Overcoming Intrusive ThoughtsSample

Three Steps to Freedom

Have you ever had to memorize a speech? You probably thought about the speech and spent a lot of mental energy trying to memorize it. What happened after the speech was over? If you’re like most people, you delivered the speech and then shifted your mental focus elsewhere. The speech that you ran through your mind over and over again started to fade into the back of your memory. That’s kind of how our intrusive thoughts work. The less we focus on them, and the less meaning we give them, the less they will come to our minds.

Yesterday, we looked at some practical things we can do to deal with our intrusive thoughts. Today, we will talk about more steps we can take towards overcoming our unwanted thoughts. When an intrusive thought comes to your mind you can:

1. Notice the thought and choose to not give it any significance. This is something we touched on yesterday when we talked about taking the fear out of having intrusive thoughts. When the thoughts come, we can acknowledge them, and then we can let them go.

2. Choose to not engage with the thought. We don’t have to give in to a compulsive thought to stop the fear we feel. In fact, when we engage with the thought, we tell our brains that the thought is a real threat. This can heighten our nervous system’s fight-or-flight response, and encourage this cycle to repeat itself. So, when the thought comes, do not engage.

3. Redirect your thoughts to the present and choose to focus on a healthy thought. Take a control of the moment in your mind and start a new train of thought. You have that power.

Neuroscience gives us a look into the way God designed our brains. Repeated thoughts and behaviors create pathways in our minds, and these pathways make the things even more repeatable. This can work for us or against us. When we engage our intrusive thoughts and try to fight them, we can get caught in a cycle. But if we begin to repeat the three-step process above, we can create a new pattern in our brain that allows us to recognize, dismiss, and move on from intrusive thoughts faster and faster over time.

I’ve seen God use this three-step process to change and renew my mind. He has helped me overcome intrusive thoughts, and now unwanted thoughts take a back seat in my life and they no longer plague me. I pray He does the same for you!

Thought of the Day: Victory over intrusive thoughts is possible. I will take the tools given to me through this Devotional and, by God’s Grace, I will see intrusive thoughts lose their grip on my mind and my life.

For more help and resources on overcoming emotional and mental health struggles, check out resolutionmovement.org