Change Your Life with Replacement Thoughts

One of my resolutions at the start of this year was to become a better mom. That meant for me, to become a better person and get over some obstacles in my life.

Well, this year is soon coming to a close and the growth I've experienced, personally and spiritually has really been tremendous.

One of the things I've done that helped me with this growth was an activity called "Replacement Thoughts".

By doing this activity it helps to lesson the negative thoughts that we have on a daily basis.

Even people who believe they have the most positive outlooks on life will be surprised at the amounts of negative thought processes that go through their heads on a daily basis.

Most people have extraordinary amounts of negative self-dialogue in their brains on a daily basis. It can start right after the alarm clock goes off:

"oh my head hurts; I don't want to get up; I feel like crap; why do I have to start the day"

These thoughts can happen in a manner of 5 seconds apart, so just imagine how much can build up in a day. It is possible and even quite probable that people have thousands of negative commentaries going on in their brains about themselves, others and their situations in life.

The simplicity of replacement thoughts is having a little spiral bound notebook by your side at all times and writing them down.

The importance of writing it down means that you get to concentrate on replacing those negative thought patterns as written rote, rather than mental rote in your head, which come and go very quickly.

By writing down those replacement thoughts, you are taking more time and energy to think about how to turn your negative thoughts around, and it commits to memory more concretely the more you do it.

Also making realistic replacement thoughts is important. We can't delude ourselves, and won't allow it anyway. You'll never believe something so extremely opposite of what you've already convinced yourself is happening.

So, a bad or unrealistic example of a replacement thought is this:

negative thought - "I feel terrible today"
unrealistic replacement thought - "I have never felt better today"

A realistic replacement thought for "I feel terrible today" would be "I know I'm going to feel so much better after I take a hot shower (or pray, turn on some uplifting music, have some fruit, etc.)"

Some other examples of replacement thoughts:


"I look horrible" (negative)

"I look like Marylin Monroe" (unrealistic/bad example)

"As soon as I wash my face and drink a big glass of water I'm going to feel a lot better" (realistic replacement thought)




"That idiot just cut me off!" (negative)

"What a wonderful man - he must be rushing his pregnant wife to the hospital" (unrealistic/bad example)

"I'm sure there must be an explanation for his driving erratically - I shouldn't jump to conclusions about him, and I know I've done that before!" (realistic replacement thought)



"The weather stinks today, I hate the rain/snow/fog" (negative thought)

"The sun will come out soon and everything will be dandy again" (unrealistic/bad example)

"It might be cold and gray today, but I won't let it get me down." (realistic replacement thought)



I cannot begin to explain how therapeutic practicing replacement thoughts are, and how important it is to write them down. Try it for a couple of days and not only will you realize that there is a lot of negativity going on around you as you become more aware, but you will feel a new-found send of freedom about how you feel and your outlook on life in general!

Simply write down every negative thought that comes to your mind and follow with a realistic but helpful and uplifting replacement thought, and you will feel a tremendous difference in your life!

You may have heard of a dentist named Dr. Weston A Price and his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, where he researched the world over to find answers about degenerative dental health.

The information is intriguing and very convincing, yet there seems to be a missing link between his research dating back to the 1930's and what the Weston A. Price foundation today recommends as a healthy diet - by consuming a lot of animal products, fat and organ meat and limiting fruit and vegetable consumption.

Here's a great article all about his research and what the current foundation espouses.

http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/fuhrman_dietary_myths.htm

Also thanks for John Coleman for providing me with this quote:

"...cooking renders food pasty, so that it sticks to the teeth, and undergoes acid fermentation. Furthermore, the cooking of food greatly diminishes the need for use of the teeth; and thus tends to diminish the circulation of blood to the jaws and teeth, and to produce under -development of the maxillary and contiguous bones—thus leading to contracted dental arches, and to malocclusion and impaction of the teeth, with complications of great seriousness."- Forbes, E. B., The Ohio Journal of Science. Vol. 33, No.5 (September, 1933), 389-406

Addicted to salt?

Most of us wouldn't think so - we usually say we are addicted to sugar, caffeine or some other kind of substance.

I believe that salt is one of the most addictive and dangerous substances. Can you eat cooked vegetables without salt? Most people can't. What about soups? They are very bland and need salt. The same with pastas and rice.

Excellent info about salt (I pasted article below the link, to see footnotes, click on the link):

http://www.raw-food-health.net/TooMuchSalt.html

Eating Too Much Salt?

