I was recently scrolling through Facebook and wasting precious time when I saw a friend post an image of a book called the Seven Day Mental Diet by Emmet Fox. Being a total quick start I went online to read reviews and had these amazing thoughts of interviewing this incredible human on the blog until I actually Googled him and realised he passed away in 1951.
He created the theory of the Mental Diet.
Your mental diet is the brain food that is constantly either nourishing or damaging your thoughts.
Your thoughts will mould your character, the way you view situations in the past, present and future and the way you handle yourself in those moments.
So it got me thinking.. We're constantly detoxing our body, cleaning house, showering, washing clothes and dishes.. We work pretty hard to keep purity in our lives. So why aren't we cleaning out our dirty thoughts?
Emmet wrote about taking a full 7 day mental diet. To the level that if you fall off the wagon and have a negative thought, you must take a few days off and start over from scratch. If you know me at all, you know I'm a huge advocate of mentally training yourself to make gratitude a habit. It's not something that happens naturally for everyone, so I think it's important to keep at it, train your mind like you train your body.
I totally understand that 7 days of ONLY positive thinking is some what unrealistic for most of us. We're all incredibly busy and one extra thing to do and remember sometimes can be the straw to break the camels back. But what about just one day? Could you cope with 24 hours of a complete mental detox?
Here are the steps you can follow if you want to join me for this journey.. Because, YES, even I have some negative thought patterns occasionally!
1. Pick a day.
Choose a time when you won't be stressed or overly busy. This is a challenge you want to be able to contribute thought time to. It won't work if you are so consumed with other tasks that your brain has no room to remember to be positive.
2. Take note.
Yes, as always, write it down! Keep a journal for the day of how you're feeling. Give yourself props for calmly guiding your thoughts back to gratitude when they stray for a moment. Put reminders everywhere. On post-its, schedule a few to pop up throughout the day on your phone and computer.
3. Meditate.
Meditation will always calm a busy mind. If you're getting a little thrown off your mind detox, find a quiet space to have 10 minutes of meditation. I used to hide in the bathrooms at work for 5 minutes when everything got a little too hectic. Close your eyes and breathe. That's the wonderful thing about meditating, you can really do it almost anywhere.
4. Have a theme.
If you're facing a life challenge or a struggle at the moment, it would help to keep a theme in mind for this cleanse. Write a list in the front of your journal of all the positivity in your life and refer back to it a few times through the day.
When you're finished, notice the difference you feel within yourself. Also take note of your relationship with others when you've swept all the negativity out of your mind. When your mind is over flowing with good thoughts, it makes everything and everyone around you that little bit more pleasant also.
So tell me, will you take the 24 hour mental detox challenge? Let me know in the comments below if you think it would be possible for you to take 24 hour off from speaking negatively to yourself. If you find the 24 hours a breeze, perhaps read the Seven Day Mental Diet and try for the full week.