CHANGE YOUR LIFE
MAKE IT WORTHWHILE - IT WON'T COST YOU A PENNY. IT'S FREE!
GOOD LUCK.
The
subject of diet is one of the foremost topics of the present day in
public interest. Newspapers and magazines teem with articles on the
subject.
The
counters of the bookshops are filled with volumes unfolding the
mysteries of proteins, starches, vitamins, and so forth.
Just
now the whole world is food-conscious. Experts on the subject are
saying that physically you become the thing that you eat that your
whole body is really composed of the food that you have eaten in
the past.
What
you eat today, they say, will be in your bloodstream after the
lapse of so many hours, and it is your blood-stream that builds all
the tissues composing your body -and there you are.
Of
course, no sensible person has any quarrel with all this. It is
perfectly true, as far as it goes, and the only surprising thing is
that it has taken the world so long to find it out; but in this
pamphlet I am going to deal with the subject of dieting at a level
that is infinitely more profound and far reaching in its
effects.
I
refer of course to mental dieting. 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. As they days, so shall they strength
be.
Everything in your life today the state of your body, whether
healthy or sick, the state of your fortune, whether prosperous or
impoverished, the state of your home, whether happy or the reverse,
the present condition of every phase of your life in fact-is
entirely conditioned by the thoughts and feelings which you have
entertained in the past, by the habitual tone of your past
thinking.
And
the condition of your life tomorrow, and next week, and next year,
will be entirely conditioned by the thoughts and feelings which you
choose to entertain from now onwards.
In
other words, 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.
Thought is the real causative force in life, and there is no other.
You cannot have one kind of mind and another kind of environment.
This means that you cannot change your environment while leaving
your mind unchanged, nor-and this is the supreme key to life and
the reason for this pamphlet -can you change your mind without your
environment changing too.
This
then is the real key to life: if you change your mind your
conditions must change too- your body must change, your daily work
or other activities must change; your home must change; the
color-tone of your whole life must change-for whether you be
habitually happy and cheerful, or low-spirited and fearful, depends
entirely on the quality of the mental food upon which you diet
yourself.
Please
be very clear about this. If you change your mind your conditions
must change too. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds.
So now you will see that your mental diet is really the most
important thing in your whole life.
This
may be called the Great Cosmic Law, and its truth is seen to be
perfectly obvious when once it is clearly stated in this way. In
fact, I do not know of any thoughtful person who denies its
essential truth.
The
practical difficulty in applying it, however, arises from the fact
that our thoughts are so close to us that it is difficult, without
a little practice, to stand back as it were and look at them
objectively.
Yet
that is just what you must learn to do. You must train yourself to
choose the subject of your thinking at any given time, and also to
choose the emotional tone, or what we call the mood that colors it.
Yes, you can choose your moods.
Indeed, if you could not you would have no real control over your
life at all. Moods habitually entertained produce the
characteristic disposition of the person concerned, and it is his
disposition that finally makes or mars a person's happiness. You
cannot be healthy; you cannot be happy; you cannot be prosperous;
if you have a bad disposition.
If you are sulky, or surly, or cynical, or depressed, or superior,
or frightened half out of your wits, your life cannot possibly be
worth living. Unless you are determined to cultivate a good
disposition, you may as well give up all hope of getting anything
worth while out of life, and it is kinder to tell you very plainly
that this is the case.
If you
are not determined to start in now and carefully select all day the
kind of thoughts that you are going to think, you may as well give
up all hope of shaping your life into the kind of thing that you
want it to be, because this is the only way.
In
short, if you want to make your life happy and worth while, which
is what God wishes you to make it, you must begin immediately to
train yourself in the habit of thought selection and thought
control.
This
will be exceedingly difficult for the first few days, but if you
persevere you will find that it will become rapidly easier, and it
is actually the most interesting experiment that you could possibly
make.
