Ever feel that the tide of bad news is pounding at your shores? Well, it is if you let it, but if you'd like to take control of your input to produce better output, then here is what you need-The 30 Day Mental Fast.
Just as we abstain from food, we can abstain from a negative mental outlook.
Some time ago, during the Tuesday Bible study class at Saint Cecilia Catholic Church, our leader, Sue, opened with a prayer expressing that we all begin focusing more on God’s Word and less on the disturbing events around us. After we all said our “Amen,” I sheepishly raised my hand and shared a challenge I undertook beginning June 2001 called The 30-Day Mental Fast. Jerry Clark started the program. Clark said that we could change our mental outlook by following a few rules. No longer will we be slaves to the media’s grip of fear and doom.
What started as a thirty-day challenge has become a ten-year continuous endeavor, and this included the infamous events of September 11, 2001. During that dreadful period, I barely looked at the news. I knew what I needed to know, and I knew I could not change anything. Instead, I was free to focus on what I could change: my life, attitude, and outlook.
Romans 12:2 expounds, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Turn off the television set and the radio in the house and the car.
Avoid reading newspapers, magazines, or Internet media reports. And in place of the above:
Listen to books on tape, motivational CDs, or Catholic CDs.
Read good books and magazines to make you grow rather than make you feel powerless.
Give yourself time every day in God’s word and prayer.
Exercise daily to help the brain.
Drink plenty of purified water to flush the brain.
Journal what you are learning.
Eternal Father, May the hope that springs forth from your Son’s death and resurrection shine forth through the Church in every age and every circumstance.
Martha Wild King, M. Ed., Author The Frugal Catholic: Learn to live on less to give and save more.