Healthy Minds in Hard Seasons
We all have hard. We sometimes have crisis. In this current climate, we are experiencing both. While it is important to pursue spiritual, relational, and physical health, another thing you can do that pays dividends in each of those areas is to also pay close attention to your mental health.
The ways you can do that are vast, but one simple encouragement to take hold of today is this: think about, what you think about. Proverbs says that life and death are in the power of the tongue, but remember, nothing gets to your mouth that does not first go through your brain! Just as you are responsible for the words you speak, you are responsible for the thoughts you think.
It’s not so easy. Research suggests that you can have 3,000 thoughts every hour – so it’s hard to attend to them all. However, there will be some thoughts that you cannot ignore. I think you know the kind I am talking about - thoughts of negativity, self-pity, fear, anxiety, half-truths, or full-on lies should not have the authority to roam free in your brain. They are hurting you far worse than you realize.
For these thoughts there are three things you can do in real time with each thought: Catch them, check them, and change them.
“We take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” ”
CATCH YOUR THOUGHTS.
First, get in the practice of catching your thoughts.Think about what you think about, and become aware of thoughts that are not from God. How many times will you allow thoughts like, “I am not loved” “I am not enough” “I will always feel this way” rule over you?
“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 on these things.”
CHECK YOUR THOUGHTS.
After you catch the thought, check it. Analyze and scrutinize the thought. Is this thought true? Is this thought right? Is this thought pure and lovely? A good way to check your thoughts is to ask, “If someone I love said that thought out loud to me, would I affirm them in their thinking or challenge them to move towards truth?” After all, we are usually far kinder, encouraging and supportive to those we love than to ourselves. If it doesn’t pass that test, then there is one last thing that needs to be done.
CHANGE THE THOUGHT.
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Sometimes, this looks like replacing a full-on lie, with truth. Sometimes, this is a small moderation from, “I am not loved” to “I may not feel loved right now, but I know there are people who love me.” Yet, sometimes changing the thought looks like adding to the truth, to make the thought more complete. To pull from Philippians 4:8, the thought may be true, but not excellent or praiseworthy. For instance, maybe the thought, “I am overwhelmed with anxiety” is true. But just as almost every psalm of lament is followed by sometime of declaration of praise and hope, so we too must fill our minds with a hope-filled-declaration. Try, “I am overwhelmed with anxiety, but I’m not alone. I can seek support from others, practice my coping skills, recognize God’s presence with me and I will make it through.”
Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he: so by attending to your thoughts, you have the ability to not only create health in your mind, but in your emotions, actions, relationships and spiritual life as well. There is no better time than today to start thinking about what you think about.