Ways to Develop Healthy Thinking Patterns

The neighbor’s new car shines in the noonday sun and their smiles cast a shadow on your dented old car. You are not enough. Or at least it feels that way. Words and actions from others supposedly judging your lack might even be mixed with those thoughts ruminating in your own head as you try to overcome the sting of their judgement.

But what if their perception – real or imagined – truly did not matter at all? What if we could be empowered to rise above the din of our noisy minds and have peace at all times? We can. But the healthy mindset does not just happen. It has to be cultivated and fought for. 

Our minds generate between 50,000 and 80,000 thoughts a day (on the higher end for those of us who have had some caffeine that day—author’s opinion). The mind is where all of life stems from. Our responses to life’s dramas emanate from our mind, and many influences – both external and internal – affect our ability to form healthy thinking patterns. Recognizing those influences and choosing a healthy mindset will take some effort, but it is an endeavor worth pursuing—our entire lives can be impacted by our worldview, which emanates from our mind. And a healthy mindset can be developed if we set our mind to it.

A host of struggles beckon at the door of our mind, trying to captivate us with worldly concerns. Depending on our personality, we might be more prone to one struggle than another, but pride, insecurity, anxiety, fear, peer pressure, deceit, and bitterness can all influence and play a part in robbing us of healthy thinking patterns, just to name a few. And lurking behind each of these obstacles is shame accusing us, fueling our struggles in the mind and keeping us bound to a messy mindset. But shame does not have to have the final say.

When our minds our burdened, we can develop a healthy mindset as we seek the mind of Christ and defuse shame’s impact on our minds. Discernment, truth and discipline help to gird our mindsets in healthy patterns.

Voices in Our Head.

Discerning where the voices come from that flood our minds is critical to a healthy mind. Shame speaks to our minds the lie that we are not enough. The Holy Spirit speaks to our minds that we fall short. Same message, different outcomes. One voice shouts condemnation and the other voice whispers conviction. One leads us to desperation and the other voice leads us to redemption as we turn to the only One who is enough and who is our sufficiency. Then there is a third voice—our own— and likely siding with shame’s voice, too. The Bible says every thought of ours is evil all of the time, so, we cannot trust our own thoughts. Confusion clouds our minds if we do not know which voice to follow. Heeding the clarion voice of God moves us toward the mind of peace. “The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” Genesis 6:5 (NLT).

The Truth sets us free.

We silence the voices in our head with God’s truth—His Word. This requires being in God’s word and storing Scriptures in our minds to defuse the lies we so easily believe. The pursuit of truth is vital to a healthy mind. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” John 8:32 (NIV).

Discipline.

We are empowered by God to overcome the thoughts that can devastate us or make us. But it will require discipline. Paying attention to our thoughts is not an easy task, but it gets easier with practice. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV).

No matter what your struggle may be, a healthy mindset gets easier when we get shame out of the way. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1 (ESV).

Denise Pass, author of Shame Off You and 31 Days to Hope Reinvented, is an award-winning CCM recording artist and singer-songwriter, accomplished writer/blogger, speaker, worship leader and podcaster (Black and White podcast). After a crushing discovery of her former husband’s hidden life as a repetitive sex offender and surviving a painful divorce, she now shares an inspirational message of seeing the deeper truth in God’s word when life hurts through her ministry, Seeing Deep Ministries. A graduate from the University of Maryland, Denise resides in Virginia, with her “Kinsman Redeemer” husband and five children. Find her online at DenisePass.com.