Freeing Your Mind

A good friend of mine has this former life that haunts her mind. In her past life, she was living with a man who criticized her flaws and ripped her self-image into a million tiny pieces. And while he was doing all that, he remained witty and manipulative enough to keep her family and friends in complete awe of his charms. Yes, it was a very confusing former life she lived, cut short by the violent turn the relationship finally took. Bruised cheekbones don’t bode well with anyone, least of all family members. Within a week of that, she was packed up and gone.

Fortunately for her, that was the last she saw of Mister Mean. She sleeps soundly, has found a great roommate, and has even gone out on a few dates. There is the haunting part, though, that hangs on in her mind. It comes in the form of those nasty little things that she was called all those years. Half-truths at best dished out in a most demoralizing way.

Pattern of Struggle

Normally a person could eject crude and mean verbal attacks from their mind. But because there was usually an iota of reality mixed in with the lies she had been told, this dear friend of mine couldn’t quite shake the curses. These memories were like hooks upon which she’d hang her imperfections. The negativity tapes would start rolling and London Bridges all fall down, My Fair Lady-o! Like clockwork.

If you read this story with your own life in mind, you will see a pattern we all struggle with. First, being imperfect and thus very susceptible to anything said that highlights our downsides, it seems we all can be triggered into wallowing, however, discreetly. For many of us, we cope, letting the negativity slow burn like a knee on a rug. No flames, no crash, but that abiding, searing kind of feeling on the heart.

Addressing Salvation

Well like my good old conscience likes to remind me, Jesus didn’t save me so I could shuffle along in quiet desperation under the negativities of a few seemingly substantiated thoughts. So this means I have to fight for my saved state. I cannot absorb even the most subtle or familiar jab without tarring myself into misery. I deserve better, and I deserve mental and emotional freedom. That’s what the word saved actually meant in the language used when Jesus talked on earth.

So how do I claim hold of my saved-ness? How do I address such negativity? That’s it. I address it. What my friend has to do is hit those thoughts head-on and name them for what they are and then press that eject button. Without being acknowledged they will stay. Without being named and isolated, they will morph out like a virus into a million other negative thoughts. Yes, and then they have to be ejected like a pilot in a fighter plane. I don’t care how addictive the sentiment is; stay in that flaming aircraft and you’ll spiral down into a big, ugly crash.

Confess Your Negativities

Really, there is no other way out of the gunk we’ve hosted in our minds all these days—or years. Jesus said confess your negativities to each other and then pray and be healed. This means get it out there in the open and see it for what it is and then say goodbye.

Unfortunately—or fortunately—depending on how you look at things, external freedom is not always an option in this journey of life. The good news in this is that we can be free though in chains. The bad news in this is that we can be chained though completely free. Show hospitality to the weakest of negative mental images and you might as well dress like a jailbird and settle into your tiny cell.

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If you liked this, you might also like Celebrating Grace | 5 Steps to Free Your Mind of Negativity Once and for All 

Claire Worley writes from the Pacific Northwest.

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