Junk Proof your Mind: Stragegies for a Healthy Mind

Every experience in life, everything with which we have come in contact in life, is a chisel which has been cutting away at our life statue, molding, modifying, and shaping it. We are part of all we have met. Everything we have seen, heard, felt, or thought has had its hand in molding and shaping us.

Orison Swett Marden

The focus of this blog is on creating a healthy mind, a mind that works for you instead of against you. It focuses on principles that serve up thoughts that release your full potential. It keeps your attention on your intention. A healthy mind produces joy.

So how do you get a healthy mind? By changing your mental diet and exercising your mental muscle. As detailed in the previous blog, what you feed your mind is what you become, which is why it is important to monitor what you let into your mind, and exercising the mind helps it grow as it does muscles. The following are 7 strategies for protecting your mind.

Strategy #1: Focus on the Right Relationships

In life, it is easier to be pulled down that it is to be lifted up. The same is true in our relationships. Every relationship either lifts you up or pulls you down.

Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." (1 Cor 15:33).

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Prov 27:17)

The individuals you habitually choose to associate with will influence who you become as a person more than any other single factor. You become like those you associate with. You thus want to choose with whom you invest your time very carefully. Choose those who challenge you to raise your standards, to grow, and to pursue your bigggest dreams.

The following are a list of characteristics to look for in people with whom you want to establish close relationships and invest time in.

1. They have character and integrity that are equal to or greater than yours.
   
2. They share your faith and are in the same place or farther along in their walk with God.


3. Their life demonstrates the joy-filled fruit of their faith.


4. You would like your kids to grow up to be like them.


5. They hold you accountable and ask the tough questions avoided by the majority.


6. They draw the best out of you and remind you that God is doing exciting things through you.


7. They are committed to being positively sharpened by their exposure to you.

Be constantly aware of your relationships and who is lifting you up and who is pulling you down. Invest your time with the former and limit your time with the latter. When it is necessary to be around those who pull you down, innoculate yourself before and after the exposure with ultra-positive exposures that you may be full of joy upon contact and ready to replenish after contact.

Strategy #2: Memorize Scripture

Memorizing scripture is a great way for cleansing, renewing, strengthening, and guarding your mind. You can easily displace a negative thought with scripture, and all scripture is useful for building you up.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. (2 Tim 3:16)

Memorizing the Word of God will also help shape your desires and goals to that of God.

Strategy #3: Affirm God's Goodness

Affirmation, which means to build up or reinforce that which you want in your life, is a joy tool that helps you build your character, personality, and attitude. You are always affirming something, either positive or negative, because you are always thinking. Thus you are constantly either building or destroying. What are you affirming about your self with the inner dialogue that reaches through to your secret place?

There are three keys to verbalizing God's promises.

Pay attention

Pay attention to what you say to yourself and others. It provides your biggest clue as to the quality of your thought life.

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt 12:34).

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man "unclean" (Matt 15:18).

Reinforce

Remind yourself that nothing is too good to be true for a child of God. Don't block God's generosity with unprofitable talk.

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete (John 16:24).

Filter and Replace

Swap out all self-defeating words, phrases, and expressions with their positive opposite. Talk only about that which is "good, pure, lovely, and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8).

Strategy #5: Visualize God's Blessings

This is talked about in another blog, but is essentially visualizing your self-ideal. We have been given the power to have what we visualize, but we tend to visualize only that which we already have. You must have a clear vision for the future to reach your full potential here on earth. Many spend their time visualizing what they don't want, and they end up making decisions based of the fear and worry those mental images generate. Instead, we are to visualize that which God has in store for us, our full potential.

Visualization works because it relies on our brain's tendency to fulfill its most dominant thought. The subconscious cannot distinguish between reality and a vividly imagined event, so when it receives a picture of a goal as if it were already achieved, it interprets it as a fact, responds accordingly, and removes mental roadblocks toward reaching that goal. Thus, the most effective way to expand your potential is to constantly expose your mind to a multisensory image of the end result you are striving for.

We should thus practice visualization every day, and set aside time every day to visualize yourself living a joy-filled life. The best times to do this is just before going to sleep and just after awakening.

