I notice that I like to go into my head and not let it out. This is a big problem for me because it makes the stuff in my head bigger and worse.
It’s like the dead sea.
The dead sea is a body of water that takes and takes but doesn’t give, so the water gets salty doesn’t support much life. It is dead. Very technical term here.
We hear this story in relation to service, a lot, right?
When we try to live our lives just to please ourselves, our lives become very stagnant and small.
We become small.
But this comparison to the dead sea is also true when it comes to our brains in general. If I hold stuff in my head and heart and not share it or even just write it for me, those thoughts weigh me down.
As a young girl and woman I used to write all the things weighing on my mind and heart in my journal. Looking back I realize that was therapy for me!
This helped me see my thoughts on paper and free my brain to think or notice other things.
Today I don’t call it journaling, I call it self coaching or at the very least a thought download.
What I notice is that if I am not writing down my thoughts or feelings that they become problems for me. They grow into mountains of salt like in the dead sea.
They are a running software of my day to day.
I feel hopeless and overwhelmed.
Nothing changed, I am just having thoughts about people, words people said, my house, messes I see.
Those thoughts are just my interpretation of these things, but I make them mean things about me and my brain compounds the thoughts and looks for evidence that they mean what I think they mean.
When I say things, I mean I turn them into problems for me. If I don’t allow emotions, and look at my thoughts objectively, my brain becomes like the dead sea.
The only outlet the dead sea has is evaporation and that outlet leaves behind the minerals. Leaves a remnant of the water but not the part that is essential for life to thrive.
Like the dead sea, if my brain has no other outlet then those thoughts become actions. If I leave my brain unmanaged, these actions will be small like evaporation is small. They will leave behind a hard heart. The emotions will fuel actions that seep out in some way. I am thinking of actions that come from resentment, defensiveness, distraction and blame.
Perhaps this where the phrase, you are dead to me comes from. hee hee
In this way, a hard heart and closed mind is very much like the dead sea.
When we live this way, we cannot thrive.
Notice when you feel your heart close or harden. What might you be thinking about? Write it down. Get it out and examine it.
As you develop a habit of writing down your thoughts and feelings, you will have space in your life to hear Him and feel His love.
This habit will help you access your own wisdom.
Let your mind be more like the Sea of Galilee where thoughts and feelings can flow in and out and serve you and give you purpose.
