Be careful what you listen to. Sounds like a truly good advice that many of us should already be so familiar with based off what we’ve already encountered within our trials and tribulations in life. However, how do we determine what is good advice versus those that lead us to dangerous trails?
If you’ve lived enough to be burdened with your own thoughts, you’ve either stayed awake or have awoken to voices within you that could not be silenced. It is bad enough to be surrounded by many thoughts of others that enter our hearts, minds, and spirits daily, but the greatest and perhaps strongest enemy of all negative thoughts are our own. That voice that knows it is uninterrupted, lurking within the night, with nothing to stop it from going on and on other than our power to shut it down and not be intimidated by its messages. Somehow, there we are, opening the same gate we close off to other things like persistence, aspirations, goals, or just hope. There we are, allowing and inviting the enemy, like a bad relationship that we somehow find a reason to hold onto, thoughts we should not allow come right on in again.
Fairly noted, it is not that we enjoy these thoughts at all. Like the song, “Killing Me Softly” by Roberta Flack later rebirthed by Fugees, “ I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud…” You see, the very being on this planet who knows you better than anyone else is, you guessed it, you. So well that we can very well manipulate the very thoughts that arrive at our doorstep of the mind. Once again, there we are, bruised up from the last time we let that thought in, but we do even worse, we leave the door open to allow the other “friends” or “acquaintances” to arrive at their will. We deem ourselves to be strong because how else do we view ourselves to suffer and yet survive from such abuse, over and over again? Are you listening to yourself? Who are we kidding if we equate abusive thoughts to strength? Who controls whom? Who opens and closes that door? Who allows what to come in or stay out? You, comically agreeing, the strong one.
Here is what I have come to realize is when I’m strongest with incoming “bad company” in my mind. I find myself turning on anything that is inspirational to listen to whenever such madness in my head enters. Whether it be during my cardio on the elliptical or in the middle of the night, I will turn on any positive beats or songs to tune out the negative thoughts in my head, pushing off the darkness creeping within my spirit. If I must recite lyrics, verses, stanzas loudly outward or in my head to drown out those voices knocking to get into my head, I do just that… over and over again until I’m too tired to think or have fallen asleep. When time or circumstance does not allow me to fight off the noise, I remind myself of such following:
“Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy- meditate on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)
Those attacks in our own minds, confined within our own walls we’ve somehow built around them, securing them to not escape when all we hope and pray for is the opposite is to our own fault, no one else. That push and pull. That drama. The inner-turmoil that we’ve developed, eating away our moments that could have been a memory out of bed or walking outdoors, meeting people, changing lives, fulfilling our own lives. We turn away from everything. It is not our thoughts that abuse us. WE abuse us.
Yes, I agree from continuous fights within my own strength-building self. It can be such a challenge to not overwhelm our thoughts of the “what ifs”. The strangest thing, too, is that it seems when we are alone with our own thoughts, that is when they are strongest in our minds and loudest in our ears. And, like a flea, thoughts jump from one miserable thing to another. What is that unrelenting madness we create for ourselves that we find to be such a struggle to fight, tossing and turning, at times getting up to try and shake or wear off? Well, feel not alone. Our mind is a collection of amazing journeys in our lives that have picked up weeds along with the roses. Keep fighting the fight. RBL. Relax. Breathe. Let go. RBL. Relax. Breathe. Let go… Chant positive thoughts into your mind over and over while focusing on relaxing, breathing, and letting go. Although you may lose sleep battling your own thoughts, waking up the next day is a reminder that you will always be a conqueror. Just as long as you get up and go somewhere, do something, be that you that says, “I can”.
Not so easy? Lock the doors of your mind and only keep what will strengthen you until you are able to maintain such willpower. Yes, I’m guilty of opening my door to such bad relationships with thoughts, too. But I’m getting stronger. The stronger I become, the wiser I feel. The wiser I feel, the more ready I am to stand my ground when those thoughts come knocking at my door. How about you?
‘Knock, Knock.’ ‘Who’s there?’ ‘You know who?’
