In this post I am going to talk about peace of mind, ways that our peace can be disturbed and how you can get back peace in your mind. I will give my own personal advice and perspective and I pray it may help you in some way.
Peace: ‘freedom from disturbance; tranquillity’ & ‘Mental or emotional calm’
Quite commonly, the journey of self-love is spoken about, but another important journey is the one for peace of mind. I believe that self-love and peace of mind are linked together. This is because self-love begins in your own mind, if negativity crowds your mind then it will be pretty hard to try and then think lovingly about yourself. You’ve got to make a way for positive thinking by literally decluttering your mind of all the negativity, lies and self-destructive thoughts you may be carrying. This doesn’t happen overnight so that’s why it’s a journey that will require you to be patient, persistent to your progress, alert to your thought patterns and dedicated to your change. Even though, it’s not easy, you definitely can do it, I know this. Negative thinking is not your portion, don’t believe the lie that it is a norm, because God said He has given us ALL, a spirit of power love and sound mind. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”(2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV))
Different experiences (literally anything: a negative comment, bullying, a mistake, heart break, disappointments, insecurity) in our lives as individuals can take a toll on us and we sometimes internalise things that we do not have to and this steals our peace as we carry around that negative experience. These experiences can be big or small, if it’s making you unhappy and taking your peace, you’ve got to let it go and then guard your heart, not everything must be taken to heart!
“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”(Proverbs 4:23 NLT))
Sometimes, we may not even be aware of our own negative thought patterns as they become second nature and so fixed, it is not always obvious when you have wrong thinking because you get so used it. As you progress on this journey it gets easier to identify incorrect thinking and eliminate it. Another thing, is that the journey can be very uncomfortable and emotional because you have to spend time with yourself and understand where the negative thoughts are stemming from and this can mean having to come to terms with past pains and hurts. But, don’t let the discourage you it’s better to let it out and experience a little sadness for a little while, than to carry around those burdens which will cause more destruction to you later on.
Talk about it or write it down. As they say “a problem shared is problem halved”, or if your not ready to talk, just write it down, you’ve got to actively let it out. Your problems won’t just disappear, you’ve got to take them out.
Pray about it, pray about pray it, pray about it, because…
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”(Ephesians 6:12 NLT)
Don’t be ignorant to the battle and the lies of the enemy…
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.(1 Peter 5:8 NLT)
God does not want you to suffer or punish you. “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” He can and will set you free. “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” (John 8:36 NLT)
Something you begin to realise is that a lot of the negative thinking your dealing with does not exist aka overthinking! These are basically cognitive distortions.
Cognitive distortions: “They are simply ways that our mind convinces us of something that isn’t really true. These inaccurate thoughts are usually used to reinforce negative thinking or emotions — telling ourselves things that sound rational and accurate, but really only serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves.”
Take time to read on cognitive distortions and see if anything sounds familiar to how you think. Many times some of us may be worrying about absolutely nothing for absolutely no reason:
http://psychcentral.com/lib/15-common-cognitive-distortions/
Some of these include:
- Filtering.
- Polarized Thinking (or “Black and White” Thinking).
- Overgeneralization.
- Jumping to Conclusions.
- Catastrophizing.
- Personalization.
- Control Fallacies.
- Fallacy of Fairness.
- Blaming.
- Shoulds.
- Emotional Reasoning.
- Fallacy of Change.
- Global Labeling.
- Always Being Right.
- Heaven’s Reward Fallacy.
What I’ve been learning:
I am at a stage where I am growing up more and lot of things are changing in general and that includes myself. I am starting to distinguish between what matters to me and what does not. What I truly think as my own individual person and thinking independently from other people (friends, family etc.) and outside things. I think it’s good to have that circle as an individual that is independent of all the external influences. By external I mean things such as trends, status quo, people’s opinions (friends/family), peer pressure, insecurity (if any), the past, the future, mistakes, achievements, image, other people’s actions towards me, stereotypes, social media etc. It’s not to eliminate external things, I am not saying they are wrong or to necessarily disagree with them, but to purposely distinguish what you, by yourself actually think. Because there is so much going on and external things change so quickly that if you hold them in your individual circle in other words internalise them, the circle which is where you make your decisions and your opinions come from will be easily shaped by those outside things. I noticed that I had given a lot of outside things a place in my circle which can result in a lack of stability as an individual. So in order to gain more peace I’ve made effort to think more independently. “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” – Malcom X. I hope this part made sense to you!
My advice:
Is to pray about your mind and have faith that you can have peace! Be cooperative by helping yourself to help yourself! Be kind to your mind, cut out the negative self talk and don’t tolerate old negative thoughts.There’s no time to beat yourself up on this journey, you’ve got to keep encouraging yourself. Don’t give up because you have already won, don’t feel threatened by difficulty of the battle, God is your strength, just keep looking towards Him. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NLT) God wants to help you and let him fight your battles you don’t at all have to go through it alone.
Don’t think that what your going through is too complicated or unfixable! Nothing is too hard for God. You have to be humble even during tough times knowing that He will handle it in His own ways, trust Him despite how hard it is, His solutions may not be the solutions you expect and that’s okay His ways are higher than our ways, so don’t limit God.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. (Isaiah 55:8 NLT)
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NLT) God has overcome this world and any problems you face, you’ve just got to have faith in Him. Say positive things out loud and reject lies from the enemy! You’ve got to use the authority given to you by God. “Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.” (Luke 10:19 NLT)
There are things we don’t understand and don’t pressurise yourself to know and understand everything that is going on. God said Trust him and don’t lean on your own understanding, because our understanding is limited. Proverbs (3:5-6)
I can personally encourage and you say that God is able! Believe in yourself, you are not obliged to be negative, You can get through whatever struggle you have, it won’t be easy or fun, but it will be done! (AYYY THAT RHYMES lol)
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you were blessed!!
Justakgc 