Author Ryan Holiday has written extensively about the ancient Stoics and applying their ideas today. I was taken with this observation in his newsletter this week: "How would you describe someone who lies to you? Who riles you up? Who makes you anxious and afraid? Who questions whether you’re good enough? Who has preposterous blindspots and disturbing biases? Who prods you to suspect the worst of others? Who tricks you into doing things you’ll regret? Who encourages your worst impulses? But this is what our mind does to us on a daily basis! Your mind is not your friend!"
He's right, isn't he? Many of the hardest and most unhelpful things that are said about us exist only in our own minds, and by and large are not true. No wonder there is so much written about the dangers of overthinking. I sometimes think I need to join a support group for recovering over-thinkers ... :)
The apostle Paul writing to the Roman and Corinthian churches recognises the power of our minds and he invites us to take back our thoughts and surrender them to God: "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom 12:2) and "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:5). That's a helpful image if you are also an over-thinker: renewing our minds involves stopping, noticing and naming a thought and then taking it captive and surrendering it to the truth of Christ.
He's right, isn't he? Many of the hardest and most unhelpful things that are said about us exist only in our own minds, and by and large are not true. No wonder there is so much written about the dangers of overthinking. I sometimes think I need to join a support group for recovering over-thinkers ... :)
The apostle Paul writing to the Roman and Corinthian churches recognises the power of our minds and he invites us to take back our thoughts and surrender them to God: "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom 12:2) and "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:5). That's a helpful image if you are also an over-thinker: renewing our minds involves stopping, noticing and naming a thought and then taking it captive and surrendering it to the truth of Christ.