Are you plagued with negative thoughts about yourself and others? As Christians we may not even realize how our wrong thinking is affecting our concept of God. Don't let trashy thinking litter your mind and ruin your life. Jack Zavada shows us how to clean up our "stinking thinking" and take out the garbage.
Time to Take Out the Trash
Twenty miles from my home, near Pontiac, Illinois, is one of the largest landfills in the United States.
Every day, a steady stream of trucks drive down the interstate highway from Chicago, hauling huge trailers of trash. This landfill is four stories high and covers hundreds of acres.
Two truths about trash are obvious:
1. It can cause health problems.
2. It doesn't leave by itself. On a regular basis, you have to take it out.
The same is true of the trash that accumulates in our minds. If we don't take it out, it can ruin our lives.
Trashy Thinking About Others
Most of us have developed a bad habit of judging other people without knowing all the facts. Jesus <http://christianity.about.com/od/newtestamentpeople/p/jesuschrist.htm> plainly warns us: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." (Matthew 7:1 NIV <http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/p/newinternationa.htm>).
When we judge others, we put ourselves in God's place, taking the authority reserved only for him. We forget that other people are fighting their own inner battles and sometimes that conflict shows itself in irritating actions. But if our own behavior is imperfect, why do we expect better from others?
We can remove this kind of trashy thinking by practicing compassion and forgiveness. Only when we treat others the way Jesus treats us will we demonstrate the kind of love he wants us to have.
With his help, we can do this. We can make a little progress every day until we reach the point that we "do to others as you would have them to do to you." (Luke 6:31 NIV <http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/p/newinternationa.htm>)
Trashy Thinking About Ourselves
Ironically, most of us are even harder on ourselves than we are on others.
Like our nonbeliever brothers and sisters, we also get caught up in our society's culture. Every day, the dominant message it sends is You don't measure up.
Whether it's a women's fashion magazine, a TV commercial about exercise equipment, or an ad for the latest automobile, this daily bombardment tells us there's something wrong with us that their product can fix. So we buy whatever they're pitching, only to find that after a few weeks (or even sooner), we feel as empty as we did before.
We need to take out this trashy appraisal of ourselves and replace it with God's view of us, expressed in his love, forgiveness, and acceptance. One glimpse of the cross is a stunning reminder of how precious we are to Jesus.
Trashy Thinking About God
Our most damaging trashy thinking is about God. Maybe we never express it openly, but our actions reveal our beliefs. We plunge ahead on our own because we think God's not trustworthy. We stagger under the burden of guilt because we think he's not forgiving. And worst of all, we feel alienated and alone because we think he doesn't love us.
The best way to rid ourselves of these wrong ideas is to read God's autobiography, the Bible. The Gospels in particular reveal what God is truly like. Jesus <http://christianity.about.com/od/newtestamentpeople/p/jesuschrist.htm> tells us, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9 NIV <http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/p/newinternationa.htm>)
By comparing our beliefs to the truths in the Bible, we can identify our misconceptions <http://christianity.about.com/od/newchristians/a/misconceptions.htm> and start to remove them. Taking out these trashy thought patterns takes courage and work. Because old habits are so hard to break, we need to ask God for help.
Thankfully, the Holy Spirit <http://christianity.about.com/od/topicalbiblestudies/a/whoisholyspirit.htm> is eager to collect all our trashy thinking and take it away "…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12 NIV <http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/p/newinternationa.htm>)
Our success may be spotty. We may backslide <http://christianity.about.com/od/practicaltools/ht/avoidbackslide.htm>. We'll go right back to our old ways unless we consciously catch ourselves and say, "No, that's trash. It's bad and it has to go out."
But even if it takes constant vigilance, this is a clean-up job that's well worth it. There's no better time to start than today.
So to Conclude it we can say that:
Clean up your thoughts, clean up your emotions. Once we begin to gain control of what we're thinking then we begin to gain control of our emotions. Every day we have over 60,000 thoughts and a high proportion of them are negative. Using this exercise we're going to start changing that into a more positive ratio.
Based upon the idea originally created my Emmet Fox (and developed by Anthony Robbins), this process is about starting a "Mental Diet". That is, spend 10 days without holding a single negative thought!
For the next 10 days, I'd like you to become a gardener to your mind, be watchful for those weeds of negativity, and for every negative thought that comes into your head, change it into a positive or interrupt your thought process and start mentally listing off all the things that you're grateful for in your life.
I know it sounds really easy and some days it is, but it's amazing how you realize that you have more negative thoughts that you ever realized. This exercise will really bring your attention to all the things that you worry about, or are anxious about, stressed about, everything that's going on back there. All those things that put us in unresourceful states, that deplete our energy and blur our focus, that worries and concern us.
So if you accept this challenge, you will commit to minding your thoughts for the next 10 days. During this time life will go on and maybe some not so pleasant things will happen around you, but you must mind your mental dialogue, you could ask yourself questions to help you such as:
o What is the opportunity for learning in this situation?
o What's great about this situation?
o What could I do to make this better?
Or a similar type of power question. These types of questions automatically start getting you into action and out of any negative state of mind.
Or as I mentioned above, start listing off everything that you're grateful for in either this situation or in life. Its not that we want to ignore what is going on around us, but it's so that we can be in a better frame of mind to deal with it and take whatever action we need.
Essentially, the crux of this exercise for me is that for every negative thought that I have, I ask myself the question - "what can I do about this, what action can I take". When I did this before a couple of years ago, I was amazed by some of the thoughts that went on in my head, actually more like shocked!
But by letting them go or by asking myself the above questions, I was immediately able to get myself out of this state and into action. Incredible things happened around me - business boomed and I was happier than I've been in a long time.
To recap:
1) From today and for the next 10 consecutive days, refuse to dwell on any negativity of any shape or form. Tell yourself that you're a negativity free zone!
2) If you do find yourself in a negative situation or state, immediately ask yourself the "Power Questions" (What's great about this situation, etc), i.e. focus on the solution. Don't let yourself stay in this state for any longer than 1 to 2 minutes.
3) To boost your new positive frame of mind, every day list off everything that you're grateful for, from the pen that you write with to the sun in the sky and even to any situations that happened through your day that allowed you to learn.
4) If you slip up and find yourself in a negative state, don't beat yourself up for it; just use one of the methods above to change it. However if it persists (i.e. lasts for more than 2 minutes max) then you must give up the exercise and start fresh the next morning. It has to be 10 consecutive days minding your thoughts. Persist, even if you have to start again at day 6 or 7. Remember you've made a commitment to yourself.
Believe me, its' worth keeping a journal of how you get along every day. It will give you some wonderful insight and will give you the motivation to keep going as you write down all the steps of action you took, and the wonderful changed results.
Today, now, start this exercise, focusing for the next 10 days on solutions rather than problems and you will see how dramatically your life improves.