Strategy #6: Quarantine Negativity

Negativity spreads from one area of life to another. Thus, when experienced, it is best to quarantine it. A great way to quarantine negativity is to schedule it. For example, you could set aside 5 minutes a day to express your negativity, and that is the only time you allow negativity to be consciously addressed. This results in taking the emotional power out of the negativity. It limits your time and exposure to negativity. Problems usually shrink in size by the time its time to deal with the negativity. Thus, scheduling time for negativity minimizes its influence in your life.

Strategy #7: Establish Ground Rules

Have ground rules for what you allow to influence you. There are 5 principles to adhere to, otherwise known as the Laws of Input.

1. Environment. Monitor your environment, as you are heavily influenced by it. Where you are influences and reinforces who you are.
2. Association. Watch with whom you associate. See previous blogs on this subject.
3. Excluded Alternative. When you say yes to the wrong inputs, you are by default saying no to the right inputs. Invest your time with the right people to be protected from spending time with the wrong people.
4. Non-neutrality. Nothing is neutral. Remember that all inputs affect you.
5. Attraction. Over time, you will draw into your life the conditions, events, people, and possibilities that correspond with your thinking.

Establish 5 ground rules for what you will allow into your heart based on the Laws of Input above. Write them down, post them in common places, read them daily, and confront every circumstance with the rules to see if they fit or not. Use the following questions to guide your first draft.

1. Who do I want to become as a person?
2. What are my most important lifetime goals?
3. Do I desire my current exposures for my kids? If not, what should I change?
4. Which people in my life challenge me to high standards?
5. How much positive mental nutrition do I want to consume each day or week?
6. What do I listen to in the car most of the time? Is it positive or negative input?
7. What do I watch on TV? Is it positive or negative input?
8. How much TV is right for me, given my other goals?
9. What kind of programs should I increase, decrease, or eliminate?
10. How would I like to change because of what I read?
11. If I don't make any changes in what I allow into my heart and mind, what kind of person will I be in 10 years?

Answering these questions and controlling your inputs helps you fulfill and find God's will and joy for you.

Do not conform any linger to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. THen you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

Your Personal Firewall: Habits to Protect Your Heart

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Prov 4:23)

Character is and will continue to be molded by your surroundings. If you don't take strategic control of your exposures, the storms and stresses of life will inhibit your full potential. You thus must be intentional about your exposures, so as you strengthen your mind, you increase your capacity to serve others and affect the world with positive change.

You are where you are in life because of the dominating thoughts you've allowed to occupy your mind. What you let into your heart shapes what you believe, expect, and do. Your circumstances do not guide your thought life. What you focus on is what controls your thought life. What you sow in thought eventually manifests itself in your circumstances.

What you allow into your mind is thus key to your attitude and subsequent experience. If you put junk in, you will get junk out. If you feed yourself your self-ideal and God's plans and blessings, you will experience those ideals and blessings. You thus want to protect your mind from limiting, joy suppressing beliefs. Don't take a reactive approach to what you are feeding your mind.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing, and perfect will (Rom 12:2).

Those who experience more joy don't necessarily have more to be joyful about; they just think differently. The following are healthy habits you can establish to help change your thoughts to joyful ones, thus increasing your potential for experiencing joy.

Habit 1: Feed Yourself Positive Mental Nutrition

This is deliberate, 4:8 certified inputs that come from what you read, watch, listen to consistently. Preplan your TV watching. Only watch, read, and listen to that which are positive, character-building inputs. Remember that you become what you think about most.

Habit 2: Start Your Day with Joy

Have an early morning joy ritual the first 15 minutes of the day. This time period sets the emotional tone for the whole day. Plan your first 15 minutes to focus on joy-producing thoughts and base it on joy-producing inputs. A good theme verse for this time period follows.

Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matt 6:33).

To motivate yourself to spend time in quiet time, ask yourself "What could I possibly do with that time that would bring me any greater benefit?"

Habit 3: Seal the Day with Joy

Focus on joy right before you drift off to sleep. This lets your subconscious have something positive to chew on overnight while you sleep. This is the most influential time for your subconscious. What occupies the subconscious eventually comes into the conscious and it sets the stage for the first conscious thought the next day. You could spend this time asking and answering the 4:8 Questions, imagine your self-ideal, read the Bible or other inspirational sources, review the victories of the day, pray, or spend special time with your wife.