In
fact, this thought control is the most thrillingly interesting
hobby that anyone could take up. You will be amazed at the
interesting things that you will learn about yourself, and you will
get results almost from the beginning.
Now
many people knowing this truth, make sporadic efforts from time to
time to control their thoughts, but the thought stream being so
close) as I have pointed outs and the impacts from outside so
constant and varied, they do not make very much progress.
That
is not the way to work. Your only chance is definitely to form a
new habit of thought which will carry you through when you are
preoccupied or off your guard as well as when you are consciously
attending to the business.
This
new thought habit must be definitely acquired, and the foundation
of it can be laid within a few days, and the way to do it is this:
Make up your mind to devote one week solely to the task of building
a new habit of thought, and during that week let everything in life
be unimportant as compared with that.
If you
will do so, then that week will be the most significant week in
your whole life. It will literally be the turning point for you. If
you will do so, it is safe to say that your whole life will change
for the better.
In
fact, nothing can possibly remain the same. This does not simply
mean that you will be able to face your present difficulties in a
better spirit; it means that the difficulties will go.
This
is the scientific way to Alter Your Life, and being in accordance
with the Great Law it cannot fail. Now do you realize that by
working in this way you do not have to change conditions?
What
happens is that you apply the Law, and then the conditions change
spontaneously. You cannot change conditions directly you have often
tried to do so and failed but go on the seven day mental diet and
conditions must change for you.
This
then is your prescription. For seven days you must not allow
yourself to dwell for a single moment on any kind of negative
thought. You must watch yourself for a whole week as a cat watches
a mouse, and you must not under any pretense allow your mind to
dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive,
optimistic, kind.
This
discipline will be so strenuous that you could not maintain it
consciously for much more than a week, but I do not ask you to do
so. A week will be enough, because by that time the habit of
positive thinking will begin to be established.
Some
extraordinary changes for the better will have come into your life,
encouraging you enormously, and then the future will take care of
itself.
The
new way of life will be so attractive and so much easier than the
old way that you will find your mentality aligning itself almost
automatically. But the seven days are going to be strenuous. I
would not have you enter upon this without counting the cost.
Mere
physical fasting would be child's play in comparison, even if you
have a very good appetite. The most exhausting form of army
gymnastics, combined with thirty mile route marches, would be mild
in comparison with this undertaking. But it is only for one week in
your life, and it will definitely alter everything for the
better.
For
the rest of your life here, for all eternity in fact, things will
be utterly different and inconceivably better than if you had not
carried through this undertaking. Do not start it lightly.
Think
about it for a day or two before you begin. Then start in, and the
grace of God go with you. You may start it any day in the week, and
at any time in the day, first thing in the morning, or after
breakfast, or after lunch, it does not matter, but once you do
start 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.
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 diet, the thing to do is to
drop the scheme altogether for several days, and then to start
again afresh.
There
must be no jumping on and off, as it were. You remember that Rip
Van Winkle in the play would take a solemn vow of teetotalism, and
then promptly accept a drink from the first neighbor who offered
him one, saying calmly: "I won't count this one."
Well,
on the seven day mental diet this sort of thing simply will not do.
you must positively count every lapse, and whether you do or not,
nature will. where there is a lapse you must go off the diet
altogether and then start again.
Now, in order, if possible, to forestall difficulties, I will
consider them in a little detail. First of all, what do I mean by
negative thinking? Well, 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. Do
not bother too much about the question of classification, however;
in practice you will never have any trouble in knowing whether a
given thought is positive or negative.
Even
if your brain tries to deceive you, your heart will whisper the
truth. Second, you must be quite clear that what this scheme calls
for is that you shall not entertain, or dwell upon negative things.
Note this carefully.
It is
not the thought that come to you that matter, but only such of them
as you choose to entertain and dwell upon. It does not matter what
thoughts may come to you provided you do not entertain them.
