Emerging your self-talk to new heights

The power of positive thinking is real. Everybody I know wants to know how to be happy, and most of us understand that positive thinking is a crucial part of the equation. If positive thinking has become a priority for you, well done! Keep reading…

You know what it’s like when you hear a song for the first time and it strikes a chord in you so deep that you get emotional? That’s how it was for me the first time I heard NF’s The Search. Here’s the specific lines that caught me attention...

Last year I had a breakdown
Thoughts tellin me I'm lost gettin too loud
Had to see a therapist then I found out
Somethin' funny's going on up in my house
Yeah started thinkin' maybe I should move out
You know pack my cart take a new route
Clean up my yard get the noose out
Hang up my heart let it air out

The point I'm makin is the mind is a powerful place
And what you feed it can affect you in a powerful way
It's pretty cool right?
Yeah, but it's not always safe
Just hang with me this will only take a moment okay
Just think about it for a second if you look at your face
Every day when you get up and think you'll never be great
You'll never be great
Not because you're not but the hate
Will always find a way to cut you up and murder your faith

Nathan Feuerstein (NF) communicates so well what it’s like for someone struggling with positive thinking. Our brains are an amazing masterpiece of creation that have the power of life and death, and if left untamed, will lead to unfortunate places. That’s why books on how to think positive are aplenty, everyone wants to know how the secret to positive thinking! 

Is it possible to rewire our brains to embrace positive thinking?

Here’s an excerpt from National Geographic regarding the fleshy computer in our skulls:  

You carry around a three-pound mass of wrinkly material in your head that controls every single thing you will ever do. From enabling you to think, learn, create, and feel emotions to controlling every blink, breath, and heartbeat—this fantastic control center is your brain. It is a structure so amazing that a famous scientist once called it "the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe."

Like all wonderful things in life, we must be careful to be good stewards of our brains. Our minds are extremely powerful, and therefore, as Stan Lee taught us, with great power comes great responsibility. If you’re like me, you’ve had seasons in your past where you forgot to be a good steward of you self-talk and positive thinking became a forgotten pipe dream. The ramifications can be devastating, but there’s good news! Your brain, with some diligent practice, can be transformed into something beautiful again! Here’s how the Apostle Paul put it…

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
(Romans 12:2)

How to train your mind to think positively

Picture yourself on a trail. Pretend the trail is a path that you’ve realized is leading toward a certain doom. On your left with an incline covered in dense plant life and trees. You decide to take out your machete and start building a new trail. How much work would that be? How long would it take? Right. A lot of work and a long time. However, would it be worth it if that new trail led to certain life? Absolutely. 

Our brains are very similar! We have the ability to create new pathways in our minds! It’s going to take a lot of practice, but it will be completely worth it. The more we practice healthy self-talk the more the build a new pathway upstairs. And the other cool part about this process is that the negative trail begins to get overgrown. In other words, our brain figures out that we don’t need that trail anymore and the new trail becomes the “go to” pathway. 

If you’re struggling with your thoughts, be encouraged! There is hope! You can practice healthy thinking and become “transformed by the renewing of your mind”. Positive thinking can become a reality for you! You can embrace the thought life that your Creator intended for you to have; a thought life that brings exactly that… life!  If you’d like to talk more about this please consider scheduling an appointment with me. I’d be happy to come alongside you as your Christian Counselor and teach you more tools to develop healthy, gracious self-talk. There’s always hope!

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)