What Can You Do?

1. Realize that it is essential to guard your heart, which is possible by guarding what you allow to be exposed to mentally. What you let in your heart shapes what you believe, expect, and do.
2. Don't be reactive in what you allow into your mind. Instead, be proactive and focus on 4:8 Principle thinking.
3. Develop the positive habit of feeding yourself positive mental nutrition. Focus on God's will for you and your self-ideal as well as 4:8 thoughts and moderate your inputs to coincide with those principles.
4. Start your day with joy and joyful thoughts every day.
5. End your day with joy by focussing on joyful thoughts every day.

My Application

I need to apply these principles to my life. I have readily noticed that when I pay attention to what I let into my mind via music and television and actively pursue only positive inputs that build me up and do not promote ungodly principles and actions, I am at much more peace and am happier. There are days when I can sit in front of the TV while I do other things, and what is on definitely plays a role in what I think about and what things come to mind during my scattered quiet times. Since my character is molded by my surroundings, I need to control the surroundings in which I put myself. My application is to turn off the TV, to be cognizant of what I watch and listen to, and to make sure it at least does not dishonor God or his principles. I need to pay attention to how much time I spend with media instead of with God. I need to remember that what I allow to be sown into my thoughts eventually manifests itself in my circumstances.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously (2 Cor 9:6)

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him (Matt 12:34-35).

Secondly, I need to constantly be feeding my mind and be conscious of what I'm feeding it. I need to realize that my joy doesn't depend on my circumstances, but rather on the good that I put in my mind. When a sponge is squeezed, what comes out is what it has previously absorbed. The same is true of my mind. When I get squeezed, what comes out? Hatred or love? Anger or joy? Prejudice or concern? Justice or empathy? Judgement or forgiveness? What is fed the mind is what comes out. I need to examine my attitude and circumstances and then look at what I've been feeding on to correct what comes out when I'm squeezed.

Third, I need to feed myself positive mental nutrition. I need to employ the 3 healthy habits detailed above. Although it will be difficult in the morning since I start the day running, I can improve in this area by proper time management. In the morning I can start my day with joy by spending my first 15 minutes in the Word and in prayer. I can listen to sermons and Christian music while exercising. I can pray while exercising. In the evenings, I just need to watch my inputs and spend that 15 minutes before bedtime appropriately. Although I may fall asleep while praying, I have noticed a profound difference in my attitude the next day when I read God's word and pray before going to sleep. 15 minutes is doable, and the benefit derived from that 15 minutes definitely offsets the 15 minute decrease in sleep.

Finally, there is something to be said for solitude. Jesus in multiple occasions went into solitude to pray and spend time with God. This is again a matter of time management, of paying attention to my inputs and what I am giving my time to as well as remaining aware of my priorities. This time to be with God regrounds you and your focus, re-establishes your priorities, and helps remind me that I am not of this world.

"What could I possibly do with my time that would bring me greater benefit?"

As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world (Jn 15:19).

Starving Negative Emotions

This blog discusses common ways we feed negative emotions and uncommon strategies for starving them.

As humans, we think in one of two primary ways. The most common way is in reaction to the world around us. For example, we react with a thought that leads to an emotion and then a subsequent action that is consistent with that emotion. The second, less common way is active thinking, where you are constantly choosing to think positive thoughts, like 4:8 thoughts. When you choose to think 4:8 thoughts, it results in a good mood and subsequent actions that are consistent with goals and ideals that are important to us. By getting clear on your personal vision and aligning your behavior with that vision, you can produce the emotional blessings you desire. Thus, your goals should act as a filter which eliminates words, behaviors, and other emotional responses that oppose your goals.

The point is that you are not to be a passenger in your emotional life, but instead a driver. To do so, you must recognize your negative thoughts so you can eliminate them from your thought life.
RATS

These are "Really Awful Thoughts", thoughts that steal your potential for joy. They highlight crooked thinking patterns and provide insight to areas in your thought life you can address.

Amplifiers

These are patterns that use unpleasant words like "always", "never", "no one", "every time" which magnify the degree of unpleasantness. It tends to drag others below the joy zone.

Feelers

These are patterns of accepting negative feelings as true without questioning them.

