Thoughts are a funny thing. In fact, the average person can have up to 60,000 thoughts per day. (I know, that’s crazy!) That means that our brains are constantly producing thoughts ranging from common daily tasks to those that are much deeper.
This reminds me of a bible verse: Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life. ~Proverbs 4:23
If I have learned anything over the past year, it’s been this: your thoughts will consume you, if you let them. With so many thoughts bombarding our minds day in and day out, it’s no wonder why we are so stressed out. So, how do we keep our thoughts from controlling us, making us worry, and taking over our lives? I found two ways that have helped me immensely to get my thoughts under control.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
First, I write down every single thought that is weighing down my mind. Whether these are things to do, people to contact, places to visit, it all gets physically captured to get it out of my mind. Then, I can prioritize and complete as needed. There is nothing better than having the satisfaction of checking something off my to do list. It brings me a sense of accomplishment, personal fulfillment, and a sense of peace when things get done.
The second thing I do is take it all to prayer. I recently started praying the Ignatian Examen, which allows me to pray from my day. In the Examen, we review our recent past to find God and God’s blessings in daily life. We also look to find these moments in our day when things didn’t go well – when we were hurt by something that happened, or when we made a mistake, or even sinned. Then, we give praise and thanksgiving for the blessed moments. We then ask for forgiveness and healing for the difficult or painful moments, followed by asking God to show us the potential challenges and opportunities that we will face tomorrow. We try to anticipate which moments might go one way or the other for us – toward God’s plan or away from it. Finally, we ask God for insight into what graces we might need to live the next day well. (Based off of ‘Reimagining the Ignatian Examen’ by Mark Thibodeaux, SJ.)
Since I’ve started this form of prayer, it seems to have helped me to control my thoughts by turning these over to God. And that is very important because each thought can lead to another – which is a great reason to constantly keep God at the forefront of our daily thoughts.
Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. ~Romans 12:2
Does your mind wander like mine? Then, you will want to read this.
