Our life is what our thoughts make it. Marcus Aurelius
Romans 12:2 NLT
Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Do not Conform:
to conform one's self (i.e. one's mind and character) to another's pattern, (fashion one's self according to)
Be Transformed:
to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure
Think differently
Renewing:
a renewal, renovation, complete change for the better
Mind:
the mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining
Prove:
to test, examine, prove, scrutinise (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals
To recognise as genuine after examination, to approve, deem worthy
Will:
what one wishes or has determined shall be done
In other words:
Get about giving your mind a complete renovation for the better, so that you will be able to examine test and find genuine, what God wishes and has determined shall be done.
This is a well known verse but how well do we actually apply this verse to our lives?
What actions are we taking to be deliberate about changing mindset?
What mindsets does God want us to change?
God encourages us to change any mindset that conforms to the patterns of the world rather than to God's pattern. We find God's way of thinking in his Word - love others, be kind to others, honour others, forgive one another etc.
Any patterns we have that do not consistently do these things are worldly mindsets.
Practical Application
The following is a summary taken from Dr Caroline Leaf's book 'Switch on Your Brain' chapters 11-15.
Gather:
You have to develop disciplined thought lives, and part of that is increasing your awareness of what you are allowing into your mind. The gather step is, therefore, all about becoming aware of all the signals that are coming into your mind from the external environment through the five senses and understanding the internal environment of your mind.
QUESTION: What are you experiencing through your five senses as you are reading this?
Try to describe this in as much detail as possible. This is a simple exercise just to help you become aware of what is coming into your mind. This simple awareness can be developed to the point where you learn not to let any thought go through your mind unchecked.
Be aware of how you feel, what is going on in your body etc.
Reflect:
This is deep, intellectual, disciplined thinking with attention regulation, thinking, body awareness, emotion regulation, and a sense of self that changes the brain positively.
Consequently, people gain health, happiness—and peace—exactly the instruction and consequence of 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”(NIV). In fact, throughout the book of Proverbs we are instructed to gain wisdom and meditate on knowledge until we understand.
QUESTION: Have you ever found yourself rehearsing something over and over for days on end, almost like you couldn’t get it out of your head? How did that make you feel?
A healthy thought and a toxic thought can both be built with mental rehearsal. But you can tear toxic strongholds down by choosing to bring the thought into conscious awareness for analysis and then changing it through repentance and forgiveness—which causes protein synthesis—and replacing it with the correct information, using Philippians 4: 8 or a similar Scripture guideline.
Write:
Writing down your thoughts is important in the Switch On Your Brain technique because the actual process of writing consolidates the memory and adds clarity to what you have been thinking about. It helps you better see the area that needs to be detoxed by allowing you to see your nonconscious and conscious thoughts in a visual way. It is almost like putting your brain on paper.
Metacog
It is simple: Group patterns that radiate from a central point. Each pattern linked to the central point creates a branch. Then continue to develop each of the branches by linking more detailed patterns. The process can continue until you have explored every nuance of your thought.
Revisit:
When a memory is in this plastic state, it can be modified, toned down, or retranscribed and reconceptualized
This is exciting, because once the thought is in the conscious mind after the gather, focused reflection, and writing you can redesign the thought and change it or keep it the same but make it stronger. You choose. Obviously, if you are doing the 21-Day Brain Detox Plan, you have chosen to change the negative, toxic though
QUESTION: How can thoughts be redesigned?
How to Redesign Thoughts
In the revisit, you evaluate what you have written down and work out what the healthy new thought you want to build is going to be. You work out the way forward, a little at a time. Remember, you have twenty-one days to do this, so don’t try to do it all in one day. Visualize what you want the end result to be, but get there in 21 days.
Not only do you have the opportunity to examine your thoughts on paper, but you have the opportunity to rethink through your reaction to the information—evaluating how toxic the thought is and then retranscribing it to be a healthy and strong part of your memory library.
Reach:
Active reaches are the challenging but fun part of this plan because they are actions and exercises you say and/ or do during the course of the day and evening. You in essence practice using the new healthy thought until it becomes automatized like a good habit
An active reach is not just the decision to forgive; it is the actual forgiving. It is not just the decision to believe that God heals; it is the actual believing. It is not just the decision to stop worrying about your children and trust they will make the right decisions because God is watching over them; it is actually stopping the worrying.
It is not just confessing God will meet your needs; it is the actual believing. It is not just the decision to lose weight; it is the actual lifestyle change to lose the weight. It is not just the decision to stop dwelling on the past; it is the actual stopping the dwelling on the past. It is not just the decision not to talk negatively; it is the actual not talking negatively no matter how tempting it is to do so. This is when you reach beyond where you are.
Summary: see Switch on Your Brain ch 15
Learning to Break Down the Toxic Thought
1. Gather (1–2 minutes)
•Purpose: bring thought into consciousness
•Example: worrying about money
•Don’t forget, it is the Holy Spirit who “will guide you into all the truth”(John 16: 13 NIV), so let him—and not yourself or someone else—make the decision about what you need to renew.
•Activity: go to chapter 11 for all the step 1 gather questions to guide you.
2. Focused Reflection (1–2 minutes)
•Purpose: loosen up branches •Activity: review chapter 12
3. Writing (1–2 minutes)
•Purpose: start shaking the branches to loosen the glue
•Activity: review chapter 13
4. Revisit (1–2 minutes)
•Purpose: shift the glue to the new healthy thought
•Activity: review chapter 14
5. Active Reach (1–2 minutes)
•Purpose: start melting down the branches
•Activity: review chapter 15
Learning to Build Up the Healthy Thought
Now let’s look at the parallel building-up process, which you do at exactly the same time as you do the breaking-down process to balance the negative with the positive. You don’t want to get stuck in the negative—toxicity—so you immediately bring balance to the situation.
1. Gather
•As you identify the toxic thought in the breaking-down process, you immediately, prayerfully, consciously think of the replacement thought. For example: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”(Phil. 4: 19 ESV). (See chap. 11.)
2. Focused Reflection
•Grow and integrate healthy branches by reflecting on the positive and not just dwelling on the negative. (See chap. 12.)
3. Write •Add more information and links with other branches by writing the positive alongside the negative. (See chap. 13.)
4. Revisit
•You are doing the same thing in the breaking-down and building-up processes here. The steps cross over because you are planning the solution to replace the problem. This starts stabilizing the branches to firm up the “glue”bonds. (See chap. 14.)
5. Active Reach
•This is the same step as in the breaking-down process, but here you actually do the active reaches. This strengthens the new thought branches. (See chap. 15.)
Repeating steps 1 through 5 daily for about seven minutes eventually eliminates the toxic tree and stabilizes the healthy tree. Like the Scripture says in Mark 11: 22–23, “You can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’and it will happen”(NLT).
Ch 15 Switch on Your Brain
Dr Caroline Leaf.
