Wisdom Bits Talk: New Year’s Dream – The 7-Day Mental Diet

Let’s talk about moving into the new year with positive feelings and a refreshed energy. We don’t necessarily have to reinvent ourselves in the new year, just refresh and strengthen our already existing goodness. Wisdom Bits are short talks to help you live the positive lifestyle that you deserve.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Stefania.

I hope your new year has gotten off to a positive and fruitful start.

Let's talk about the new year.

We've moved into a new year and maybe some of us,

Many of us,

Are feeling very hopeful.

Very full of new plans,

Resolutions,

And making a fresh start.

But,

Is it really a good idea to start afresh?

To come up with a totally new plan in hopes that maybe this one will work better than the last one?

What if the new year's plan was just to stay with last year's scheme?

To just stay on the course and carry on with minor tweaks here and there as they are requested,

Required,

Instead of dumping everything and starting all over again?

Often,

We don't need to redo.

Just do and adapt as we go.

If,

For example,

We were to make a resolution to go to the gym,

Sometimes we go a bit mad,

Like five times a week or six times a week,

And then it drops off to two times a week in a couple of months,

And then maybe not at all.

But,

Instead,

What if we just plan to go in as we've gone before,

Maybe that was once a week,

Maybe that was once every two weeks?

But,

The important thing would be to be consistent.

If we were consistent with the pace of an action,

It might intensify and increase by itself organically instead of forcing it.

Perhaps,

I'm thinking,

Perhaps the most important thing to do is to do what feels right,

Comfortable and empowering to ourselves,

Instead of following the crowd consciousness.

We often hear things like,

New year,

New me,

Make the resolution,

Start a new life,

Toss the old,

In with the new.

So,

How do you get there?

Through the power of your mind,

Focused on growth and positive action.

One idea is to undergo a kind of mind training.

Here is one commitment which we can make,

Which will strengthen our resolve to live the positive lifestyle that we deserve,

And can help us to continue on the right path to achieve our goals and have a life that can help us be more at ease within ourselves and with others.

It's something,

This thing that I'm going to mention,

Is something that sounds so very simple,

But which is really quite hard sometimes.

It's called the 7 Day Mental Diet.

This is from a classic book that was written back in 1935 by Emmett Fox.

He said in his book,

And I'll quote him here,

The most important of all factors in your life is the mental diet on which you live.

It is the food which you furnish to your mind that determines the whole character of your life.

It is the thoughts you allow yourself to think,

The subjects that you allow your mind to dwell upon,

Which make you and your surroundings what they are.

In other words,

He said,

You choose your life.

That is to say,

You choose all the conditions of your life when you choose the thoughts upon which you allow your mind to dwell.

So,

Emmett goes on to write that we have to train ourselves to choose the subject of our thinking in any given time and choose the emotional tone or mood or feeling as well.

So,

That's a bit heavy.

I'm thinking sometimes that's quite hard to do because sometimes the circumstances are just so intense that we find ourselves going with the feeling of the moment.

We don't stop and think,

Is this right,

Is this wrong?

We just go with the feeling of the moment because it's just too heavy and intense.

But,

We can generally control our thoughts and there's a way that we can learn to do that with more consistency.

It's called the 7-Day Mental Diet.

Okay,

I told you this is not going to be easy to make it through all 7 days.

For 7 days,

We're not allowed to dwell for a single moment on any kind of negative thought.

We must only hang on to thoughts that are positive,

Constructive,

Optimistic and kind.

The whole point is to have 7 days of unbroken mental discipline to get the mind to think in a new direction.

If at any time we slip up and hang on to negative or any thoughts of that kind,

We have to start all over again.

As a matter of fact,

Emmett advises us that if we do slip,

To take a day or two to refresh ourselves and then start all over again.

Don't just start over again immediately the next day.

Just step back and refresh ourselves.

Reprogram,

Reboot ourselves.

A day or two,

Then go forward again.