Guessers

This pattern of thinking pretends to know what others are thinking and assumes the worst ahead of time. It often triggers an emotional response from the other person, which results in you becoming defensive.

Exaggerators

This pattern of thinking makes mountains out of molehills.

Identifiers

This pattern of thinking injects harmless events with personal meaning. It is an overestimation of how the even is related to them. It is an interpretation of negative events as personal attacks.

Forecasters

This is essentially pessimistic thinking. This pattern of thinking is characterized by predicting the worse-case scenario, sometimes before even becoming involved.

Cynics

This pattern of thinking finds something wrong no matter what. It is seeing the bad in everything and results in living in misery.

Blamers

This pattern of thinking involves pointing a finger at someone else for one's own problems. It is temporarily liberating but ultimately immobilizing.

Justifiers

This pattern of thinking is characterized by reminding self of all reasons why they are entitled to the negative emotion or outburst. It is essentially justifying their own negativity.

Watch for these patterns of thinking that stifle God's work in you and perpetuate a negative attitude. Don't let them persist and be active in your mind. Instead, change your thinking to positive thought patterns.

Starving Negative Emotions
For most people, they only have two options available of how to respond to negative emotions. One is to suppress them (stuff the emotions down on the inside), or express them. However, both of these options cause negativity to either persist or spread to others. The option least utilized and often forgotten is to extinguish negative emotions with positive, constructive thinking. These are the steps to extinguish your negative emotions.

Acknowledge your Negative Emotions
The first step in defusing your negative emotions is to acknowledge their presence. Determine whether any critical needs are going unmet or if this is a false alarm.

Put Negative Emotions in their Place
Challenge the authenticity of the negative emotions. Denounce negative emotions influence and power over your actions.

Own Negative Emotions
Declare "I am responsible." Take responsibility for your negative emotions. This replaces a negative thought with a positive one, and essentially enforces your control over your emotions and minimizes the influence of another on your frame of mind (when the negative emotion is due to a reaction of what another has done or said). It also helps you see situations and solutions more clearly.

Starve Negative Emotions by Tuning into the Big Picture
This is the process of moving away from the emotional response by moving away from the trees in order to see the forest. Slow down and get an accurate perspective. Remind yourself of what is truly important. Answering the following questions can be helpful in tuning into your big picture.
What is my goal here?
What outcome do I want in this situation?
What is my vision?
Will this negative state move me in a negative or positive direction?
Where is this situation headed, and is that okay?
What do I intend to create?
What is most important here?
How might my negativity affect this relationship?
Is my integrity at stake here?
Could my health be more important than proving my point right now?

Drop the Thought
You can refuse to indulge negative thoughts and thus starve them. Remember that whatever you express to others is impressed within yourself. It is the power of habit that causes us to latch on to the positive and drop the negative. Negative thoughts are no more real than your dreams last night. Thus, there is no need to focus on it. You don't have to vent a negative thought to drop it. Venting only focuses on the negative thought and passes negativity on to the other person.

Retreat
This is a good option to do when you can't pinpoint the exact cause of a negative attitude. Retreating to solitude allows the wisdom of "this too shall pass" to kick in. It limits the damage caused my negativity, thus protecting yourself.

Practice Compassion
This is a great strategy for staying in the joy zone. It involves extending compassion toward the person who seems to be the source of the negativity. How do you do this?

1. Assume the other person is struggling or in pain. Attribute the negativity of others to something they are dealing with that you don't know about.
2. Get curious. Be curious about the other person's story. This activates the law of exchange (exchange a positive attitude for a negative one) and causes you to detach yourself from the situation and not take things personally.
3. Remember the true source of negativity. Remember that most negative outbursts are conditioned responses and not really so menacing. Keep this in the forefront of your mind and remind yourself of it often. Try to be the type of person who is not rattled by the reaction of others.
4. Realize that most stress and tension is just growth trying to take place. Emotionally you are similar to your muscles. Your emotions, like muscles, require stress and tension to grow stronger. Thus, our response to resistance will determine whether we grow closer to our full potential or further from it. When you experience a difficult circumstance, remember to consider it as an opportunity for growth!

Ask for God's Help

God has the power to help us conquer our negative emotions. Utilizing a time of prayer stifles the negativity as you worship God in prayer. You can also present your requests, worries, and concerns to God, letting Him bear your burdens, and seek God's will in that situation.

