Thoughts & Feelings
Medicine, science and your own experience (even if you've ignored it) have all made it clear that
your thoughts can heal or harm your physical body.
Thinking about things that
we fear will happen,
for example, creates feelings of
anxiety, anger, despair, self-doubt, depression and negative stress.
These cause heart failure, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and more debilitating unmentionables, which over time become chronic ailments. "The power of life and death lie in the tongue..." (
Proverbs 18:21 ESV
). If we already know all of this,
why have we done nothing to change it?
Thinking about positive things, things that
we want to happen,
our past miracles or good things that are happening at the moment, literally bring healing. The bible says that testimony builds faith. Faith brings joy. Your own testimony enhances the faith of others, yes, but it builds your faith as well. On a 'practical' level, if you will, when you feel joy,
you breathe deeper, your muscles relax, you have an involuntary smile and your heartbeat is less erratic.
All of this sends more oxygen to your brain, fosters cell repair, releases endorphins (that creates a 'happy loop') and reduces the stress on your heart, respectively. In miraculous terms, have you met a cancer survivor or someone whose tumor just disappeared? I have -
it rocked my world.
What do you want?
Restored health? Love? Financial freedom? More consistent inner peace? More supportive community? Why not
start thinking about what you want,
instead of what you don't want? I'd never thought of it that way, but I heard this guy, Greg Braden, say
"Who taught us to think about what we don't want instead of what we want?!"
It was suddenly so obvious what needed to change. Perhaps we won't track all our thoughts, but we can all stop to acknowledge how we feel, how we're breathing. Feelings tell you where your thoughts (conscious or subconscious) might be.
Let's start there.
Emotions versus Feelings
Let's make this a bit easier.
At any given moment, we're dealing with a myriad of feelings. It's no wonder so many of us ignore our feelings! At the base of it all, however, our feelings are fed by one of
two emotions -
Love or Fear.
Fear is the opposite of Love.
Courage is merely a manifestation of love - ask most parents. Every feeling we have is rooted in fear or love. Now, it won't always be obvious what you're afraid of, or what you love, that's driving the feeling. You know, however, that negative feelings are driven by
fear, which holds you back,
and that positive feelings are driven by
love, which empowers you.
If you can believe that, which would you choose?
Positive feelings create positive outcomes because
we attract what we think about.
It may be draining to
"hold every thought captive"
(
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 ESV
) for examination, but
you are almost always aware of how you feel
- good or bad - even if you can't place a finger on how or why. If the cause of your 'bad' feeling is coming from within, then assess what thought(s) contributed to that, make it a positive thought. Look at "I hope I'm not late" as "everything is running smoothly so I'll be on time".
Note:
this does not advise that you are governed by your feelings, merely that you use it as it was designed to be used - as an indicator that something is amiss, or that all is well.
Food for thought:
Wars are borne of fear. Courage, as an element of Love, seeks to protect, defend. Love in all its elements (generosity, kindness, hope) finds a place for all.
[
Side bar:
I believe in intuition, so if you're feeling 'bad', look around first to make sure there are no threats. The threat doesn't have to be obvious. If your gut says move, then move. Regardless of how rude it may seem. Move.]
