Reset Wounded Thoughts and Feelings for Healing
Seeking help for distorted thinking patterns may sound like an overwhelming task. Most people that avoid counseling think this. Even those who seek out counseling may think it too. I always tell my clients that they will not be working as hard to gain new understandings as they will be to get rid of old mis-understandings! That is the main issue at hand. Our brain has been running a program filled with lies and false beliefs.
Awareness. What is it? It is mindfulness, consciousness, cognizance, attentiveness. However, if you are thinking you are aware and have knowledge that is based on truth, you may be sadly mistaken-especially if you have not updated the programs that have been running through your inner being since you were a child. In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul writes…
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
These are good words to use as a backdrop for awareness. How do you think you put childish thinking and speaking behind you? If you answered that you are not sure, you are being honest. I love being a therapist and love my clients, but I will tell you that they have a LOT of childish thoughts and reasoning that lead to childish actions that they cannot easily put away. I also admit to having plenty of childish thinking well into what I would have considered the mature years of my life.
Here’s the truth. You can be aware that you sometimes act and think like a child. You can engage in childish behavior and may not be able to do anything to stop a reaction when you are triggered. You can even blame someone else - that their childish behaviors and words “made” you think and act that way - but it isn’t true. The real truth is buried deep inside of you wrapped around the original wound that is presently pulling your trigger. A trigger is just a stimulus that starts the operation of your flight into being upset. It is the same signal that set off those same emotions back as far as you can remember. Pay attention to your reaction first and get to the bottom of it. You are being held hostage to an old feeling that needs healing. It is a wound.
Understand that triggers are a way to elicit a reaction from you that needs updating, correction or reset. The trigger is telling you that you felt that same way as a child and your defensive or offensive reaction in the present is the recording your brain made when you were a child. Remember, every memory is recorded in our subconscious exactly the way we interpreted it as a child. Basically, if you do not reset the wounded thoughts and feelings so they can be healed in the present, you will continue to have these reactions that cause a lot of upheaval that creates more pain to you and others. A ripple effect always comes out of childish reactions. That ripple effect may have far reaching effects whether you are aware of it or not.
What is the best treatment? Begin to notice and observe your patterns when you are upset. Take responsibility for asking the Holy Spirit to help you step into the light of the present and look deeply into the past to find the taproot of those feelings. Very soon, I will give more understanding about how to treat the wound once you find it in on upcoming blog.
