Maybe you’re like me and were raised in a negative
environment, and you learned how to be negative. The good news is we can rewire
our brains through changing our thoughts, and scientific research has proven
that this can be done. Neuroplasticity is the term that is used when referring
to being able to rewire your brain. Universities and colleges have taught
previously that the brain is hard-wired or set usually in early childhood, and
the brain has no ability to change.
Neuroplasticity enables
people to recover from stroke, injury, depression, addictions, and obsessive compulsive
patterns (Hampton, Debbie, Reset.me. Neuroplasticity: the 10 fundamentals of
rewiring your brain).
If you have had a challenging time with overcoming
negative thought patters, you can overtime become more positive and
faith-filled.
Reflect
and ponder: How would you describe yourself? A
negative or positive person, a pessimistic person or optimistic person, do you
see the “cup half empty of half full?”
Counselor’s
Corner: Changing your thought patterns from
negative to positive can happen, but be patient because it takes time to rewire
your brain. You must commit to daily speaking out loud positive affirmations
with scriptures about yourself and others for at least 6 months. We will become
more faith-filled when we speak the Word of God, and speaking God’s Word has
lasting effects not just saying positive statements.
My prescription for
rewiring your brain: saying positive affirmations with corresponding
scriptures out loud 2x per day for 6
months. After 6 months, reevaluate to see how much progress that you have made,
if you need to continue after the 6 months-do so! You will notice positive
changes in your mood, thinking, health, and energy only after several weeks,
but don’t stop there! Your brain needs time to permanently change in the
direction that you desire.
Fill your mind with positive affirmations and
scriptures daily, and don’t allow your mind to be negative or wonder throughout
the day. Take every thought captive and replace any negative thoughts with one
of the positive affirmations and scriptures that you are speaking out loud.
Take
every thought captive into the obedience of Jesus Christ, casting down every
imagination and every high and lofty thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God. 2 Corinthians 10:5
I recommend getting notecards and writing your positive
affirmations and corresponding scriptures on them. It’s easier this way, you can
take your cards with you and read them during your lunchbreak.
Examples
of positive affirmations with scriptures that you can use. Make some of your
own, as many as you need in the areas that you have trouble with.
·
All of my thoughts are positive and
faith-filled.
Whatever
things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things
are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.
Philippians 4:8
·
I am a thankful person.
I
will thank God in everything (no matter what the circumstance may be, be
thankful and give thanks), for this is the will of God for me. 1 Thessalonians
5:18
·
As
a man thinks in his heart, so he is. Proverbs 23:7
Therefore all of my thoughts ae
positive. I do not allow the devil to use my spirit as a garbage dump by meditating
on negative things that he offers me.
·
I am slow
to speak, quick to hear, and slow to anger. James 1:19
·
I do not speak negative things.
Let
no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary
edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29
·
I am always a positive encourager. I edify
and build up; I never tear down and destroy.
Let
each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. Romans
15:2
·
I am peaceful.
I
have the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Philippians 4:6
·
I am
joyful always. 1 Thessalonians 5:16
·
I do not worry.
I
will not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and
anxieties of its own. Matthew 6:34
For more information on brain neuroplasticity from a
Christian perspective, check out Dr. Caroline Leaf, cognitive neuroscientist @ www.dr.leaf.com
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