The mind? Who's that?

I believe that in the modern world, the mind has become such an alien thing in which people have lost agency of something that rightfully, and only, belongs to them.

Yesterday, I was watching Kenneth Copeland’s show on his Youtube channel and his guest speaker was Dr Caroline Leaf. Leaf is a, and I quote, “a cognitive neuroscientist with a PhD in Communication Pathology and a BSc in Logopedics and Audiology, specializing in metacognitive and cognitive neuropsychology”. Most certainly for me, I have no idea what most of those words mean but it didn’t matter, because when she spoke, her words were of such clarity and sparked a revolutionary-type of thinking in me. She spoke about toxic-thinking and how much it has contributed to both our mental and physical illnesses. Did you know that 80% of cancers are due to lifestyles and are not genetic?

What are these lifestyle factors you may ask? Stress and toxic thinking.

Toxic thinking triggers degenerative processes in the mind and body, which is why I find it unsurprising that 75-98% of mental and physical illnesses come from our thought lives. Toxic thinking is a combination of unforgiveness, bitterness, irritation, anger, negativity, anxiety, and so forth, which causes stress and our body falls victim to this. Our brain acts according to our mind and this stress begins to manifest in our bodies.

As I was listening to Leaf I thought to myself, this must be why certain illnesses become inherited. As we continue to let toxic thinking fester in our minds, it becomes part of our DNA, and as a result, we pass it onto our children and generations to come. Our toxic thinking is not only harming ourselves, but our blood line too.

Why I believe the mind has become alien to us is because people fail to realise that the same power we use to harm our bodies is the same power we can use to heal it and this all starts with self-awareness. There is a consensus in this world that our mind reacts to our experience and, in plain words, 'it is what it is'. NO- this is wrong and very deadly to believe. I was once given an analogy which I believe is applicable to this situation: Imagine you are happy and you begin to smash plates (or perform an action associated with anger), because our actions affect our emotions, soon enough, you will find yourself feeling angry. So, we should endeavour to deliberately commit actions that are contrary to toxic-thinking despite what we may be thinking or feeling. We need to actively influence our minds and not allow life to take control of us. As the famous quote says, “seize the day”- you must take control of it. In addition, we must note, though, that this is not a overnight process, which, truthfully speaking, I think is frustrating but when you get to the position where toxic thinking has no residence with you, you will be grateful.

Some people may be wondering, but I am sick now, it’s too late, so how can this apply to me? I don’t know about you, but I have heard many instances where doctors have given patients placebo medicine and they started getting better and at an increasing rate. I’m not saying that people don’t have genuine sickness, but that is a great example of the relationship between the mind and the body. Your choice to take medicine is entirely yours, but let your mind also be your remedy- as you endeavour to get better- believe in your mind and act according to this belief, just like people who have the flu and go to the gym to ‘sweat it out’.

What I am saying may seem controversial or simply impossible, either way it cannot harm you- if anything it would give you one less thing to worry about (no pun intended, ha). Finally, like Leaf says, think, learn and succeed.

Proverbs 4:23- “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”.

Proverbs 16:24- “Gracious words[/thoughts] are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”