What Can You Do?

1. To eliminate negative feelings and thus experience a more joyful life, change your thought life.
2. Don't be reactive in your thought life. Instead, be proactive, and focus on positive, God-willed thinking.
3. Realize your "RATS" and seek to extinguish them. Learn them so you can recognize them and thus promptly address them when they present themselves.
4. When negative emotions present themselves, learn to act (not react) appropriately. Admit to the negativity, put the negative thought/emotion in proper perspective, take ownership of the emotion/thought, step back from the emotional reaction and get a godly perspective of your attitude, the situation, and your true goals; trade out the negative thought with a positive one, retreat to solitude, practicing compassion, and asking God for help are all useful and constructive means for dealing with negativity.

My Application

Okay, so for me this was a tough chapter. Not from a point of understanding, but rather from the point of my own RATS! I utilize every single one of them every day. They are habit. The hard part is breaking habits, which requires that I constantly be aware of my thought patterns. It also means that I have to utilize the principle of 4:8 thinking at all times. I need to learn to focus on positive thinking.

When I do experience negative thinking, I have found that the things that help me best are to retreat and gain some perspective. When I am so emotionally bound up by a situation, I tend to spread the negativity in action and word. All that does is spread the negativity to others and gives them a negative perspective of me. I get so engrossed in the emotional response that I can't see the forest for the trees. Thus, retreating, being quiet, gaining perspective in terms of the situation in the world view and God's view and in terms of my goals and attitude working together helps diffuse the emotional response, focus on God and His will, and stops the viscious cycle of negativity.

Some of the things I could improve upon to work out negativity in my life is to put my focus where it belongs: on God. Often negativity is the result of disappointment experienced because my needs, wants, or desires weren't met or considered. In these situations I forget to remember that IT IS NOT ABOUT ME, but GOD. The two methods I left out above solve this problem. First, I need to learn to pray and ask God for help. Though guilty, I am forgiven, and God is my helper and strength, not only in times of need, but at all times. Secondly, I need to change my focus from myself and my needs to the needs of others. This is the second most important command as told by Jesus, to "love others as yourself." Practicing compassion is fulfilling this command. That is something I do day in and day out at my work. It is an essential element of my job. But do I consider filling out forms and getting prior authorizations for medications "compassionate work"? No, I see it as a struggle, a frustration, an insult to my knowledge. This is because I have the wrong perspective. So keeping a proper perspective at all times is vital to maintain a compassionate attitude at all times.

Taking Charge of Your Emotions

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your own estimate of it; and thus you have the power to revoke it at any moment."

Marcus Aurelius

Your attitude, at each and every moment, reveals your faith in God to the world around you. You are displaying your faith in every reaction to every circumstance, good or bad. You thus want to be joyful in every circumstance, as that shows that your beliefs are based on trust in God's goodness. One of the main barriers to living in joy all the time is not taking charge of your emotional life. This blog details steps to take to help take charge of your emotions so you can experience joy all the time, in all circumstances.

Emotional Strength

Emotional strength refers to emotional resiliency, control, and toughness. It fuels your capacity to experience the fullness of life without the disruption of prolonged bouts of negativity. It is based on the concept of affirming God through faith rather than affirming your woes. To change your emotional life, you must change your focus.

Perception is NOT Reality

Emotions are subjective indicators of objective experience. They allow you to feel what you are thinking at that moment. What you perceive is your reality. How you react to your perceptions is under your control. You choose how you react based on what you are thinking at that time. Since you can control your thought life, you can thus control your emotional response. When you interpret things positively, you react with positive emotions. When your interpretation is negative, you react with negative emotions. You can thus change your emotional response by changing your interpretation of events, the way you think. Also realize that emotions are not necessarily based on truth. Don't be like the world who makes decisions on how they feel. Examine your feeling and the reasons for them before acting. Your task is to become proficient at interpreting the events of your life in such a way that you remain empowered to improve them.

