Change Almost Anything in 21 Days - Softcover

Ruth Fishel, MEd, LMHC is a prolific author, national retreat and workshop leader and a therapist, whose books take the reader on marvelous journey through pain and loss to inspiration and hope. They are both a program for recovery and a path to growth, peace and love of self, others and God.

Her many books include her newest CHANGE ALMOST ANYTHING IN 21 DAYS, PRECIOUS SOLITUDE, THE JOURNEY WITHIN, A Spiritual Path to Recovery, a pioneer book on meditation, spirituality and recovery and the best selling TIME FOR JOY, which has sold over 200,000 copies. She also teaches STOP! DO YOU KNOW YOU’RE BREATHING, a program she developed for teachers nurses, teachers, counselors, therapists, physicians and psychiatrists to help their students, clients and patients deal with stress, addictions, impulse control, anger and violence. She has taught it nationally to thousands of people. Ruth co-founded and co-directed Serenity, Inc. a multi-faceted non-profit residential and outpatient treatment program for chemically dependent women from 1974-88. Currently she is co-directing Spirithaven, Inc. of Cape Cod, which she co-founded in 1989.

Many years ago, while I was struggling to end my addiction to alcohol, a very wise man told me that we can change almost anything we want to change in our lives. He said we can change our name, our location, our careers, our relationships, just about everything, for one day. He said that most things could be changed back, if we didn’t like the change. That was easy enough to say, but my struggle continued. How, I wondered, would change happen for me?

When I was a child my father instilled deeply in me the message that “Ruth could do anything.” Over and over again, he repeated the story about how I had taught myself to ski. He told and retold it to anyone who would listen about how every time I fell down, I would pick myself up and start over. He said that was how I could do anything I wanted to do. Stay with the task I wanted to accomplish, and if I fell, simply pick myself up and start over again. Because of hearing of this message over and over again for so many years, I thought I really could do just about anything. But, that was until the compulsion to drink became stronger than I truly could handle and I couldn’t stop, no matter how I tried.

Finally, with the help of many other recovering alcoholics, I was introduced to the concept of a Power Greater than myself. This was extraordinarily difficult for me at first because I was such an extremely independent and arrogant person and believed that God was simply a crutch used by very weak people. Believe in God if you want to, I thought, but not me! That’s not what I need! However, nothing else was working. I simply could not stop drinking. Finally, after much pain and despair, I turned to this Power and humbly asked for help. The miracle happened. I soon lost my desire to drink.

I came to believe in a Power in the universe that I could not see or touch. I knew for certain It was there. I saw It at work in the miracle of the changing seasons, the birth of my children, a seed becoming a flower. I saw the results in the changes in other peoples lives. Today I call that Power God.

Hungry to learn more, I went on to study about the power of prayer and meditation, intentions, and the power of words. I learned about the wonderful concept of the power of affirmations and the power of 21 days. Marvelous things began to happen. I became more confident. I overcame my fear of public speaking. I was able to help in the opening of an alcoholism treatment program for women when all odds were against us. My life began to change as I developed my ability to use these powerful techniques.

I also learned that it is not possible to change everything. There are some things, like winning the Olympics at the age of 62 or becoming an opera singer if you are tone deaf that are out of the realm of our ability to alter, no matter what we do, and we learn to accept limitations with time and experience. However, as we grow in our practice and become more open to allowing these powers to work in our lives, we discover that even if we wish for one result, it might notbe in our best interests to have it. Something better might be waiting for us. We learn to trust the process of growth and change.

Eventually, I began teaching and writing about these subjects, because they work! My intention in writing this particular book is to take everything I know about affirmations, everything that I have learned from teachers, clients, workshop and retreat participants, friends and my own experience, and put it all in one place. This book is meant to be a vehicle for transformation. Anyone can pick it up and find the subject they wish to change and learn how to make it happen. After many years of teaching affirmations and utilizing them in my own life, I have found that one of the greatest barriers to successful outcomes is that people have difficulty wording affirmations to achieve the results they want.

What is unique in Change (Almost) Anything in 21 Days is that there are over 400 affirmations alphabetized according to topic. You can go to the index, and find a positive, powerful affirmation for almost any subject you want or need to change. For example, if you’re nervous about a job interview or an upcoming exam, simply look up fear or confidence in the index. Do you want to lose weight? Check out food or addiction. If the affirmation you find doesn’t feel quite perfect, rewrite it in your own words, remembering to use the five rules for successful affirmations discussed later in this book.

Experiment with affirmations. Experience their magnetism as they connect you with the power and energy of the universe. Know there is a power for good and love in the universe and watch how it can bring miraculous changes into your life!