Slowing Down the Racing Thoughts Mind

WE are well into the Christmas season and Christmas Day is rapidly approaching. Most of us spend this season “keyed up” with busyness and stressful activity. I am not saying it is not all good and fun, but the preparation and thoughts associated with the season are not good for our spiritual well being. We lose peace, miss the moments of enjoyment and often are worn down with burdensome tasks.

Remember, the biggest spiritual hindrance is what you TELL your mind. You make your mind think in the ways it does. There is no one holding a gun to your head “making” you run around and DO all the stuff you are doing. YOU have a choice. When you choose to be busy with your “have to’s” and “shoulds,” do not be surprised if you are having difficulty enjoying the beauty and peace of the season. I hear your conflicts. “If I don’t, _____________(you fill in the blank with your negative thought), Then, ___________________(again, YOU fill in the blank with your negative outcome prediction).

I call this “if-then thinking.” This kind of thinking is a huge obstacle to joy. It always robs peace and can “drive us crazy.” It is like having a slave driver in your mind with a whip to keep you in frenzied shape. If you often feel like this, you are the slave driver with the whip and it is coming from your own voice. You can create all the “should” statements you want and all you will do is end up in guilt if you do not do them. If you do them, you may often end up under the tyranny of “shoulding” yourself. It becomes a habit of the mind. Only you can stop the habit.

Habitually thinking in a path that is keeping you in some kind of anxiety or depressing thought patterns could be stopped by small changes. The first need is to have a HELPER called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can help you take every thought captive. In your human condition, this is impossible. Under the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, you will get help to begin doing this. All you have to do is ask and keep asking. Many obsessing minds are always racing around in circular thinking patterns that keep them wound up. These types of people get things done, but at the expense of their own peace of mind and that of anyone close to them.

Removing the thoughts that drive you “crazy” will be like removing a mountain from your shoulders. When you own your own mind and the mind behind your mind :-), you are free to make decisions that are fun and liberating from the slave-driver way of thinking. The Holy Spirit is the Remover and the Replacer and will clear space that is a barrier to relaxed lifestyles. Think of it this way: when life is coming at you (and you “think” you have to keep doing what you don’t want to do), you get to stop, breathe, and have help to “give permission” to living from your inner desires that create more joy for you. This will give you more energy eliminating exhaustion. Living from your inner desires sounds selfish. It is actually the opposite. When you do things because you want to, and eliminate things that are driven by external pressure, you will have a lot more time to actually know how to help others and learn to live in the moment. The Holy Spirit will lead you to let go of hindrances to peace as you gather up calm ways.