The battle for a better life begins in your head. Your thoughts, beliefs, and worldview create the foundation from which your decisions, attitudes, and actions arise. Therefore, the secret to transforming your life is to change your thinking. To put it another way, positive change comes when you renew your mind by filtering out unhelpful or unhealthy thoughts.
Do you have a good water filter in your brain?
My husband has a water filter bottle designed for back-country hiking. You can fill it with tainted water and it will filter out the harmful stuff and provide you with water that’s safe to drink. A water filter traps and removes toxic compounds that could harm our bodies if we ingested them. Similarly, renewing the mind captures toxic thoughts that lead to attitudes and actions that aren’t good for us.
Do not be shaped by this world. Instead be changed within by a new way of thinking.
Romans 12:2 (ICB)
…you must give up your old way of life with its bad habits. Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person.
Ephesians 4:22-23 (CEV)
My goal for this blog is to help you enjoy a life of joy, purpose, and fulfillment. Much of what I write about is intended to help you renew your mind so you can filter out the junk and adopt healthier, more positive thinking, which in turn will enable you to make healthier choices and enjoy more of life.
Positive change is possible for all of us. At any age. I’m here to help you transform your life, one small step at a time.
Renewing your mind makes change possible
Scriptures like the ones I quoted above inform us that transformation happens when we renew our minds. Bible teachers like Joyce Meyer agree.
“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”
Joyce Meyer
Psychologists like Carol Dweck (Mindset) and Rick Hanson (Resilient) also confirm that change is possible. They tell us that with repeated effort you can actually retrain how your mind thinks. Science has shown you can reprogram your brain by building new neural connections that lead to healthier thinking. Therefore, the more intentional you are about filtering out unhealthy thoughts and replacing them with better ones, the easier it becomes.
Renewing your mind is a continual struggle
Thoughts pop into our heads all the time, so renewing the mind is a constant practice rather than a once-and-done fix. Plus, we’re surrounded by a noisy world that serves up an endless smorgasbord of ideas, distractions, an temptations—most of which aren’t good for us. Everything we see, hear, and experience affects our thoughts.
Each day we face dozens of mini-battles—situations where we can acept the thoughts in our heads or else run them through our brain renewal filter and reject the toxic ones. We won’t win every battle, but that’ OK. Its the cumuolatoive total that matters. Each small victory adds up over time. The more mini-battles we win in our minds, the more we are able to change and grow in positive ways.
If this sounds hopeless and exhausting, look at it from a different angle: If the battle is continual, defeat is never final. Each new thought is an new opportunity to win a thought-battle.
Renewing your mind is a two-step process
Water filters physically trap toxic compounds and bacteria, but thoughts can’t be absorbed by activated charcoal. So our brain renewal filter works a little differently. It eliminates unhelpful thoughts by identifying them as toxic and then replacing them with better thoughts.
Toxic thoughts we should filter out include:
- Wounding or insulting words
- The world’s values
- Unhealthy attitudes you learned growing up
- Negative inner voices
- Unhelpful beliefs
- Identity based on effort
- Perfectionist thinking
- Expectations put on us by others
- Fixed mindset thinking
- Shame and self-loathing
- Entitlement, ingratitude and superiority
We should replace toxic thoughts with:
- Our identity in Christ
- Godly values
- Positive affirmations based on God’s truth
- Healthy beliefs that lead to growth
- Healthier thinking patterns
- Realistic expectations
- Healthy personal boundaries
- Growth mindset thinking
- Self-acceptance
- Forgiveness
- Gratitude
Renewing your mind is worth the effort.
“DON’T GIVE UP! When the battle seems endless and you think you’ll never make it, remember that you are reprogramming a very carnal, fleshly, worldly mind to think as God thinks. Impossible? No! Difficult? Yes! But, just think, you have God on your team. I believe He is the best “computer programmer” around. (Your mind is like a computer that has had a lifetime of garbage programmed into it.) God is working on you; at least, He is if you have invited Him to have control of your thoughts. He is reprogramming your mind. Just keep cooperating with Him—and don’t give up!”
Joyce Meyer
Renewing your mind leads to a transformed life in ways such as:
- Greater self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-confidence
- Increased ability to embrace positive ways of thinking about yourself and the problems you face
- Victory over troublesome habits, thought patterns, and addictions
- Less guilt, fear, shame, negative thinking
- Healthier self: physically, emotionally, spiritually
- Healthier relationships
- Less inner turmoil and frustration, because you are making choices that honor your values
Final thoughts
If you want slow but steady growth toward a healthier and a more satisfying life, start by being intentional about running your thoughts through your mental water filter. Thought by thought, day by day, you can begin to reprogram your brain.
It’s never too late to start. Where do you need a better brain renewal filter to protect you from toxic thoughts? Who can you encourage in the battle of the mind today?
If this post helped you, please share it so others can benefit, too.
