By Lisa S. Tarno

Some of this blog article information comes from a great podcast I was listening to at the gym today from Mel Robbins, entitled: “How to Control Your Mind & Redirect Your Energy to Self Transformation” It was chock-full of great insights from professionals in neuroscience and psychology. I will make mention of her discoveries and add my own from a spiritual side of things as well.

The beginning was about when we all get in that rut of wrong thinking that doesn’t serve us well. Joyce Meyer’s calls it “Stinking Thinking” and has good biblical wisdom from her books, “The Battlefield of the Mind” and “Power Thoughts” which are excellent resources to add to your library!

The Bible instructs us as Christians to mind our minds in 2 Cor 10:5 where it says, “Take every thought captive and bring it to the obedience of Christ…” What does that mean…especially to the obedience of Christ? I believe it to mean that we take God’s Word, the Bible, seriously where it instructs us to: set our minds on things above (Col 3:3), think with the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5), we’ve been given the mind of Christ as believers (1 Cor 2:16), and what to fix our thoughts on in a list of good things found in Phil 4:8.

1. Secular advice found in the podcast was good in that it initially instructed 1. Throw A Ball as a redirect technique to interrupt the rumination of wrong thoughts. “Throwing a ball” was akin to what we do with dogs to redirect their behavior. With us, it was a list of suggestions from doing something to break the cycle of rumination by being creative, i.e. cook from a cookbook to organizing an area of your home to other things that involved doing something different. These are good suggestions that interrupt the flow of thoughts but I wonder if they actually cure the core of the issue: a negative mindset?

One still has to deal with the core issue of a negative mindset. How do you do that? Spiritually, you recognize wrong thinking and talk to God (prayer) about it. You ask God to help you overcome wrong thoughts by purposely thinking on what is good, true, excellent, positive and praiseworthy (found in Phil 4:8). Another good resource is Tommy Newberry’s book, “The 4:8 Principle” which goes into this type of spiritual redirect in more detail. 

1. The next step from the podcast was to: Give the mind something to look for, like heart shapes in your environment. This is to prove that your brain filter is working. It has to do with the reticular activating system (RAS) that decides what information gets in and out of your conscious mind. Mel Robbins take on this was fascinating as was the info from neuroscience professionals that we have control over what we tell our brains is important! Looking for heart shapes is a filtering technique to train your brain.

How much better would this be than to spiritually incorporate the power of God’s Word in this process? We can tell our brains the truths found in scripture and take it at it’s word where Isaiah 55:11 says, that “God’s word does not return void” or in the NLT version it reads, “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”  And…verse 12 reads, “You will live in joy and peace.” So taking the powerful words of scripture and focusing on that can literally rewire your brain. See Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of the world, but let God TRANSFORM you into a new person by CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK.” God’s way is the original psychology!

1. The third step in the podcast was essentially about directing the mind as in setting intentionality. The professional she interviewed had steps of: a.Grab a pencil b. Write down what it is you want to accomplish c. Close your eyes and think on it and d. Read it aloud. This was all done to direct our minds to accomplish what we are giving focus to. 

We’ve all heard the saying that “energy flows to where focus goes”. I believe this advice to be along those same wave lengths.

Directing the mind spiritually is again found in Phil 4:8 where it instructs us what to FIX OUR THOUGHTS on. It behooves us to daily spiritually train our brains simply with 2 Cor 10:5 and Phil 4:8 as a foolproof prescription. Enough said on that!

1. The last point that I wrote down from the podcast was about how to set up your mind each day. At the beginning of the day we were instructed to say, “This is going to be a great day!” And at the end of each day we would reflect on “What went well today?” These are great tools to employ!

Spiritually, this is the essence of setting your mind on things above found in Col 3:3. Every morning I swing my legs over the side of my bed and say out loud, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Which is found in Psalms 118:24. It sets my mind for the day in a good way! Some days, the hard days, I am literally willing myself to choose to be glad in this day no matter what I face. “I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!” 

And at night, I try to reflect on at least three things I am thankful for that day. 1 Thess 5:16-18 says, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances.” Thankfulness begets joy in our lives and I feel we need to be disciplined to remember what our blessings are. This is the spiritual aspect of the secular advice given on this point.

God’s Word is full of wisdom to redirect our thoughts, choosing to be intentional and advises how to set our minds each day for the betterment of living our lives and impacting others. I love to learn and glean wisdom from all kinds of sources, as in the case of this podcast, but as I was listening I smiled because God already has shown me this in His Word years ago. Here’s to life and the intentional thoughts that produce a good one!