Your Emotional Goals

What are your emotional goals? You need to define your emotional goals so you can maintain a focus on those goals and pursue improvement. Do you want to decrease fear, resentment, boredom, loneliness, fatigue, insecurity, guilt, depression, rage, overload, confusion, exhaustion? Do you want to increase joy, excitement, contentment, confidence, peace, passion, drive, satisfaction, enthusiasm, gratitude, awe, energy? Choose emotional goals to pursue and stay mindful of your intentions to change your positive and negative emotions.

Don't seek to change immediately and completely all at once. Instead, seek a 30% improvement in managing your emotional life.

The Laws of Emotional Strength

These are interconnected laws that are continuously influencing your character, personality, and your potential for joy. You can use these laws to your advantage if you decide to do so.

Law of Attention

This law states that whatever you dwell on becomes increasingly prominent in your mind. Thus, dwelling of negativity can rob you of joy and result in negative emotional responses that are essentially overreactions and not founded in your faith in God. By shifting your attention to your blessings, strengths, and successes, you can change your negativity. If you put your spotlight on your self-ideal, your future hopes and dreams founded in God, you broadcast your blessings instead of your negatives. Don't make your blemishes the essence of your life.

Law of Exchange

This law states that you can only think about one thing at a time. Thus, you can only think about something negative or positive, but not both. You can hold only one thought at a time in your consciousness, and that thought is either in alignment with your potential for joy or it is not. You can therefore do away with a negative thought only when you replace it with a positive thought. The opposite, however, is also true. Thus the importance of always being consciously aware of your thought life. You can't eliminate a thought by fighting it or trying hard to block it out. Doing so only prolongs your thinking on the negative, driving it deeper into your mind. You must shift your attention to something else completely. Productive thinking disrupts unproductive thinking.

The largest help to keep your thoughts positive and replace negative thoughts to thus increase your joy is to preoccupy your mind with God's word. Some excellent examples of scripture to help shift your thoughts from negative to positive, from self to God, follow.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Ps 46:1)

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. (Ps 73:24)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Prov 3:5-6)

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. (Isa 26:3)

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28)

nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:21)

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Phil 4:13)

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (2 Tim 1:7)

Law of Reversibility

This law is your God-installed capability to produce feeling as a result of deliberate behavior. As an example, if you are in a negative mood, you can change yourself emotionally by acting and behaving as if you are joyful. Doing so produces joyful feelings. You can thus behave and think in ways consistent with your emotional goals and by doing so come closer to reaching your emotional goals. This is, essentially, acting better than you feel. It is forcing yourself to act in a manner consistent with your values, not your feelings. This is a good way to upgrade your emotional life. If you rule out using this option (because you think you're acting "false" or "fake"), you will forever be doomed to enjoy only those positive emotions that arise spontaneously. When you behave in a way that is pleasing to God, you will be rewarded with the emotional fruits you desire.

What can you do?

1. Take charge of your emotional life. Seek to be joyful in all circumstances as it is an expression of your faith in God.
2. Don't be reactive in your emotions. Interpret your thought life with kingdom eyes before responding emotionally. Develop emotional strength.
3. Become proficient at interpreting the events of life in such a way that you remain empowered to improve them.
4. Define your emotional goals.
5. Seek a 30% improvement in managing your emotional life.
6. Don't focus on the blemishes of life. Instead shift your spotlight of attention to your blessings, strengths, and successes in God. Focus on your self-ideal.
7. Purge negative thoughts by replacing them with positive thoughts. The best way to do this is by MEMORIZING SCRIPTURE.
8. Act how you want to feel. Behave and think in ways that are consistent with your emotional goals.
9. Act, don't react.

My Application

I have found the hints and helps in this chapter to be extordinarily useful and successful. As I have become incessantly pessimistic through my years, even the littlest thing in life that is not "perfect" tends to dominate my thoughts and my secondary emotional response. For some reason, I guess, I think that I am owed perfection, and if it doesn't occur, boy it ruins my day (or at least I let it)! It is true that this type of response and attitude is not a good witness to the love of God and my faith in Him! By changing my attitude and living with joy in every circumstance, positive or negative, by continuing to trust in God, I not only strengthen my own faith but I show faith to others and serve as a witness for God. This is the essence of true faith in God. I need to be consciously aware of my thought life at all times and take captive every thought and submit it to God.

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 Cor 10:5).

I am to respond to negativity in life as Paul did, focusing not on my weakness, but on my strength in Christ.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me...For when I am weak, then am I strong (2 Cor 9, 10).