So,

What are these forbidden thoughts?

Negative thoughts are anything that falls under thinking about failure,

Disappointment,

Criticism,

Jealousy,

Condemnation of others or negative self-talk or self-criticism.

We can't make an exception if we're talking to ourselves.

That counts.

This includes just anything that is not constructive or of a limitation consciousness.

No cheating or rationalization.

We will know if it's the right or wrong thought energy.

We can't lie to ourselves.

We'll know if we slipped.

But if you did slip,

It's okay.

Don't beat yourself up.

Just step back and try again.

It doesn't count if the thought just comes into your head.

But it does count if you dwell on it.

If you let it stay there.

It's the dwell upon the thoughts that counts.

As soon as the negative thought presents itself,

Turn it out.

Kick it out of your mind.

Get rid of it.

You've got to be on your toes.

Sometimes a thought like a negative thought can come in and we just run away with it.

We can just go on and on and on thinking of things from the past connected to something that happened in the present.

We can just go on what?

10 minutes?

20 minutes?

Half a day?

So the deal is,

As soon as it comes in,

Knock it out.

We can't hang on to it.

If during the 7 day diet,

You out of your control,

You have to be by some commitment or other circumstances in situations that could be a bit negative,

It's okay.

Just don't let it get to you.

Don't let it affect you and turn your mind towards negative.

Don't accept or embrace it or let it into your energy.

Actually,

Emmett says that if you know something stressful is coming up in the week ahead,

Don't fight it.

Don't start the diet.

It doesn't mean you're weak.

It doesn't mean you don't have what it takes.

Do it.

If you know it's going to be stressful,

Don't start the diet.

But do the diet after the stressful event has passed and you'll have a bit of an easier time of it.

Be kind to yourself.

Sometimes,

Once you have started the 7 day mental diet and really get into it,

Things might start coming up,

Difficulties and things.

But that just means that changes are happening and you're growing and meeting the challenge.

The other secret is don't tell anybody that you're on the diet.

Just go about it quietly and keep it to yourself.

Nothing can throw you off the diet.

No one else's opinion or remarks that they say,

Just kidding,

None of that stuff can throw you off the diet.

It's only your reaction to the other circumstance that can do it.

So keep it to yourself.

If you find out later on that it was a really good idea and you're feeling really good about it,

And there's somebody you think would be helped by giving it a go as well,

And you think they're open to it,

Then you can talk about it.

But for the time being,

Keep it to yourself.

You know,

Just work silently.

Keep it to yourself.

Just like when we do some exercises,

How we work our way into it before we get too intense in our movement,

It's often a good idea to give yourself a little warm-up to the diet.

Like,

Take a few days to think about it first before you do it.

Think about it.

Then you get into the mood and you commit yourself and then you go for it.

This isn't in his book,

But I'm thinking it might be handy to keep a little journal on how your 7-day mental diet is going.

If you slipped and have to make a fresh start,

Put that in your journal.

It's all about personal growth.

It's not about winning medals or who's the stronger or person of the more higher consciousness.

It's about personal growth and living in as positive an energy space as possible that will benefit you and others around you.

When you lift your energy,

It can lift the energy of those around you.

So,

Are you going to give it a go?

I'm going to give it a try.

It's the kind of thing that you can try it and you do your 7 days,

But then a month or two later,

6 months down the line,

You might feel like doing it again,

Just to give yourself a little recharge,

A boost to keep yourself on the path.

So,

Feel free to leave a comment on how it went for you or how it's going for you and how you're progressing along.

Just go at your own pace.

No judgment.

Just do as you feel guided.

And that's it for today with news of the 7 day mental diet that you can try anytime,

Anywhere.

No one needs to know.

You're just doing it for yourself,

For your own growth,

Your own spirit.

Goodbye for now.

Many blessings to you.

Reviews

Thank you for this excellent talk! I will try the 7 Day Mind Diet. I love the idea! Thanks for sharing!