“This inner voice we have is not something we want to rid ourselves of. It’s something 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?”
— Ethan Kross, professor and director of the Emotion and Self-Control Lab, University of Michigan

Life can be hard. There are seasons when responsibilities pile up, things don’t go as we hoped, and fear and anxiety settle into our minds. As Christians, we know we’re called to “not be anxious about anything,” but living that out in real life can feel impossible.

The good news is that God has given us not only His Spirit but also a mind designed with incredible capacity for renewal and resilience. And modern neuroscience is helping us understand how to engage that design. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a well-known neuroscientist and author, has a story that really helps us see this more clearly.

The Story That Changed Everything

In 1996, at just 37 years old, Dr. Taylor was a researcher and professor of neuroanatomy at Harvard when she experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. Within four hours, she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, write, and even recall parts of her past.

In her TED Talk — one of the most viewed in history — and her book My Stroke of Insight, she recounts what it was like to lose her left-brain functions and live almost entirely in the intuitive, creative right hemisphere for a season. This experience changed the way she thought about thoughts themselves.

It also laid the groundwork for her later book, Whole Brain Living, where she explores how the emotional and thinking parts of our brains interact — and, more importantly, how we can learn to consciously choose which parts of our brain to engage.

The Power of Choice

Dr. Taylor says something that’s both profound and hopeful:

“I can become my anger in an instant. It’s a group of cells in my brain. Where do I want to consciously place my energy? Because it’s all cells and circuitry. The more we run a circuit, the more power it begins to run on its own. We have so much more power over what’s going on inside of our brains than we have ever been taught.”

Think about that. Every time we dwell on a thought — fear, resentment, shame, hope, gratitude, compassion — we are literally strengthening the neural pathway associated with that thought. Our focus isn’t neutral; it’s formative.

This echoes what Scripture has been teaching us all along: “Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). God wired us so that what we choose to dwell on actually reshapes our brains — and, ultimately, our lives.

The Daily Battle for Attention

So where does this power lie? It lies in our moment-to-moment decisions about where to place the focus of our attention.

This isn’t simply a matter of avoiding “bad thoughts” — though that matters too. It’s broader and deeper than that. Every day, we face countless opportunities to either fuel life-giving circuits or strengthen destructive ones:

• Self-pity vs. gratitude
• Anxiety vs. trust
• Rumination vs. release
• Resentment vs. forgiveness
• Fear of the worst vs. hope for the best

The list is endless. And here’s the harsh truth: When we constantly indulge in worst-case-scenario thinking, jealousy, imagined slights, or “what if” spirals, we’re essentially training our brains to stay stuck in a downward loop.

This is why self-control isn’t just about resisting temptation in obvious ways — lust, anger, envy. It’s about learning to guide the shifting focus of our attention. That’s where transformation begins.

Faith Meets Neuroscience

What Dr. Taylor discovered through science affirms what Scripture reminds us: we’re NOT powerless over our thought life.

Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 10:5: “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

"Taking a thought captive" doesn’t mean suppressing it, denying it, or pretending it’s not there. It means not giving it free reign. It’s noticing where your mind goes, choosing what deserves your energy -- what leads to the "abundant life" Jesus talks about -- and aligning your focus there.

That doesn’t happen once. It happens daily. Hourly. Sometimes minute by minute. But every time you make that choice, you’re strengthening the neural pathways that support peace, hope, and faith.

A Simple Starting Point

Here’s a practice you can try today:

• Notice where your thoughts are going. Don’t judge them — just become aware.
• Name what’s happening. “I’m spiraling into anxiety.” “I’m rehearsing old resentments.”
• Choose to shift your focus. Pick one grounding thought, one verse, or one prayer.
• Repeat it. Run that “circuit” enough times, and it becomes easier to access the next time.

Over time, this is how we rewire our brains — and renew our minds.

The Invitation

Dr. Taylor’s research reminds us of something both science and Scripture agree on: we are not at the mercy of our thoughts. We get to choose where to focus, what to feed, and what to release.

The inner voice isn’t your enemy. It can be one of your greatest allies — but only if you learn to guide it. And that guidance starts with a simple, powerful question:

“Where am I placing my energy right now?”

Because where you focus today will shape who you become tomorrow.