Finally, I need to rely on the Word of God to help change my attitude. God's word is the absolute truth on how to live with God, it is life's ideal. It is the standard for living a joy-filled life.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (Psalms 119:9-11).

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful (Joshua 1:8)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17).

Building a Godly Self-Concept

This blog builds on the previous blog by helping you build a godly self-concept, thus increasing your potential for joy. It provides steps to help build a healthy self-concept that are individual, can be done in congruence with one another or individually, and when applied, increase your potential for joy.

Step 1: Recognize the True Source
As detailed in the previous blog, you must recognize, see yourself, and live as a child of God. Basing your self-worth on what others think of you is not self-worth, and doing so states that you think what other humans think of you is more important than what God thinks of you. You have already been approved by God, and your love for yourself should mirror His love for you. You are a new creation in God. Consider constantly the self-image you are building with the flow of words, pictures, and images that go through your mind in a day, and make them captive to the true person you are in God.

Step 2: Forgive Others Without Exception
Living in the past won't let you realize your potential for joy. You can't feel great about yourself when you lug around resentment from old wounds. Don't let them fester from excessive attention. Instead, become a forgiving machine and make it part of your daily joy ritual.

Step 3: Forgive Yourself Early and Often
You have been forgiven by God if you truly believe in your heart that Christ is Lord and that He died for your sins. Do not live any longer in the guilt of your sin. Guilt is not practical. It forces you to experience the present moment while being paralyzed by past mistakes. Don't let it ground you. Sin does not make you any less valuable to God. Accept God's forgiveness and forgive yourself daily, that you may live in joy instead of guilt. Don't expect to feel different immediately after forgiving yourself, as the emotional blessing often lags behind the actual act of forgiveness. Accept His grace and restoration, realize that you have something to learn from slipping, and move on, attempting to live differently from that moment on.

Step 4: Focus on your God-Given Strengths
This is essentially identifying with the fact that God created you as a unique individual. Highlight and praise God for the special gifts and talents He has blessed you with. Don't focus on your shortcomings, but rather focus on your blessings. Surrender the idea that you need someone or something else to make you complete. Recognize that as God's child you have everything you need.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19)

Don't compete with others; instead, focus on competing against your God-given potential. You are the only one you can control! Evaluate your progress in light of your full potential, not in comparison to others.

Step 5: Eliminate Negative Self-Talk, Introduce Joy Talk
Changing the way you communicate with yourself changes your self-concept faster than any other method.

The tongue has the power of life and death. (Prov 18:21)

Speak to and about yourself as if you've already fulfilled your highest potential instead of always beating up on yourself. The words you use today will create the world you will experience tomorrow. Thus, depending on your focus, that is either a great problem or a great opportunity. Speak only what you seek. Speak and act as if you are living the life of your dreams, your self-ideal. Start programming your mind by first disciplining your mouth.

Step 6: Practice Extreme Self-Care
Care meticulously for your mind, spirit and body. When you take good care of yourself, yo are more likely to feel good and make decisions that will release your breaks and keep you full of joy. Some self-care factors to consider are listed below:
1. Am I living the life God intends for me?
2. Do I have a clear, compelling vision for my future?
3. Am I investing time alone with God each day?
4. Does anyone in my life hold me accountable to my best self?
5. Do I consistently make healthy food and drink choices?
6. Am I exercising regularly?
7. Am I getting good regular sleep?
8. Do I have at least three close personal relationships?
9. Do I have margin built into my lifestyle?
10. Am I focused on progress rather than perfection?

Use the answers to these questions to develop a plan to get you where you want and need to be.

Step 7: Dwell on the Person God Wants You to Become (Your Self-Ideal)
There is much more to you and who you are than our current reality. You need to escape from the limitations of the current moment and shine your spotlight, your attention, on your full potential. In order to do this, you must define what you believe God wants you to become so you can focus your attention on that. Remember that nothing is impossible with God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. (Eph 3:20)

What is impossible with men is possible with God (Luke 18:27)

Use your spiritual eyes, your eyes of faith, in your daily living. You can do this by designing a set of short and long-term goals as well as a mission statement and compare your behavior to it daily or weekly. In other words, dwell on your self-ideal and make it your primary importance and focus in life.

