Have you ever heard the saying “Life is a gift?” Well, there is a great deal of truth to that statement. I am going to share with you what I have been researching about our minds but first want to start with an excerpt from the book, The Soul of Money. This is the great lie…

” For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is ” I didn’t get enough sleep.” The next one is ” I don’t have enough time.” Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even begin to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don’t have enough of. Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn’t get, or didn’t get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack…. This internal condition of scarcity, this mind set of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudices, and our arguments with life.. ( 43-45).

Scarcity is the never enough problem because our culture is hyperaware of lack. We spend so much of our time trying to figure out or calculate what we have, want, and don’t have as well as what everyone else has or wants according to researcher Brene’ Brown.  This constant comparing and assessing is very self- defeating. Scarcity is just one example of what can become consuming toxic thoughts brought on by society saying ” You don’t measure up.” We tend to find our self- worth or what we think is our self- worth is in money and possessions but the Bible says different.

In Matthew 6:25  God clearly states, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life. what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothes?”

God designed us to depend on Him for all things, not just a couple or a few things but for all things. If you take a moment to think about what that command really means, it is almost more than our tiny little brains can handle. Some may think, “Well, who knows if there is even a God? Others may think, “It sounds nice but I don’t see him working in my life so I have to lean on my own understanding, resources, and knowledge.” ” I am the one guiding this ship!” However, let me break this down a bit more for you so you can truly begin to understand who God is and the reality is that He is the great healer, the great provider, the great safety net, the great scientist, the great physician, the great comforter, the great lover, truth teller, and the creator of all things. This world and all that He has so graciously blessed us with is not ours. It is His, we are just borrowers. The question is are we good stewards of all that He gives us so freely? Do we give freely as He does?

I decided to do this program called the 21 day detox by Dr. Caroline Leaf who is a neuroscientist as well as a follower of Christ. Dr. Leaf links scientific principles of the brain to spiritual, intellectual and emotional issues in simple and practical ways.

You think, and then you do, which cycles back to the original thought, changing it, and the thoughts connected to it, in a dynamic interrelationship. Therefore, if your thinking is toxic, then your communication and behavior are toxic, and vice versa.

 

Did you know that we can literally change the structure of our brain with what we feed it everyday? Dr. Caroline Leaf says that 75% to 95% of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life. What we think about affects us physically and emotionally. It’s an epidemic of toxic emotions. On average a person has more than 30,000 thoughts a day. If we are not controlling our thought life, we are creating conditions for various illnesses. Our thoughts can make us sick. Research shows that fear, all on its own, triggers more than 1,400 known physical and chemical responses and can activate 30 different hormones; toxins in your body generated by toxic thoughts.

If we can become conscious of what we are thinking, then we can begin to detox our brain and create more of a peaceful, healthy, and meaningful life. There is something to be said about “what you put out there, you attract back.”

I don’t think for a minute God doesn’t want to bless His precious children but I know He does not like complaining or most importantly unbelief.

Here are a few things that can help you with improving your thought life as well as the overall quality of your life..

Gratitude: There have been so many studies on the effects of gratitude. When you open your eyes in the morning, start thanking and praising God for who He is and what He has done for you. We tend to get consumed with all the negatives of what we don’t have and easily forget all that we do have. Did you open your eyes this morning? Then you are blessed. We do not know what is around the corner so start your day with God and let him be your guide. Believe good things are in store for you and your loved ones.

Controlling your thought life means not allowing negative thought to run rampant through your mind. It means learning to engage with every single thought you have and begin to analyze what you will reject and what you will accept. Most often the negative we are allowing in, is misperceptions. Remember you are to focus on the unseen, not the seen. The seen can be very deceptive. God knows and sees all, so begin your day with your focus solely on Him.

Dr. Leaf says start to look at your mental processes.. Here are some examples that will help you better understand.

1. How many “if only” were apart of your vocabulary today?

2. How many ” could have”, “would have”, or ‘should have” statements did you make today?

3. How many scenarios of the unknown, unpredictable, future have you played out? Worst case scenarios that is

4. How many conversations or situations have you played out over and over again in your head that have caused you pain?

5. How much of a role is fear playing? Have you ever pushed through fear and realized what was on the other side was so much better than where you currently were?

6. How distorted is your thinking? Are you only thinking about yourself? Are you saying things like “Never” or “Always” in negative ways? Do you personally identity with a disease? My cancer? My back issue? or “My money? My toxic relationship? My bad luck?

7. Are you making comments like “Nothing ever goes right for me?” “I am not worthy?” “I don’t deserve better?” “Everything I try, fails?” “Why do I have a dark cloud hanging over me?”

8. Do you give up?

9. Are you honest with yourself?

Remember no thought is harmless and can have major impact. Our unconscious mind drives our conscious mind, it is the dominate part and operates on quantum principles and The Holy Spirit. Did you know that you can eliminate all the negative in your past, present, and future with Christ? The question is are you listening to the world or the Holy Spirit? Everything you need for the rest of your life has already been done but how do we access it? Confessing, repenting, surrendering and time. Collective research and the Bible show that God is the way.

Don’t allow the enemy to steal your unclaimed blessings because you were too prideful, too messed up, too sinful to get on board with God and His ways. Those thoughts are from your enemy. We all have issues and the enemy wants to take us into the pit so we must have constant dialogue with God so we don’t fall prey. The devil is like a roaring lion, prowling and waiting on whom he can devour next.

When you thank God, He listens

When you praise God, You can feel His presence

When you worship God, He acts on your behalf.

Start by closing your eyes and cupping your hands ( using your senses), then prayerfully with thanksgiving, ask God what He wants to work out of you, those toxic blocks or footholds in your mind. Then kneel down and place them at the foot of the cross and praise Him, in Jesus’ name.

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty- John 6:35

We all are trying to fill a void that is meant for Jesus to fill. He doesn’t want a piece of your life, He wants your whole life. Broken things can become blessed things if you allow God to do the mending.

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive- Matthew 21:22

The next book I want to recommend is Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer

xo