I get curious when I visualize thoughts as portions in a mental diet. I know many people who pay close attention to what they put in their bodies, but what about the thoughts that nourish our brains?

Try this: track your thoughts for 24 hours. Assess their nutritional value. If you want to play at being precise, make a scale with apples at one end and toxic waste at the other. Track your thought choices throughout the day. How healthy is your diet?

In her book Simplify Your Life, Elaine St. James had a different way to track thought. She used two bowls and a handful of black beans. At the start of the day, all the beans were in one bowl, and the other was empty. With each negative thought, she would go to the desk and move one of the beans. Then she would transform the thought, or let it go.

In whatever way you choose to do it, track your own thought patterns.  You will be astounded; many thoughts are so habitual that we aren’t fully aware of them, until we are. A tiny shift in a bit of internal dialog, from “should” to “want to”, for example, could change everything.  More about that at another time.