Step 8: Act with Joy Now
Joy is proactive happiness. It is a learned capacity to display your faith ahead of time by means of your daily mental attitude. It is a matter of faithfully believing in God's divine plan for you even in your toughest circumstances. In order to do this, you should focus on living each hour as if your full potential has been reached; look at your circumstances from this perspective and see what could be if you changed your attitude and allowed God to work in the situation. Look at things with the eyes of one whose faith rests in God, not in yourself. Don't be reactive in your responses. View others, as well, as if they have reached their fullest potential; view them as Christ views them, with love and grace, and react to that view of the person, not what you currently perceive.

What Can I Do?

1. Recognize that God is the true source of self-worth as my Creator. Accept His love and acceptance, reject the negativity of the world's opinion, and constantly take captive every negative thought and test it against what you know is the truth of God.
2. Forgive others now and often. Don't drag resentment around with you - it slows you from reaching true joy and is not congruent with your self-ideal.
3. Forgive yourself daily. Accept God's forgiveness and quit living in guilt. To do otherwise to to minimize the true effectiveness, power, and love of God. Accept His grace and restoration- you are not too good for it!
4. Focus on your God-given strengths. Recognize that you have all you need in God. Stop competing with others and instead compete with your full potential.
5. Eliminate negative self-talk and practice joy talk. Start programming your mind by first disciplining your mouth. Speak only what you seek.
6. Practice extreme self care. Focus on your mental, spiritual, social, and physical health. Set and pursue goals in each area.
7. Dwell on your self-ideal. Define who it is God wants you to be and dwell on being that person. Memoriz, rehearse, re-read, and dwell on your mission statement.
8. Live with joy now, resting in your faith in God that He is in control and has your best interest at heart. In every circumstance, good or bad, trust that God is in control, rest in that peace, and change your attitude for the better. Live from your full potential and view others with the eyes of Christ as their full potential, in love, and joy will abound.

My Application

Wow, this is a huge chapter totally based on application. I think that the whole thing sums up things I need to do. I view each and every day as a struggle and an attempt to achieve, instead of as a blessing from God. I live in fear and judgement instead of in joy and peace based on the salvation from Christ. I get so caught up in the day to day stressors and putting out fires that I start living in the world instead of living separate from it. I guesstimate that I only take 20% of my thoughts and inputs captive and apply them to God's ideals. I drag around resentment from past offenses and a judgemental attitude toward others all day long. I can readily identify the wrongs of others and how they have wronged me. I know my sin and consequently drag its guilt around with me all the time, letting it separate me from God's love via a lie called unworthiness. I live in a needy fashion, depending on outside sources for input for my self-worth. I don't recognize God's provision and my completeness in Him in all situations. I compare myself with others frequently and strive to "be the best" of my company. Negative self-talk pervades me and is a main reason my guilt as I constantly tell myself how unworthy I am due to my failures. I don't practice extreme self-care except in the instance of exercise; I don't have a clear vision of who God wants me to be, I don't have a regular quiet time, I am not held accountable to anyone, I don't eat healthy most of the time and I turn to food for comfort, I get irregular sleep, I don't have close relationships, I have little time to schedule margin into my life, and I constantly focus on perfection (thus causing increased guilt when I constantly fail). I don't know what my self-ideal is as it has not been revealed to me as of yet, and as stated earlier I am constantly seeing the trees and obstacles instead of the forest. I dwell on my past and failures much more than my forgiven state through the grace of God. Finally, I live in a reactive mindset instead of a proactive one, and I constantly display my lack of faith in God's omnipotence by not trusting that He knows what is best for me and acts in love toward me.

So what do I do? I don't focus on all those negatives!! Instead, I rely on the Word of God to confirm and instill the above truths in my mind and attempt to take captive every thought and image that enters my mind. I focus on God's grace, His provision, and His redemption, and attempt to live by faith each and every day. I spend time in prayer and I express my concerns to Him. I wait on Him to reveal His will to me for my life. I praise God for His graciousness and provision of forgiveness and ask for forgiveness from my sin. I do what I can - I believe, I affirm my faith, and I trust in God's goodness and grace, and I live in love and of love.

For it is by grace you have been save, through faith - an this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:8-9)