HOW TO MANAGE STRESSFUL THOUGHTS

FACT 1: Your thinking patterns which include your thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and mental imagery are so powerful that they can trigger your body’s stress reaction just as effectively as a real event.

FACT 2: These thoughts do not even have to be true for them to trigger the stress reaction.

FACT 3: In situations where you are dealing with an actual stressful event, your thoughts about the situation -whether justified or not- contribute to how you feel and react to the actual stressful event.

Therefore, since negative thoughts negatively influence behavior, you have to monitor your thoughts.

When any thought enters your mind, before you let it take a seat and stay, ask yourself if it fulfills the Bible’s criteria of the type of thought we should allow to dwell in our minds.

As yourself, “Is this thought true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy?” (Philippians 4:8) If it is, let it stay and meditate on it.

If the thought is false, indecent, unjust, impure, immoral, distasteful or despicable, then evict it and replace it with a Scripture.

For example, when thoughts of defeat or of your incapability in managing your stressful situation enter your mind, replace them by pondering on "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

Replacing all negative thoughts with positive Scriptures will ensure that you do not conform to the negativity of your stressful situation and help you break the vicious cycle in which negative thoughts contribute to increasing the stress in your already stressful situation and the resultant increased stress in turn generates more negative thoughts.Therefore, manage stressful thoughts by replacing them with positive Scriptures.


Adapted from Managing Stress with the Word of God by Dr. Miriam Kinai © 2006 For more info click here.

Christian, stress management