WARRING IN THE MIND

The mind is a powerful space, and I imagine it looks like this…

It has many aisles, cabinets, and folders that house our thoughts, to-do lists, math formulas, cooking recipes, etc. A continuous field of endless possibilities that births dreams yet can create false narratives. With all the unlimited capabilities of the mind, it is essential to know that the mind is not always accurate in its processing. I’m a thinker. I process things thoroughly to arrive at an educated ending. Sometimes, this can affect my conclusions because I think about every possible outcome and what “could” be. I can think my professor hates me, but that does not make my thought accurate. Just how people believe that hell isn’t real doesn’t make it any less of a reality [but that’s another discussion for another blog post]. One of my former teachers posted a story on Facebook the other day. A student was caught doing something foolish and was being corrected. He blamed everybody else for his behaviour while thinking the teacher was “picking” on him. He did not see the value of having a teacher who cares for him because his mind tells him he is the target of all-out attacks to destroy him. He is thinking the worst. Often, we tend to lean more toward the negative side of things while blocking the possible positives in most situations.

One of the wars in the mind is making assumptions about someone’s view of us. For instance, if I wanted to post one of my accomplishments on social media, many thoughts run through my mind, like: “Should I post this?” “People will think I’m being prideful, “I already shared too many accomplishments, and people will think I just want attention,” “They probably think I’m doing too much.” No one has outrightly said this to me, but not wanting them to misunderstand or assume the wrong thing about me is at the forefront of my mind rather than my actual intention or heart. The reality of the matter can be the opposite of what’s going on in my mind. Whether people think negatively or positively about me shouldn’t matter to me. It shouldn’t determine how I live my life. Why am I wasting time executive-producing fake stories that would never go further than the boardroom of my mind?

I think so many of us are shackled by made-up stories and narratives in our minds. We live our lives walking on eggshells with people, and not because we have to. The person never told us directly that they didn’t like us, but we think the worst because they didn’t double tap on our picture, respond to a message in 30 minutes, or didn’t see us waving at them in the grocery store. Someone posted something, and we automatically assume they’re “throwing shade” at us. By the way, if their comments aren’t directed to you, then it doesn’t apply to you. Don’t acknowledge it. Don’t feed into it. [i think somebody just gained some deliverance right there]. We contemplate and labour over a message we want to send, saying, “What if they take this the wrong way?” Our minds make up scenarios that add more unnecessary anxiety than anything else. We know the message’s contents are pure, yet we think the worst. Even so, we are not responsible if someone takes the message incorrectly. We knew the posture of our hearts and motives. I’m not saying we should not consider their feelings. We should, however, understand that our control ends after we hit the send button.

We cannot control others, but we can control the thoughts in our minds.

We rob others when we pre-determine their response, feelings, or attitude toward us. We did not allow them to show themselves without assuming the outcome. We rob ourselves of meaningful relationships because we start acting “funny” toward someone because of what we “thought” rather than what “IS.” We decided to become Picasso with the paintbrush, painting the portrait of a personality or character we never fully knew. Even worse, we give these false narratives a platform to be heard through rumors, gossip, and slander. If we don’t win this war in the mind, it can create a world of trouble.

The thoughts in our minds can be cast down, but what we say can never be taken back.

I believe one of the major issues contributing to many of our warped imaginations is a lack of communication. We bottle our emotions about something that may have negatively impacted us, allowing it to fester. For example, since the person “ignored” us in the grocery store, we chose to stop speaking to them. We had no conversation with them but let our minds perceive that they were “ignoring” us. A simple conversation could have resolved the war in our minds because we would have understood that the person was not ignoring us but was in such a rush and focused on getting out of the grocery store that they were not paying attention to anything else.

Ask yourself today, “How can I resolve the war in my mind?”

Is it through prayer? Is it through a conversation? Is it through apologizing? Is it renewing your mind through the Word of God, aka The Bible? Is it through deleting social media? Whatever it is, do it because you can win the war in your mind.