How To Change Your Life In A Week

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How To Change Your Life In A Week

When you are happy you get to enjoy life. You feel like life is worth living regardless of external success and achievement. When your life is filled with joy, you feel a deep sense of inner peace and life just seems so good. When you know your life is on track your life takes on a new sense of meaning that fills you up from the inside.

Yet we find it so much easier to look for the problems and solutions in life ‘out there’. We don’t look inside of ourselves, for neither the problem nor the solution.

It is inside of us that we often turn a molehill into a mountain by overstressing the negative of any given situation and refusing to see any type of positives.  We frequently blame ourselves when things go wrong.  We pile guilt on our own shoulders.  We are unable to assess situations or feelings rationally.  We allow ourselves to be so overwhelmingly negative that we don’t allow for any possibility of anything positive.

“The greatest pollution problem we face today is negativity. Eliminate the negative attitude and believe you can do anything. Replace ‘if I can, I hope, maybe,’ with ‘I can, I will, I must.’ “- Mary Kay Ash

Too often people are dealing with emotional upheaval. They:

  • Feel upset, angry, discouraged or defeated which creates stresses and strains that threaten their mental well-being.
  • Struggle to manage the difficulties that arise and the things they let get to them –
  • Allow things that to knock them off balance, wear them down, get too much for them
  • Experience off days when everything seems doubly difficult, where things escalate from bad to worse
  • Get to the point when they have had enough, feel unable to cope and want to jack it all in.

What can you do to cope at times like this, or better still avoid these types of things happening altogether?

“Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.” Nathaniel Emmons

It is the thoughts you allow yourself to think, the subjects that you allow your mind to dwell upon, which make your life the way it is, and creates the person that you are.

The life you live tomorrow, and next week, and next year, will be majorly influenced by the thoughts and feelings on which you allow your mind to dwell. So much of your life and what happens to you depends on the quality of the mental food upon which you provide yourself with.

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” Mahatma Gandhi

If we think positively, we’re likely to enjoy positive results. Negative thinking, on the other hand, can lead to negative results.  Positive and negative thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies. So it should be a none brainer that we need to get in control of our thoughts, and filter out the negative ones.

It is so important if you want to improve your life to take control of your mental habit of thought. By feeding your mind with positive and empowering thoughts you can improve your life dramatically.

“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” James Allen

We all have constant unconscious thoughts, feelings and emotions going round and round in our minds. What we focus on in any instant will potentially determine the way we feel and what we do.

Emmet Fox in 1935 introduced The Seven Day Mental Diet which was designed to set up the habit of positive thinking in one’s head so as to empower you. You can describe it as a “mental detox” which cleans the mind of negative and destructive patterns of unconscious thought and feelings that we so often focus on. By installing new empowering habits of thought we can drastically transform the quality of our lives.

The seven day mental diet helps you become aware of your unconscious thoughts that contribute such a massive part in the way you feel. You will see and become aware of your habitual patterns of thought.  Once you realise what you do unconsciously you can set about changing it. It would be so beneficial to your life to now develop the ability to put yourself in a mental and emotional state of mind that is resourceful and empowering. It will enable your mind to search for empowering solutions to every situation you find yourself in.

Once you have control over your mind and it’s thought selection and thought control, you have the power to shape your life into the kind of thing that you want it to be.

Once we become aware of our thoughts we are able to move away from constantly worrying or thinking negatively. When we are more in control of our minds we can face up to our real feelings, and address the emotions they produce.

To begin acquiring this wonderful, necessary skill for personal development all you have to do is devote one week of not allowing your mind to focus itself on negative thoughts.

Here is what you do! For the next 7 consecutive days do not allow yourself to dwell on any negative or unresourceful  thoughts or feelings. You must not stay with any negative thought for more than a minute. It doesn’t mean you won’t have negative thoughts or feelings, but it means you are not allowing yourself to think about them. As they come in you’ve got to immediately dismiss them.

What do I mean by negative thoughts? ‘A  negative thought is any thought of failure, disappointment, or trouble; any thought of criticism, or spite, or jealousy, or condemnation of others, or self condemnation; any thought of sickness or accident; or, in short, any kind of limitation or pessimistic thinking. Any thought that is not positive and constructive in character, whether it concerns you yourself or anyone else, is a negative thought’.

For seven days you must not allow yourself to dwell for a single moment on any kind of negative thought. You must watch yourself consciously for a whole week stopping your mind staying with any thought that is not positive, productive, hopeful or optimistic.

As soon as you have a negative thought you must remove it from your mind immediately. On having a negative thought, as soon as it pops into your mind say ‘Cancel, cancel’. You will not allow yourself to dwell upon any negative thinking.  It doesn’t matter how many negative thoughts you may have, what matters is that you remove them immediately. It’s dwelling on them that matters. As a negative thought enters into your mind, immediately turn it out and think of something else.

For the next seven days the whole focus of your life will be on solutions and not problems; on what is right in your life instead of what’s wrong. By spending seven consecutive days on searching for what’s positive and by focusing on solutions you install a very powerful habit that will empower your automatic response to every situation in life to be resourceful and empowering. You will have created a very powerful, beneficial habit.

You must go seven uninterrupted, consecutive days without holding or entertaining any negative thoughts, feelings or emotions. If you hold on to a negative thought for more than one minute rule then you must restart the entire seven day process the following day.  If you make a false start, or even if you go in well for two or three days and then for any reason “fall off” the wagon, you then have to start again afresh.

