Renew Your Mind Using the Tools You were Born With
Have you ever noticed that when you buy a new car, you start to see cars just like yours around town?
The same thing probably happened when you or someone you care about had a baby. All of a sudden you found yourself practically falling over people pushing buggies!
This is the power of your amazing mind.
Similarly, think about what happened the last time you spilled your early morning cuppa. If you’re anything like most people, one of two responses will have come out of your mouth. Either you’ll decide the day can only get better from here or that it’s totally ruined because you spilled your much needed caffeine fix. How you respond will determine what happens for the rest of your day. This too is the power of your amazing mind.
But what’s actually going on here? Your ability to apparently change the world around you with the power of your mind is all thanks to a network of neurons in your brain stem known as the reticular activating system.
It does lots of clever things including regulating your sleep patterns but, for the purposes of today’s conversation, it also acts like a filter, allowing in information deemed “important” and ignoring everything else.
The real world usage of this is your Facebook newsfeed. Instead of showing you everything that the people you’re connected with share, Facebook shows you a filtered experience based on the things you’ve previously shown an interest in.
And in the same way that you might hack your newsfeed by making a conscious choice to only interact with content that enriches your life, you can hack your reticular activating system and in so doing “be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.
How? We’ll get to that in a moment. First though, a word for anyone reading this who has a tendency to be a little bit like Eyore. If you’re a “glass half empty” kind of person, there’s a good chance you might skip over what comes next, believing that it won’t work for you.
I have some great news for you my friend … just because the glass looked half empty yesterday does not mean it’s the same today. Your mind is not fixed. You can train your mind, lay down new neural pathways, and in so doing, turn that frown upside down!
Don’t believe me? Give it a try and see if you can prove me wrong. You don’t even need to believe it’ll work, you simply need to give it a go consistently.
So how do you hack your reticular activating system? Simple … you teach it what’s “important” to you by deliberately, consciously choosing to notice. Choosing to notice what?
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”
Philippians 4:8
Set an alarm on your phone to go off at the top of the hour (when you’re awake!) and when the alarm signals, pause what you’re doing, lift up your head and notice what’s true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable or praiseworthy in that moment.
In doing so you’re signaling to your mind that those things are important and should therefore be filtered in. And the delightful bonus is that the more you do this, the easier it becomes. Before you know it you won’t even need the prompt of an alarm, you’ll simply find your mind filtering in all the delightful things around you on autopilot.
Remember the early morning coffee scenario we explored earlier? As you practice filtering in the lovely Philippians 4:8 thoughts, when you next spill your coffee (or the dog is sick on the carpet or one of your nearest and dearest puts their red sock on a boil wash with your favorite white outfit or some other annoying thing threatens to derail your day) you’ll find it easier to think, “ah well, it can only get better from here!” and, thanks to your mind’s innate desire to prove you right, that’s exactly what will happen.
Your day will get better because your mind will filter in all the evidence of a delightful day and anything less than lovely will pass you by, largely unnoticed. Sounds amazing and almost unbelievable until you try it for yourself but that is the power of your mind.
Finally, another thing your mind loves to do is fill in the blanks. Armed with this knowledge, it’s time to introduce you to the three word hack that can help you easily find the silver-linings in the inevitable niggles of day to day life.
The three words? “But at least …” Take these three words for a spin the next time something annoying happens. Recognize the annoyance, add “but at least” and then pause. Your mind, loving to fill in the blank, will find the silver-lining in an otherwise frustrating moment.
And just like hacking your reticular activating system, the more you practice spotting those silver linings, the easier it becomes. Yet another easy way your daily life can be transformed by the power of your amazing, God-given mind.
Because yes, God can supernaturally transform you but you’re invited to be a part of the process by using the tools you were born with. There are no on-going running costs associated with these tools. No matter what the price of gas or how much you pay for your bananas, these tools are completely free. You simply need to use them, daily.