Over the years I’ve learned to pay attention to my thoughts.
Initially, I fought to control my thoughts by repeating upbeat affirmations, adopting confidence mantras. I was determined to power through my misery with positive thinking. I’m proud of the mental work I did. Most of it worked and I feel like I’m evolving and ready for a softer approach. I think about taking my thoughts captive.
I used to visualize snatching them out of their invisible space, wrestling them to the ground, binding them and somehow, locking them away where unwanted thoughts are kept. That way seemed so harsh and angry and left me feeling mad at myself for…. Thinking.
Now I think about capturing my thoughts as one would capture a delicate butterfly. I see thoughts as delicate, fragile things. The second part of 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” What does that mean? Christ is love, so I decided to somehow make my thoughts obedient to love.
What does that look like? For my thoughts to be obedient to love there is no judgement, no violence, no anger. There’s no condemnation. There’s only observation, patience, kindness and deciding to choose love.