Author: Denise Mistich
Have you given any thought to the amount of money Americans spend each year on self improvement? In the year 2005, $1.14 Billion was spent on self-improvement books alone. That’s not to mention the advice we seek from the internet, seminars, doctors, counselors, preachers and even psychics. Obviously, we have come to the conclusion that we need help, so why aren’t we getting any better?

We know that we need self improvement tips for over eating, smoking, alcoholism, abusive relationships, eating disorders, dysfunctional families, porn addictions…the list goes on forever. As a matter of fact, it seems the longer we stare at the list of issues, the more tips we need! We are focusing on a laundry list of issues, nitpicking ourselves to death and spending millions of dollars searching for self improvement tips on each separate issue. My advice is STOP!

Is that Really Good Advice? You bet it is. All of our issues come from deep within, so why not focus on the inner self and forget the laundry list? What you have deep within you depends 100% on what you feed into your mind. Your parents, teachers and peers fed your inner self when you were a child. Now, you feed your inner self through what you read, hear and see. This is called spiritual food and it may well be time for you to change your diet!

You are what you eat, both physically and spiritually. If you have heard negative, hurtful words all of your life, you have negative, hurtful thoughts. If you have been rejected and wounded, you are filled with painful, fearful thoughts. Eventually, this inner pain comes out. All of those ugly words will manifest in your life. Then, what do you do? You put the “stuff” that came out on your laundry list. You start trying to work your way down the list, knocking off bad habits and behaviors one by one.

Again, I advise you to stop! Instead, look deep within yourself and learn a little more about what is in there. More importantly, consider who put it there. Is your inner self built by blocks of loving words of wisdom, giving you a sturdy, stable foundation. Or is your inner self built on someone’s negative words of pain and anger, leaving you weak in the knees?

Change your spiritual diet. Feed yourself with God’s loving words of wisdom each and every day. Think about His words, meditate on them throughout the day. This WILL give you new, healthy thoughts. It will give you a new inner self. His words will manifest in your life and the issues on your laundry list will fall away one by one. That will eliminate our need to spend $1.14 billion on self improvement books each year! (Wow! Just imagine what we could do for world hunger with $1.14 billion!)