Want to find out if you're eating too much salt?

If you're consuming any table salt, whether is be sea salt, rock salt, or something fancy with a name like raw Himalayan salt, you're eating too much, and science is pretty clear that the habit will harm you.

Our culture shovels down salt in such huge quantities that we hardly stop to question the habit, but think about it in terms of sea water. Everyone knows that if you're stranded on a desert island, you can be surrounded by an ocean of water that's useless because you'll die if you try to drink it.

What do you die of when you drink it? Dehydration. Ponder this for a moment. Salt has such a dehydrating effect that you can drink a gallon of water laced with it and still die of dehydration.

Our bodies clearly reject salt. Put salt in an open wound and it will burn painfully. Drink salt water and you'll throw it up. Put salt on a slug, which lacks protective skin, and its body will "melt" from dehydration because it uses the water in its body in an attempt to dilute the burning substance.

Salt is such an effective killer that it was once used as a form of suicide by the Chinese (1).

We Can Have Too Much Salt, But We Need Saline

The body needs saline to function, but we must make a distinction between extracted sodium chloride salt, which is an irritant, toxic, and deadly (1) if consumed in high quantities, and the sodium and other salts that occur naturally in whole plant foods.

The later is a nutrient important to every cell in the body, and eating celery, tomatoes, and other vegetables gives us the organic salts and other minerals out bodies need in just the right amounts and combinations.

Cells rely on a regulated ratio of extracellular sodium and intracellular potassium, and when this is thrown out of whack it seriously compromises bodily functions.

There are plenty of expensive salts out there. Some is mined from the dead sea or the Himalayas. Raw food gurus hawk the stuff to make a quick buck, but the nutritional claims they make about it are false.

They'll tell you that you need extracted minerals to meet the deficiencies of modern life. We need many minerals, but we need them in the quantities and the form in which they occur naturally in whole food so they are a benefit and not a burden to our system. This is similar to how we need vitamins, but they're harmful to us when extracted in pill form.

Too Much Salt Will Damage Your Health

There are so many reasons not to eat extracted salt that its overwhelming. For one, you only need to eat about 1 g per kg of body weight to kill yourself with it (1).

For a 220 pound man (100 kg) that would be 100 grams, which is just shy of four ounces. We average 9 grams a day in the U.S., so the average American eats 1/10th of a lethal dosage for a large man every day.

But even at non-lethal doses, it's still not good for us.

Conservative health organizations like the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization tell us we're harming ourselves by eating so much.

We know that sodium consumption raises blood pressure (2), causes stomach cancer (3) and reduces bone density and contributes to osteoporosis (4).

In most people the consumption of salt leads to water retention because the body needs the water to render the salt inert until it can be expelled. It's not unusual for a person to be carrying around five pounds or more of extra water weight.

Too Much Salt: Get Free

Most people eat way too much salt in the wrong form, and there are many benefits of giving it up.

Besides the fact that you're likely to live longer, your food will taste better. People often pour on salt because they think food is tasteless, but that's only because their taste buds have adjusted to the huge amounts of salt and spices they eat.

Cut out salt, and inside two months you'll be noticing delicious new complexities in your food.

I can't tell you how much I love the flavors in my favorite salad dressing. When your taste buds adjust, you can notice the natural saline in things like tomatoes and celery, and the experience is like an explosion of flavor.

Cutting out salt will usually lead to the quick loss of water weight, which your body stores to keep the salt inert until it can be expelled.

Time to Remodel

"Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were."

Cherie Carter-Scott.

I enjoy the sound nutritional and healthy lifestyle advice of Dr. Douglas Graham. Here is an excellent interview:

http://rawkinradio.com/2008/12/30/revvell-chats-with-dr-doug-graham-again/

We are two weeks into the new year already. My, how time flies!

Did you make a resolution two weeks ago? Was it the same old thing - eat better and exercise...or was it something that will really make an impact on your life?

There is so much more to health than food and exercise - although they are indeed important and can make you feel so much better - but what about the other things?

Is there anything that has hindered you to live to your fullest potential that you may have brushed off all of your life? Any fears or inhibitions? Anything that you have lacked that you may have overlooked all these years? Take a closer look into yourself - what has stopped you or gotten in your way of really enjoying and relishing life?

Chances are you are not alone and there are tons of others that have already formed a support group either in your home town or over the internet.

Seek them out and take your first step to living a better and fuller you.