Is Your Mind a Mental Mess? The Four Warning Signals You Need to Know.
Your internal warning system
Today we’re going to uncover the four warning signals that help you take a closer look at your mental health. Have you ever thought about how you “show up” in life? Are you calm, cool, and collected, or are you prone to blow your top, worry, or feel anxious? The answers lie within your thoughts, and these warning signals reveal them. It’s not a mystery, it’s brain science and biblical truth! Read on and learn what your warning signals are trying to tell you!
I remember a time when I had no peace. I felt like my life was out of control, so I tried desperately to control every aspect of it. I had a Plan A for everything with contingency plans from B-Z. I was a perfectionist, people pleasing guru dogged by anxiety and depression. When a family camping trip rained out, instead of dancing in the rain and making mud pies with my kids, I pouted and complained, ruining the experience for everyone. I robbed my own joy and that of my family. Something had to change.
I started to look closely at how I was “showing up in life” and I didn’t like what I saw. In my attempts to control and plan to the tee, I’d lost my ability to find joy in the simple moments of life and lost the freedom of laughter and spontaneity. What I once valued and treasured as a mom, wife, and woman, seemed lost and out of reach.
Several painful childhood and adolescent experiences left me dragging my emotional baggage through life, tainting my ability to enjoy the journey. Not knowing how to deal with the pain, I distracted myself through eating, shopping, and drinking, until alcohol abuse tore my world apart and I attempted suicide to escape.
While trying to put my life back together I discovered the work of Dr. Caroline Leaf. In her book, Switch on Your Brain, she connects the scientific and biblical truths of mind renewal. I learned that my mind is the most powerful thing in the universe after God.
I learned that good thoughts = good choices, which meant toxic thoughts = toxic choices. This connects to Deuteronomy 30:19 which says, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
Whoa! That meant God designed me to stand outside myself and observe my own thinking and change it! I was designed to recognize and choose the right things to think about. I began to pay close attention to the signals my thoughts were sending me and today I’m going to reveal these powerful signals to you.
The average person has between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day. According to the National Science Foundation 80% of our thoughts are negative and 95% of our thoughts are repetitive. WOW. That’s a lot of negative, repetitive thoughts! We all have thoughts and feelings about ourselves and important aspects of our life - relationships, family, and work for example.
Your thoughts drive the four ways you “show up” in your life - and if any of these are typically negative, they can be warning signs that something needs to change. These four signals are your emotions, behaviors, bodily sensations, and perspectives. Taking a closer look at these reveals the types of thoughts you’ve wired into your brain. Remember - good thoughts = good choices, but toxic thoughts = toxic choices.
Thoughts produce emotions
Let’s look closer at each one, starting with emotions. Thoughts produce emotions. The amygdala and prefrontal cortex of your brain trigger emotions. These will be love based emotions such as joy, love, pride, or fear based emotions such as fear, anger, or scared.
Emotions are raw, biological reactions. We build a library of stored emotional responses in the amygdala, a tiny almond shaped brain structure that plays a role in memory formation. We’ll pull out what we’ve wired in. Think junk in - junk out. Since I had a lot of painful and unresolved emotions, my default was a fear based negative reaction. Even in joyful moments, such as a weekend camping trip with my kiddos, I felt irritated by the rain instead of feeling playful.
You can feel your thoughts in your body
Bodily sensations are your second warning signal. These are signals that tell us how our emotions feel or play out in our bodies. For example, when you are angry you might have an increased heart rate, sweaty palms, or a stomach ache. When you’re nervous you often feel a “butterfly” like sensation in your stomach or even a headache. When you’re happy, you can also experience an increase in heart rate, feel flushed, or even light headed.
These bodily sensations are a reaction to the flow of love and fear based chemicals released by the hypothalamus of your brain. Chemicals such as endorphins or dopamine feel good in our body, but chemicals such as cortisol or too much adrenaline can make us feel poorly.
Often we “feel the emotion” and realize the thought next. In truth, the thought orchestrates everything. Think of it as the conductor of your four warning signals. And it’s masterful at conducting our behaviors!
How you behave says a lot about you
Behaviors are the third warning signal, and simply put, it’s the way we act or conduct ourselves.
Healthy thoughts will promote healthy behaviors such as cooperation and kindness, but toxic thoughts will prompt toxic behaviors such as aggression or destructive choices.
Going back to the camping experience, the rain was NOT in my plan and I had no control over it. Since my emotional library was full of disappointment, I retrieved an irritated response and the corresponding behaviors were to pout and complain. Had more joy and positivity been wired in, I may have been able to see the situation as an opportunity to dance in the rain and make mud pie memories.
Your thoughts create mindsets that drive your perspectives
The fourth and last warning signal is our perspective related to the thought. Our perspectives are a particular attitude toward something or a point of view. Perspectives are developed from our mindsets, which are a collection of similar thoughts. It’s how we see our world and how we operate within it.
Just as emotions, bodily sensations, and behaviors have been categorized as healthy or toxic, depending on one's thoughts, perspectives follow the same pattern. Healthy thoughts produce healthy perspectives and mindsets such as self-acceptance, willingness to learn from challenges, and optimism. Just as toxic thoughts produce negative perspectives and mindsets such as perfectionism, all-or-nothing thinking, and discounting the positive. The rain-drench campout reinforced my perspective that things don’t go my way. That’s all-or-nothing thinking right there!
What are your warning signals tell you?
When you start paying attention to these warning signals and how you’re showing up in life, you gain valuable insight into your thought life.
So what if looking through looking glass leaves you concerned about your mental health, or in some cases mental ill-health?
That’s where mind renewal comes in. God has designed us to be our own micro-surgeons and we can wire-out anything we’ve wired in. This is known in the science world as Neuroplasticity. It’s the brain’s ability to change and adapt throughout life.
My favorite Dr. Leaf quote is this: You can go 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 minutes without oxygen, but you CAN'T even go even 3 seconds without thinking.
Our thoughts are the foundation that supports our mental health. Isn’t it about time you paid closer attention to them?
Next Steps
I invite you to head over to our Mind Renewal Solution Made Simple Facebook group where you’ll find resources and tips this week geared at helping you apply the information from this blog. We’ve posted a Four Warning Signals infographic that can help you start taking a closer look at your thoughts! Remember, you can wire out whatever you’ve wired in.
The Day 1 of Sobriety exists to help you create a sober mind – which is a mind that is calm and at peace. 2 Timothy 1:7 in The Passion Translations says, “For God will never give you a spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit gives you mighty power, love, and self-control. You received the Holy Spirit on Day 1 of your salvation in Christ Jesus. Let me show you how to start tapping into the benefits package of being a child of God.
