Let's Makeover Your Mind Part I

In this episode of Anchored Not Anxious, host Terri Hutchinson explores the power of our internal monologue and how it shapes our thoughts and emotions. Learn to identify negative thought patterns and discover three powerful techniques to become the master of your mental playlist. Terri shares personal experiences and practical steps to challenge unhelpful voices, rewrite your inner dialogue, and invite more positive, affirming thoughts into your mind. This is Part One of a two-part series on thinking, voices, and creating a new inner monologue to manage anxiety and worry.

Key topics:

• Understanding the impact of our daily thoughts
• Recognizing and labeling negative thought patterns
• Techniques to challenge and redirect unhelpful thinking
• The role of faith in controlling your thought life

Join Terri on this journey to gain control over your mental landscape and cultivate a more peaceful, positive mindset.

Here's a free resource based on this episode.

Meet me on my Facebook Page at Terri L Hutchinson

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Transcript

Welcome to Anchored Not Anxious. This is where you gain a deep belief your life matters to God and discover the anchoring practices to manage anxiety and worry.  I'm Terri Hutchinson, your host. 

By the end of this day, 50 to 70,000 thoughts will have flowed through your mind. 

While the quantity is amazing. It's the quality that matters most.  This is Part One of a two-part series on thinking, voices, and rewriting a new inner monologue. In this episode, you will become the master of your mental playlist using three powerful techniques. Let's dive in.

Our mind creates an internal monologue influenced by anything we see hear or experience. The monologue includes our voice as well as voices of friends, family, and people from the past and present.

We know psychologists say negative thoughts, outnumber, and remain in our mind longer than positive ones. Those negative voices and tones in our head shouldn't get to play uninhibited though. You don't have to think what you think. 

You have the freedom to choose not to listen to the same mental playlist. You get to challenge thoughts having a negative influence over your mind, body, and emotions.

Think of it this way.  If you don't like what you're listening to through your ear pad or in the car, you switch stations or you skip to the next song, right?  We can do the same with our thoughts. But often we let the negative play on and on.  

My nemesis is the shame voice.  Loud and repetitive, shame spoke up whenever my memory reverted to high school. And the two years that followed. I was lost. No goals. I struggled financially and hung with people I didn't truly like. I made bad decisions. 

Despite making positive life changes, the shame talk increased in frequency and volume. Time did not silence it either. Memories and shame resurfaced and interrupted without notice. By allowing this to play on repeat it dug a deep track in my brain.  

Finding permanent healing required I identify the track and create a mental detour. With professional counseling, I paved over two damaging thought tracks bringing me the peace, God promises all of us. I learned you take back the power when you control what you think.

Listen to this playlist of negative voices and identify if you've recently heard any of these.

1. The victim's voice. It declares it's them against you.  The tone can be defensive. Or one of profound woundedness.  

2. The revenge speech advocates for payback. And it has a defensive bitter tone.  

3. When failure speaks up, it highlights all your flaws. The tone is critical, unkind and even cruel.  

4. Self-doubt is bent on crushing your confidence and comes with a discouraging and shaming tone. 

5. The shame, voice seeks to damage your self-worth. A voice from the past, reminding you of what was. It's harsh and degrading. 

6. The it's them, not me statement won't let you assume any blame or prompt you to apologize.  You can hear a prideful, arrogant tone. 

7. If you let comparison play it ranks how you stand against others. And you rarely ever win.  

8. The perfectionist voice judges and dissects your performance while the pleaser voice says another human's approval defines your worth. Both have a critical and approving tone. 

That's a lot of negative and it never serves our best interest.  Sadly, this isn't the complete list.

As it is with music. Uh, specific voices serve a purpose.  Perhaps a voice promotes comfort or, to defend and protect. Sometimes a voice feeds a need inside our heart.  But the words in our head are not always healthy and beneficial. 

If you want to silence mental processing, there are four action steps you can take. 

Action #1. You've heard it said, think about what you're thinking about. Our brain likes to go on autopilot, but there's a point when it's not healthy. 

Start by recognizing your negative head talk. The choice to continue with that line of thinking is yours.  Doing this gets you to Action Two.  

Action #2. Determine what type of voice is playing.  Labeling is the equivalent of hitting pause.  Is it negative or positive, helpful, or unhelpful, balanced or extreme?  Labeling let's you decide if it should play or if it should be challenged. 

Action #3. If you opt to push back and challenge the unhelpful head talk, now you’re in charge. Intentionally, redirect, or choose an encouraging, inspiring, positive, or uplifting thought.

Now the final action step is the hardest.

Action #4. You might want to determine how the line of thinking became activated. Ask yourself:  

·         Why am I dwelling on this?  

·         What triggered this chain of thoughts? 

In my situation. Shame words were activated by seventies and eighties rock songs on the radio. The songs brought back specific memories from my past. Music is a strong provoker of memories. By asking myself, “how did I start thinking about this?”, I realized there were certain songs that triggered shame.  

Okay. These four action steps are your start point.  In Part Two of Let's Make Over Your Mind, I'll use an example from my internal monologue and apply these four steps along with suggestions on injecting beneficial voices and tones to pave over that negative stream.

Go ahead and question your internal monologue. Ask yourself, “What negative voice or thought track needs replaced?”.  “What types of affirmations or healing words do I want streaming through my mind?” If you're a follower of Jesus, count on the Holy Spirit and Christ to direct you. God's word tells us, So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the spirit control your mind. Leads to life and peace. That's in Romans 8:6. Inviting the Holy Spirit to direct your thought life is powerful.

Here's what you know now.  You know how to notice your internal monologue and actively challenge it.  Listen to Part Two and learn how to cultivate and nurture positive affirming and healing voices so you thrive in mind, body and spirit.  Until next time.