It is
the entertaining or dwelling upon them that matters. Of course,
many negative thoughts will come to you all day long. Some of them
will just drift into your mind of their own accord seemingly, and
these come to you out of the race mind.
Other
negative thoughts will be given to you by other people, either in
conversation or by their conduct, or you will hear disagreeable
news perhaps by letter or telephone, or you will see crimes and
disasters announced in the newspaper headings.
These
things, however, do not matter as long as you do not entertain
them. In fact, it is these very things that provide the discipline
that is going to transform you during this epoch making week. The
thing to do is, directly the negative thought presents itself -
turn it out.
Turn
away from the newspaper; turn out the thought of the unkind letter,
or stupid remark, or what not. When the negative thought floats
into your mind, immediately turn it out and think of something
else.
Best
of all, think of God as explained in The Golden Key perfect analogy
is furnished by the case of a man who is sitting by an open fire
when a red hot cinder flies out and falls on his sleeve.
If he
knocks that cinder off at once, without a moment's delay to think
about it, no harm is done. But if he allows it to rest on him for a
single moment, under any pretense, the mischief is done, and it
will be a troublesome task to repair that sleeve.
So it
is with a negative thought. Now what of those negative thoughts and
conditions which it is impossible to avoid at the point where you
are today? What of the ordinary troubles that you will have to meet
in the office or a home?
The
answer is, that such things will not affect your diet provided that
you do not accept them, by fearing them, by believing them, by
being indignant or sad about them, or by giving them any power at
all.
Any
negative condition that duty compels you to handle will not affect
your diet. Go to the office, or meet the cares at home, without
allowing them to affect you. (None of these things move me) and all
will be well.
Suppose that you are lunching with a friend who talks negatively-Do
not try to shut him up or otherwise snub him. Let him talk, but do
not accept what he says, and your diet will not be affected.
Suppose
that on coming home you are greeted with a lot of negative
conversation-do not preach a sermon, but simply do not accept it.
It is your mental consent, remember, that constitutes your
diet.
Suppose you witness an accident or an act of injustice let us say
Instead of reacting with pity or indignation, refuse to accept the
appearance at its face value; do anything that you can to right
matters, give it the right thought and let it go at that.
You
will still be on the diet. Of course, it will be very helpful if
you can take steps to avoid meeting during this week anyone who
seems particularly likely to arouse the devil in you.
People
who get on your nerves, or rub you up the wrong way, or bore you,
are better avoided while you are on the diet; but if it is not
possible to avoid them, then you must take a little extra
discipline that is all.
Suppose that you have a particularly trying ordeal before you next
week Well, if you have enough spiritual understanding you will know
how to meet that in the spiritual way; but, for our present
purpose, I think I would wait and start the diet as soon as the
ordeal is over.
As I
said before, do not take up the diet lightly, but think it over
well first. In closing, I want to tell you that people often find
that the starting of this diet seems to stir up all sorts of
difficulties.
It
seen is as though everything begins to go wrong at once. This may
be disconcerting, but it is really a good sign. It means that
things are moving; and is not that the very object we have in view?
Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations.
Hold
on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over., the
picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer to
your heart's desire. The above point is vitally important and
rather subtle.
Do you
not see that the very dwelling upon these difficulties is in itself
a negative thought which has probably thrown you off the diet? The
remedy is not, of course, to deny that your world is rocking in
appearance, but to refuse to take the appearance for the reality
(Judge not according to appearances but judge righteous
judgment).
A
closing word of caution-Do not tell anyone else that you are on the
diet, or that you intend to go on it. Keep this tremendous project
strictly to yourself. Remember that your soul should be the Secret
Place of the Most High.
When
you have come through the seven days successfully, and secured your
demonstration, allow a reasonable time to elapse to establish the
new mentality, and then tell the story to anyone else who you think
is likely to be helped by it.
And,
finally, remember that nothing said or done by anyone else can
possibly throw you off the diet. Only your own reaction to the
other person's conduct can do that.
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