11-42am
With some challenges this week, my mind was flooded with negativity – toxic thinking, which just made everything worse. This morning as I sat in my prayer chair, I became very aware of toxic trees flourishing in my brain. Toxic trees in the brain are actual structures. Dr. Caroline Leaf, a scientist who studies thought, explains that our thoughts take up ‘real estate’ in our minds. Thoughts are made up of proteins. Imagine a thought as as a bit of branch or twig. If it’s a good, positive thought, it looks healthy & green. If it is a negative, damaging thought it looks brown and ugly. When you build up a lot of good positive thoughts you get a healthy brain fulled with healthy trees. When you think a lot of negative, toxic thoughts, your trees follow suit. They are actual structures. Here is a photo of what a toxic tree looks like…
Caroline Leaf explains that all day long we think, we choose and we build. We choose how to think and what to think. If we choose to think positively, good trees are established = healthy brain. When we choose to think negatively and we embrace anger & bitterness, toxic trees are established = toxic brain. Have a quick look at this video – (less than 2 minutes) and you’ll hear Caroline explain it herself…
Dr. Caroline Leaf on Toxic Trees
It is amazing how toxic negative thinking is. So this morning as I sat having a quiet time, I recognised that I needed to break down this toxic tree. I prayed, I repented of all the negativity, I asked God to fill me with His Holy Spirit and then I sat and read the Bible and I started replacing all the rubbish ‘up there’ with words from the Word of God. It was not by co-incidence that my Bible reading this morning was filled with words that impacted me directly eg. 2 Chronicles 15:7 “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” As I ‘detoxed’, what also came to mind was all the ‘germs’ I had spread…all the negative conversations I had had with others – there I was spewing out negativity onto them – I saw myself having the conversations and my words coming out as bacteria and them breathing them in and those toxic thoughts going and settling in their minds! That’s what it’s like! It was sobering. I determined TODAY to stop! No more negative thinking. No more negative speaking. I am clearly part of the problem and thereto can I be part of the solution!
What a blessing, that regardless of the day, the hour or the minute, we can have a fresh new start. If you have been thinking negatively, crush that tree – replace bad thoughts with good. The best place to find good stuff to think about is in the Bible. Look for the book of John and start reading. Read a few verses and think about them for a while. It will change your life!
Here’s another verse from my Bible reading this morning: Psalm 19:14 “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer”.
Happy thoughts!
God bless you loads!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
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