Negativity Dieting

How to Detoxify and shift your life by focusing on the good

I have been reading “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Hay recently.  It’s a fantastic book all about working to retrain your thoughts to be more positive and that with the power of the mind you can achieve anything and bring beautiful manifestations into your life.

In the chapter I was reading this morning she talks about the concept of a “negativity diet.”

I found it quite amusing to see this as often when I speak about things that are irritating me or not going well in my life my mother often tells me that she can’t talk to me further and that she is currently on a negativity diet herself and to call back when I feel like talking about something more positive.

Louise states that so many of us waste time going on physical diets, trying to shed weight to feel better about ourselves when the root cause of the issue is in fact something deep within our psyche that is causing us to not eat right and pile on the pounds. Yes, a percentage of it does come down to genetics and not everyone can have a supermodel stick-figure body but everyone can be healthy with the right focus.

This “Negativity Diet” is not physical.  Instead of abstaining from the wrong foods you abstain from the wrong environment, dialogue, people etc.  So what are the first few steps to take?

1. Stop saying out loud and in your own head, words that are negative and not affirming.  Remove yourself from gossip and drama.  Everyone has something going on in their lives that isn’t ideal.  The more focus you put into it though the worse off you feel.  Once again referring to what my mother always tells me “Be solutions focused.”  If you identify a problem, focus on how you are going to move forward. For example

“I am so sick of my job it’s so stressful.”-  this sentence can shift to an action step to progress you further towards what you desire.  “Now that I know what doesn’t serve me, I am going to spend 30-60 minutes an hour doing self study, expanding my personal home business, I am going to invest in sessions with a life coach who might help me to find a new life purpose etc.”

2. Stop spending time with people who always talk negatively and drain your energy. 

It can be really hard to be honest with someone when you have observed that they often only talk about all the things that are going wrong in their lives.  Perhaps they always bag other people and gossip or make fun.  Do you have someone in your life currently where you feel like they are your constant emotional offload for them to detoxify all their angst on to you?  It’s pretty draining huh?  It takes courage and confidence to provide that feedback to them.  Sometimes, they may be completely unaware of how they come across until you bring it to their attention.  Othertimes however, they will only see your honesty as a criticism and react poorly.  Don’t take this on-board though if you deliver the message with the right intentions.  If this is their reaction though, it’s time to walk away and spend more time with those who inspire, build you and affirm.

I encourage you to trial it for a week, when you hear yourself thinking something negative or saying something out loud, ask yourself how you might reframe it or bring a solution to it.  As much as possible try not to verbalise anything like this and use words of encouragement instead.  It is extremely freeing and will make you feel much lighter.