1. Feature Article: "Can You Control the Thoughts Generated by the
Mind?"
Today's article comes from the Renewed Man Boot Camp. Renewed Man is a systematic teaching and coaching series designed to help men grow emotionally, relationally, and spiritually ... developing the essential character quality of "self-mastery." Even though this community is created for men, the principles
are universal -- women will benefit from these insights as well.
We build this teaching around 12 Keys, and this week is a time of transition, where
we're getting ready to start a new 12-week sequence. The keys we talk about in this program help us deal with four important areas of struggle for many people today:
Disconnection: building our Relational
Health
Distress: building our Mental / Emotional Health
Disillusionment: building our Spiritual Health
Desire: building our Moral Health
Here's one of the daily messages from this Transition Week's
teaching series. I hope this will help you:
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"We have so much more power over what’s going on inside of our brains than we have ever been taught." - Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
Yes it’s true that racing thoughts can be bad, and a lot of times the dialog in our heads makes us more unhappy and
stressed out … BUT the solution is not to try to quiet the mind. In fact, stilling the mind is impossible.
I once heard the meditation teacher Emily Fletcher compare the brain to the heart: you can’t shut either of them off. The nature of your heart is to beat. You can’t get it to stop by trying really hard. So it is with the brain. It is the nature of our brain to generate thought. We can’t get it to stop. What we can do is allow it to slow down and exert some influence on the direction of those thoughts.
Jenna Abdou is the creator and host of the podcast 33Voices, where she interviews many neuroscientists and psychologists. She recently wrote an article with the following title, which
contains the main point embedded in it: “Your inability to ‘quiet your mind’ isn’t due to lack of effort. It’s the wrong goal.”
The idea of “quieting the mind” only makes sense in that we can make our thoughts less urgent and frightening, but we can never STOP our minds from thinking. Ethan Kross, professor and director of the Emotion and Self-Control Lab at the University of Michigan, puts it this way:
“This inner voice we have is not something that we want to rid ourselves of. It’s something that we want to harness. The challenge is to figure out if you find yourself slipping into the dark side of chatter. How can we minimize that and accentuate the more positive side of the inner voice?”
So what are you thinking about? At any given moment, you get to decide.
What Does Christian Teaching Have to Say About This?
These insights from contemporary researchers help us appreciate the
teaching of Scripture. The idea of paying attention to our thoughts, and exerting some measure of control over them is an important part of Christian teaching. We are called to be the masters, and not the victims, of our minds.
Paul writes this in Philippians 4:8 --
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.
He would not tell us to do this if it were not possible.
When we become aware of our thoughts, we can choose what to do with them — do we follow the random thoughts of our monkey mind, or choose to focus on something good, true, and excellent?
These decisions — made minute-by-minute — may be among the most important decisions of our lives.
NEXT ACTION
Today's recovery action is to try this out for yourself. Take a few minutes to relax, and become intentionally aware of your current thoughts. Sit quietly in a comfortable place and just listen to what
your mind is saying. Don't try to force anything; just observe.
If you notice your thoughts slipping towards negativity or stress, consciously redirect them towards something
good, true, and excellent. This could be a happy memory, a loved one, a personal achievement, or anything that evokes positive feelings within you.
Consider writing down what you've observed and how you redirected your thoughts in a journal. This practice will help you become more aware of your thought patterns and increase your ability to guide them towards positivity.
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Would you like to go "all in" and join
the Renewed Man Boot Camp? It's a 12 Week Immersion in these principles. You'll get these daily teachings, a weekly video on one of the 12 Keys of Being a Renewed Man, and access to a support group and/or a coaching group that I lead.
Find out more about the Renewed Man Program here.
