You A Total Superhero" -the #1 bestselling book on Amazon in 9 categories, including the categories Bipolar Disorder and New Age Self-Help. Whether you have a mood disorder, are empathic, or just feel things strongly, this book will make your special ability feel like the greatest strength in the world. You will end up feeling like you are your own superhero. Because you really are! This is a beginner's guide at feeling better. Marisa mixes in her tools and mindfulness resources with stories about her experiences with bipolar, anxiety, depression, insomnia and bulimia, as well as anecdotes from comic book heroes. In this book you’ll learn: How to be responsible for your emotional sensitivity The number one journaling technique for changing your beliefs and uplifting your emotions A special “trick” to easily quell any uncomfortable emotion or toxic relationship The most important thing you must do for your body to use your emotions for good How to use your fears and anxieties to move upwards in the emotional scale How to use the world around you to improve your emotional state Most importantly: How YOU are a superhero

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Super Intense

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