Today I received a flyer and an email announcing an economic stimulus sale from an office-supply store. Unfortunately, 10% off paper and pens will stimulate little more than the chain's own bottomline.

But I believe we can stimulate our economic situations -- a lot or a little -- by how we think. As a consulting hypnotist who ?walks her talk,? I'm already seeing the fruits of this attitude.

- What To Tell Yourself In A Weak Economy

Start by getting rid of the words ?weak economy.? Replace them with: new economy, modern economy, an economy that's re-building, re-starting, resurging, re-growing, refreshing, refocusing, recharging itself.

Find your own favorite phrase that creates a mindset about refreshing your opportunities. Tell yourself you're up for the challenge, you're opening yourself to new approaches, possibilities, alliances, and just mixing it up all around.

Make economizing fun. We've found a new slew of ethnic restaurants and stands, and guess what -- the food is highly flavored, fresh, and tasty. Cool!

I may never return to the old set of eateries, except for that one amazing sushi place.

- Get Back To Basics In Your Business

Business basics are value, fairness, service, trust, and continuing to know your consumer, including changes in the way he thinks and acts and what he needs now.

Discover which changes you can satisfy. Which would you like to satisfy but don't know how yet?

Is there a way to make a new purchase freer of risk? I'm looking at new ways to reward loyalty, new referral programs, and opportunities to give new clients a ?taste? instead of requiring heftier commitments.

- To Stimulate Your Economics, Tickle Your Mind

Where can you save, make do, create new uses, enjoy simpler pleasures?

Stimulate your personal economy by saving more money and investing it in yourself.

If you're like most of my clients, this exercise will bring new joy to your life and a sense of creativity and wellbeing.

One client dusted off her crockpot and made inexpensive, delicious stews she hadn't eaten since college. She invited neighbors who declared it ?the best night we've had in years!?

Another client pulled out clothes she hadn't been using, wore three of her older suits with contemporary necklaces, and got more compliments than she had dreamed.

One dad told his kids ?no more movies this month? and spent close family time fed by

unlikely inventions and simple activities like make-your-own sundae.

Use these questions to stimulate your own thoughts:

In which areas of my life do I have ?all I need and more??

Am I rich in friends, in love, in ideas and ingenuity? Might I share these with others?

Am I willing to brainstorm ways to enrich the people around me emotionally, spiritually, financially or intellectually?

Can I trade DVD's so my friends and I can see more movies without buying them?

Can I do potluck dinners, take long walks in a group, share exercise equipment, trade clothes my family has outgrown or tired of?

Now how much can I save with all that?

And how much of the savings can I use to enrich myself and those I love?

- Should Old Acquaintances Be Remembered?

This may be a good time to re-stimulate interest in friends and family members who dropped away from your social circle while you focused on material things: purchases, trips, home improvements. Maybe they couldn't quite keep up with you, or you with them.

Does it feel appropriate to reconnect and rediscover each other? If it does, do!

You needn't be a monk to choose simpler foods and activities, re-discovering how wonderful they truly are -- when you have a different attitude.

If you haven't been attending your church, synagogue, temple or mosque, return for a trial period. You may connect with new people in different ways or re-connect with folks you've been too busy -- or distracted -- to see.

- Brainstorm New Contributions To Make To Yourself and Others

Expert brainstormers let their minds flow, dismiss analysis for the moment, and free themselves to unleash possibilities they hadn't considered before.

When you use your imagination, you allow for new futures that are not yet concrete.

The more you imagine them, the more real they become to you. And like history's richest entrepreneurs, after seeing them, feeling them, and hearing them so concretely, you almost can't help but make them real. (From the first McDonald's stand to the cool music you purchased this week, these successes were dreamed up out of thin air.)

- Use Economic-Stimulus Hypnosis

The White House may be hoping to stimulate the economy by encouraging spending , but you don't have to play it that way. The feeling of wellbeing doesn't come from dollars and cents but from the sense of having all that you need.

As a hypnotist, I want you to know that there is a kind of daily ?hypnosis? that doesn't involve sitting in a hypnotist's office. You provide it to yourself everyday during most of your waking moments.

It's your moment-by-moment self talk. Similar to hypnosis, self talk floods you with suggestions about how things are and will be.

Like professional hypnosis, repetition is involved. Repetition strengths the possibility that what is being said to your subconscious mind will stick.

Often hypnosis involves picturing a situation the way you want it to be, making it feel real so the image will permeate your subconscious.

Now here's the important question about the suggestions you're currently making to yourself, and the images you're projecting on the movie screen of your mind?.

?are they positive, useful, desirable images of what you want in your life, what you desire and prefer ? or do they represent your worst fears, worries and dislikes?

Read that again.

It's important to know what you don't want. But don't dwell there. Take those don't-wants and explore the do-wants that are their flip side. ?I don't want to be poor? becomes perhaps ?I want a stable financial life that supports my goals for myself and my family.?

Get the difference? What you think, say, and picture leads you. Where would you prefer to be led? (I'd recommend the ?stable financial life? or better.)

So?.about the current thoughts and phrases you're repeating to yourself: are they what you want or what you fear?

Are they about cutbacks, worries, and projected sacrifices or about new opportunities, deeper emotional connections, old talents revisited and shared?

I insist upon directing the mind toward what is desired, not what is despised. In my office, we accomplish this with words, pictures, and lots of repetition. All of it is positive and within the realm of possibility. (Nothing about sprouting magical wings and flying away from reality.)

Do the same in what you say to yourself because repeated negative thoughts become unintended hypnosis that can produce precisely what you don't want.

Here's great news: since you already know how to give yourself negative suggestions (?I'm poor,? ?My life is sad,? ?I'll lose my job?), you undoubtedly know how to give yourself positive suggestions.

- Examples Of Positive Suggestions:

Everyday I am moving closer to my financial goals, and I am enjoying the process.

Everyday, I am appreciating my life, my family, and my friends more, and I feel lucky.

Everyday, I'm learning more about myself and getting better.

Everyday, I am appreciating my life more deeply and I enjoy learning and sharing with others.

Everyday, I am becoming a fuller, richer person.

Everyday, I am learning about new ways of living and appreciating, and it's fun.

Everyday, I find new ways I like my life.

Create more for your unique life. Repeat one or two of these 5-10 times when you would be tempted to lead yourself into despair. Make positive, enticing mental pictures to accompany your thoughts. Enjoy the process of your self-directed economic (and emotional!) stimulus.

And when you receive those flyers directing you to buy more?

Consider them scrap paper and use them to jot down phone messages from friends who want to schedule some great potlucks! ? 2008 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.