In this article, I want to cover another important aspect of manifesting: your inner conversations, or what Neville Goddard called a “mental diet”.
Let’s say that you set an intention for something to manifest in your world, and you are using techniques such as affirmations & visualisation to impress your subconscious mind. One of the ways you can scupper your manifesting efforts is through negative inner conversations.
Inner conversations are the conversations you have inside your own mind — the things you say to yourself, and the “imaginary conversations” you have with others.
Neville Goddard said that for something to manifest in your world, your inner conversations have to match your fulfilled desire.
So, let’s say that you desire to attract a loving relationship into your life. If inside your mind you are thinking cynical thoughts about love or relationships, your inner conversations are not a match for your desire, and could undo your efforts to manifest or delay your manifestation.
In this article, I’m going to give you some instructions on how to go on a “mental diet” so that you can make sure your inner conversations match your desire.
It can feel a bit daunting to know that your inner conversations need to match your desire, but know that every thought you have does not manifest.
Manifesting teacher Dr Joe Dispenza says that for something to manifest in your world, you need to combine a clear intention (so, a thought) with an emotion. It is the combination of thought and emotion that manifests — not the thought or the emotion alone. Unwanted manifestations happen most often when we have a repeated negative thought, and then we react repeatedly to the negative thought we’re having, producing a combination of a negative thought and a negative emotion. The trick therefore is to simply observe negative thoughts, without reacting to them.
Getting some distance
This leads me on to the first component of a mental diet: meditation.
Neville Goddard says that if you are to be successful in shaping your world using your imagination, you should be meditating.
The reason meditation is so useful for manifestation is because over time it really helps you to notice what is going on in your own mind, and to spot negative thoughts and interrupt them.
Meditation can be a simple mindfulness meditation for 5-10 minutes per day, where you sit quietly and focus on your breath. It could also be a guided meditation (I do Dr Joe Dispenza’s guided meditations daily, but you can find plenty of free guided meditations on YouTube.)
Once you have a meditation practice up and running, your next task is to spot your negative thoughts and emotions. When you notice yourself thinking something that is out of alignment with your desire (something negative), say to yourself “change, change, change”.
Once you have identified the negative thought, find the opposite of this thought, and tell yourself that instead.
Be careful with negative emotions. You can interrupt and re-route them (snapping yourself out of a negative emotional state) but sometimes it is more helpful to just be with the emotion and witness it for yourself. Naming it is also really useful. For example: “this is frustration” or “this is fear.”
Labelling our negative feelings in the moment switches off the amygdala’s (the fearful part of your brain’s) response to the feeling. Doing this activates the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and that’s what switches off the amygdala. The more often you do this in your life, the less you see amygdala activation, according to researchers. So, the more we name our feelings, the less stressed we feel by them. And the less likely we are to create and manifest from that place of stress.
Mental diet isn’t just about inner conversations…
…it’s also about the words that we speak out loud to others.
So, if you have a conflict with someone that you wish to be over, not only should you stop arguing with that person in your head, but you also need to stop talking about the conflict with others.
If you have a chronic illness that you wish to release, not only do you stop identifying as ill and thinking of yourself as an ill person, but you also stop discussing your health with other people (except if totally necessary e.g. a doctor’s appointment), and you should stop discussing any restrictions the health condition may impose on you. Dr Joseph Murphy (who studied with the same Kabbalah teacher as Neville Goddard) states that those who are sick should never mention the name of their illness out loud, since this imbues the condition with power. In this situation, I also recommend not frequenting Facebook groups about illnesses, or writing/blogging about it. In fact, creating a blog around a reality you no longer want to see in your life is pretty much the worst possible action you could take.
So, to summarise, a mental diet involves the following:
- A meditation practice, so that you can get into the habit of observing your own inner chatter. If you’re new to meditation, start with 5 mins per day
- Noticing and interrupting negative thoughts by saying “stop” or “change” out loud when they come up, and redirecting them to something positive instead. For example, if you think “My health will never get better”, instead tell yourself “My health will definitely get better — it’s inevitable.”
- To the best of your ability, stop talking about your problems or things you do not wish to see in your life
- Name your negative emotions so that they can move through you more quickly and stress you out less. Welcome in negative emotions as a normal part of the human experience. Suppressing negative emotions does not help with your manifestation.
- Don’t be afraid of negative thoughts or negative emotions by themselves. Negative feelings by themselves do not have the power to manifest. Negative thoughts can manifest but they need to be repeated until the subconscious mind is sufficiently impressed and they also need not to be counteracted with positive thoughts, in order to manifest into 3D. The reason why our manifestations take time to appear in 3D is because we all have negative and positive thoughts all the time. Can you imagine how chaotic our lives would be if manifestation were instant and every thought manifested straight away? This time buffer works to our advantage when we’re thinking negatively. If we also have some positive or hopeful thoughts in the mix, which counteract the negativity, that means the negative stuff never manifests.
Here are some wise words from Neville Goddard on the importance of your mental diet:
“Our present mental conversations do not recede into the past as man believes. They advance into the future to confront us as wasted or invested words.”
“What is your aim? Does your inner talking match it? It must, if you would realise your aim.”
“If we do not like what is happening to us, it is a sure sign that we are in need of a change of mental diet.”
These quotes are taken from Neville Goddard’s 1955 lecture “Mental Diets”.
A final note: be aware that a mental diet can take huge effort if your thoughts are often negative. It’s really an ongoing effort. But if you entertain more positive thoughts, not only will it help with your manifestation, but it will also improve your life in other ways. Going on a mental diet has allowed me to hugely improve both my psychological and physical health.
Further Reading:
I offer a free online resource for manifesting your desired reality using the Law of Assumption — it’s a collection of online articles which are presented in the right order so that you can use them as a ‘how to’ guide. It’s quite a comprehensive resource and can help take you from A to B with almost any intention. You can find that here.
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