No Matter Your Location and Circumstances, Get Rid of Negative Thoughts

I know everyone usually associates "renewal" with Spring, but I like to do a lot of my "deep" thinking in the fall. Autumn, particularly Thanksgiving, makes me re-evaluate my life, set goals and make plans for the future. Autumn makes me take stock of what/who is important to me.

To follow is an article from Erica Johansson of Travel Blissful that helps set the mood for my Autumnal soul-cleansing:

Of late, my usual positive, optimistic self gave into a number of negative thoughts and feelings. To pass through this state of limiting beliefs and put myself back on the right track, I read a couple of self-development books.
Earlier today I finished reading Notes from a Friend by Anthony Robbins, leader in the science of peak performance. In the last lesson of his book, he presents the Ten-Day Mental Challenge (which enabled him to control his mind by not allowing himself to hold any negative thought consistently). Since I aim for a more blissful life, one of my main intentions is to eliminate all negative thoughts from my mind, irrespective of my current location and circumstances. As a first step towards this goal, I have decided to take Anthony’s challenge, starting tomorrow. I encourage you to do the same.
The rules of the game:
1. During the next ten days, refuse to hang onto any crummy thoughts, feelings, questions, words, or metaphors.
2. When you catch yourself focusing on the negative — and you will — immediately ask yourself questions to get you to a better place. Start with the Problem-Solving questions.
3. When you wake up in the morning, ask yourself the Morning Power questions. Just before you fall asleep at night, ask yourself the Evening Power questions. This will do wonders to keep you feeling good.
4. For the next ten consecutive days, focus completely on solutions and not on problems.
5. If you have a lousy thought, question, or feeling, don’t beat yourself up. Just change it immediately. If you dwell on any of these for more than five minutes, however, you must wait until the following morning and start the ten days over.
The goal here is ten consecutive days without dwelling on a negative thought. Anytime you dwell too long on the negative, you must start over, no matter how many days in a row you’ve already met the challenge.
According to Anthony Robbins, the power of this challenge is amazing. And, if you stick with it, you will gain a heap of benefits:
1. It will make you see all the mental habits that hold you back.
2. It will make your brain search for powerful, helpful alternatives.
3. It will give you a tremendous jolt of confidence as you can see you can turn your life around.
4. It will create new habits, new standards, and new expectations that will help you grow and enjoy life more and more, every day!
For your reference, the questions Anthony Robbins refers to in the challenge:
The Problem-Solving questions
1. What is great about this problem?
2. What is not perfect yet?
3. What am I willing to do to make it the way I want it?
4. What am I willing to no longer do in order to make it the way I want it?
5. How can I enjoy the process while I do what is necessary to make it the way I want i?
The Morning Power questions
1. What am I happy about in my life right now? What about that makes me happy? How does that make me feel?
2. What am I excited about in my life right now? What about that makes me excited? How does that make me feel?
3. What am I proud of in my life right now? What about that makes me proud? How does that make me feel?
4. What am I grateful for in my life right now? What about that makes me grateful? How does that make me feel?
5. What am I enjoying most in my life right now? What about that do I enjoy? How does that make me feel?
6. What am I committed to in my life right now? What about that makes me committed? How does that make me feel?
7. Who do I love? Who loves me? What about that makes me loving? How does that make me feel?
The Evening Power Questions
1. What have I given today? In what ways have I been a giver today?
2. What did I learn today?
3. How has today added to the quality of my life? How can I use today as an investment in my future?
Rather than doom and gloom, the world needs more blissfulness and loving, positive thoughts. Taking the Ten-Day Mental Challenge is one way to support that belief. When you’ve pulled off ten consecutive days without holding onto any negative thoughts, I’m sure you’ll see and feel the difference.
The challenge and the questions will make even more sense if you’ve read the book though. If you live in Europe, you can get your free copy of Notes from a Friend at http://anthonyrobbinseurope.com/