Stop Opposing Yourself!

As long as thoughts play such an important and indeed life changing role in how our lives turn out, it will continue to be incumbent upon me to write about it. So much of what we think about ourselves is pure fiction; especially in regard to the undesirable and unpleasant parts. We play these movies and stories in our heads and cast ourselves for a certain part. We choose our role based almost entirely on the conclusions and decisions we have come to about ourselves. We foolishly think because we thought something or have always thought something, it must be true. But is it? Is everything we allow into our minds beneficial to us? Similarly, does maintenance of a keen recall regarding everything we have ever screwed up throughout our lives really help us do better next time? How about being encased in self-judgment or being critical of ourselves? Is the perpetual urge to find fault with ourselves or others useful to anyone, ever? Yet, on we march, masters of our own thought life, yet unwisely stewarding our minds by indulging in negative stuff all the time. I won’t even begin to discuss the deleterious effects of worry and fear in our minds. So, at the end of the day, what are we doing that for? We are doing it because that is how we have been trained to think. We didn’t choose the negativity, it chose us. We didn’t originate any of these things that plague our minds and as such we don’t have to keep wandering down that same old, tired path. Stop opposing yourself!

Your mind belongs to you and only you. It is the only thing in life you can remain completely in control of at all times. By control I mean, maintain properly. You cannot control every crazy thing that pops into your head, but you can decide whether or not it gets to stay. Trying to clear your mind of all thoughts serves no purpose. But, deciding to stop thinking certain thoughts is invaluable. Yes, you can decide to stop thinking about something. It may come up again, and living in this world it surely will, but again you can decide to continue in that vein or change directions. You stop opposing yourself by choosing to go in another direction. As strong as the urge might feel, like trying not to scratch a mosquito bite, you can do it because it is your mind. You would find, and this is a pure potentiality, that refusing to think negative thoughts, self-judgment thoughts, critical thoughts, worry thoughts, or ANY thoughts that bring no benefit to you, you will begin to feel immeasurably better. Your energy and enthusiasm for life will come rushing back. You lack enthusiasm and have little joy in living because you have been worn out by the world. And, do you know how it wore you out? By your decision to think the things it was promoting as true over what is really true. Someone said it was irresponsible not to worry about anything or called you naive. Something taught you that the only way to overcome fear was to run it through your mind a thousand times until the answer appeared. (Thought it NEVER appeared) You see, the negativity we are surrounded by can get inside of us and we suffer as a result. But, it gets to us by what we choose to think about. Even worse, it gets us to oppose our own selves. Imagine. Stop opposing yourself!

When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, they had everything they could ever want. There was no sickness, no death, no fear and no evil to contend with, that is until they did have to contend with it. And do you know how they got defeated and tricked? They listened to and entertained thoughts that were not true, not right and very much detrimental to them and all of mankind after them. They did the one thing God told them not to do (and it wasn’t eating an apple – smile) because they got deceived by evil by entertaining it. When the devil questioned Eve, she responded. She entertained what he was saying, all of which was a lie, talked Adam into it and the fall of man began that day. Why am I bringing up such a famous record in the Bible? I bring it up because the pattern is no different thousands of years later. The competition between good and evil is taking place in our minds. When you think properly, as God intended for us to think, you will be happy, blessed and have access to everything you want and need in life. Conversely, when you entertain wrong thoughts, non beneficial thoughts, hurtful thoughts, painful thoughts, negative thoughts, you will be tired, miserable, not blessed and lacking in getting your needs met. Your circumstances or upbringing or financial resources didn’t do it to you, though it seems like it, your choice of thoughts did it to you. God says, “Guard your heart with all diligence, because out of it come the issues of your life. Your life is where it is because of what you have been thinking and your life will continue to be where your thinking takes you. Can you see then the absolute futility involved in opposing your own self? Even animals know to fight for their own self preservation. Yet, humans, because we have the capacity to think, can be brought to lower levels where we not only don’t expect good, but where we are in opposition with our own selves. We say bad things to ourselves about ourselves. We draw endless negative conclusions about ourselves. We laud and magnify our faults and failings above everything that was ever good about us. We severely limit ourselves or what we can enjoy in this life. We can even get to the place where we don’t like ourselves, our only one life self. Imagine. It should be obvious that something sinister is behind that type of thinking and defeat. Stop opposing yourself.

It would be irresponsible of me not to point out that we are all in this struggle together. We all start largely negative and we all have to learn on our own, how to think properly. It is not easy to overcome negative or judgmental thinking though it be like acid to our hearts and minds. We have all been methodically trained, though we didn’t know it was happening. But, we can all learn a better way. There is a better way and subsequently a better life. The best time to start is now. The best place to start is with your own thoughts. Pick that thing that has been mentally torturing you for awhile now and STOP thinking about it. Refuse to think about it. Don’t argue, don’t rationalize, don’t try to take it on (like Eve did). Refuse it further entree into your mind and see how quickly your mood changes, your energy rises. Learn that your thinking does matter and that it is your responsibility to protect your heart and mind. Indeed, guard it. And, I’ll save you some time on the next trick. If it is negative, if it is nagging you, if it is judging you, if it is accusing you, if it is threatening you, if it is on your back, if it is scolding you for some past mistake or bringing it back to your attention, IT IS NOT FROM GOD! God doesn’t work that way, but the enemy does. Work with yourself. Be patient with yourself. Take the time. Your life and happiness are worth that much, don’t you think? Please stop opposing yourself.

Just some good thoughts…