My Mean Clean

So, I'm doing The Game On Diet for the 4th time. (See June 25 blog for more on that). One of my favorite things about this plan is the good/bad habit. At the beginning of the diet you must pick a bad  habit to give up and a good habit to start...and do it everyday! If you fail to do them, you lose 10 points a day and if you change your habit part way through, you have to take a 50 pt. penalty so, it's pretty important to chose well.

This time around I am giving up complaining and negative talk. Just like the saying "you are what you eat", I believe "you are what you speak." I read in The Happiness Project, that if you share something negative about someone else, you will actually be associated with that thing yourself. Scary, isn't it?

I don't think of myself as a chronic complainer, in fact I pride myself on being fairly optimistic...but, when I told my 12 year old daughter that I was considering giving up complaining for 28 days, you would have thought I'd just bought her a $500 gift card to Sephora! (Apparently, I'm not quite as balanced as I'd like to think I am!)

My goal is to rid myself of any negative talk or thoughts. I don't want to waste another minute thinking about things that do not bring me joy or worrying about what others think of me. I don't want to utter a single word about another person unless it is pleasing. I want to think and say positive stuff only! After only 4 days of doing this (and taking point deductions 2 of those 4 days), I have realized just how hard this is and how much I do complain - it has been very eye opening!!

I have finally told my husband not to tell me about the (ahem, stupid) things he does because it can only lead to my complaining or worse, berating. I just don't need to know. At least not for the next 24 days! 

All kidding aside, I think abstaining from negativity is just as important as abstaining from sugar or alcohol...it poisons your soul and hardens your outlook on things. Life is so beautiful if we would just look at it through different lenses once in awhile.

Pretty powerful, huh?