In closing, I want to tell you that people often find that when starting this they are shocked at how negative their minds are. These seven days are really hard, Taking control of a mind that has been allowed free reign to decide what you are going to think about, is difficult. Remember you must go right through for the seven days. That is essential. The whole idea is to have seven days of-unbroken mental discipline in order to get the mind definitely bent in a new direction once and for all.

Turning these negative thoughts into positive ones takes a bit of work, but can be done efficiently by using this technique.  The first thing you need to do if you want to have positive thought patterns is to become aware of what your mind currently does, not only for its content but for the commonness in your thoughts.  You must be able to recognise them for what they are so that you can change them.  Realise how often you say or think negative things. The more you use positive thinking the better you become. Forget the negative thought or emotion that comes into your mind. Say: “Cancel, cancel” to each of those negative thoughts. Stay focused on what you want. Think in possibilities not in problems.

 “Man should live according to his own nature; he should concentrate on self-knowledge and then live in accordance with the truth about himself.” Carl Jung

Take action now for a healthier, happier life!

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About the author: Larry Lewis
My name is Larry Lewis, Health & Wellness Life Coach, Founder of Healthy Lifestyles Living, contributor to the Huffington Post, recently featured in the Sunday Mail Newspaper and somebody who went from being an owner of a chain of gyms and fitness fanatic, to a visually impaired overweight and incredibly sick person. Read about my illness to wellness story.
25 Comments
  1. baldychaz says:

    Will try really hard sir, but not very good at it cancel cancel! thanks as ever 😉

    • LarryLewis says:

      Charles – they truly are my favourite words to stop any negative thoughts going round and round in my head. If anything negative pops in, automatically i repeat ‘cancel, cancel’. And it works!

  2. I’m not sure this would work for me…

    • LarryLewis says:

      Corinne – if that is because you are already an extremely positive person, then you don’t need it. Reading your wonderful writing, i think you have in your armoury many great tools for dealing with your observations and thoughts.

  3. Grady Pruitt says:

    Already, we have people who need to cancel 😀

    I’m looking forward to this challenge. I know it may be difficult, but going a whole week without dwelling on a negative thought sounds very freeing!

    • LarryLewis says:

      Grady – when i first did this, now we must be talking 12 years ago, it was after a 4 day Tony Robbins Seminar. It took me 4 days before i could get through one complete day without allowing a negative thought to reside in my mind. But once i had completed the 7 days, i expanded it to 14, then 21. It is something to this day that i keep checking on to make sure i’m on top of my thoughts.

  4. Janaki Nagaraj says:

    This is Positive….have to work on this. 🙂

  5. Jessica Mokrzycki says:

    I think it’s a goal worth striving for. Great post Larry 🙂 I think practicing mindfulness has helped me begin to see the small wonderous details that there are in life, that bring unexpected blessings and joy. These help vanquish some of the negativity and put me on a good path. But there’s always something, some trigger, in all of us, that gets the best of us and heads us back down the path of negative thinking. I guess finding what that trigger is , is the key.

    • LarryLewis says:

      Jessica – as you know i love your blog, and often see mindfulness touched upon. I know that you very much are on a journey where you are getting in touch with your inner self. You are 100% right about us normally having a trigger point, the one thing or the one person that makes our mind spiral down the negativity trap. Finding that trigger is key.

  6. Jessica Brant says:

    Larry,

    It can’t hurt to give it a try…..

    What the worst that can happen??? : ) Nothing what’s the best that will happen???
    We shall Change for the better…

    xoxox

    jessica

  7. can I do this..I am back to where I started from…zero

    • LarryLewis says:

      Alpana – i don’t know what’s been happening in your life recently. But i know it is impossible for you to be back to zero. I have wtched over the months your progress, and so impressed with your writing talents flooding through giving inspiration to others. What is needed right now, is for you to change what you are telling yourself, change your conscious thoughts, get in control of them. Remind yourself of how far you have come, and reinforce your power by telling yourself with strength, i won’t go back there, this is the new me, i’m better than that. Please just do it.

  8. Fiona Scott says:

    What’s a negative thought – I don’t do negative thoughts, do I? lol. Great post – and superb advice – staying positive takes a lot of work – but is well worth the effort.

    • LarryLewis says:

      Fiona thank you for your comment. I’m sure negaativity is well under your control, your blog demonstrates that you guys are on a path and you know exactly where you are going.

  9. lewys davies says:

    awesome post and so many people out there have negative thoughts but you can turn that around just like you said. Staying positive is key to success in life and business, yeah its tough but once you have that positive mindset life becomes a lot more easy. Greally enjoyed the post keep it up

    • LarryLewis says:

      Lewys great comment thank you. Life has so many fantastic opportunities, the road ahead of all of us is layed with potential and riches. As long as we know there will be challenges to meet on the wy, which when we come upon them, if we tackle them with positivity and belief, then nothing can stop us.

  10. This is definitely a challenge worth pursuing! Great post…

  11. Lilach Bullock says:

    I love this post as it really resonates with me. This year I made a decision to only surround myself with positive people. I had a few friends/acquaintances who were always negative and just caused me stress so I just decided not to spend time with them.

    It’s so crucial in business (and personal life) to have a positive mindset. If you believe in yourself you can accomplish anything. And by surrounding yourself with people who have the same mindset, the amount of positive energy really does make a difference too.

  12. loddy micucci says:

    When we block out negative thoughts a new world opens up to us. The positive channel is where it’s at! The cool part about it is that we can convince our subconscious mind to tune into the positive channel. Blocking out negative thoughts is the starting point for this to occur. When you make living in the positive emotions a habit you are guided towards your life’s purpose. Thank you Larry for this very practical way of blocking out negativity.

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