Hello blessed child of God, I hope you’re fine by God’s grace, as for me I’m fine thanks to Him.
Do you remember the table from yesterday? Did you fill it yesterday?
Please take some time and fill it for today too.
Today we’re going to reflect on what’s going on in our thought lives.
Yesterday we had to start filling a daily table on our body sensations and our feelings linked to a corresponding event. Also, we had to realize that the feelings of fear, guilt, shame and anger were affecting our bodies. The real deal was the fact that those negative emotions were due to the thoughts we were harboring concerning the event.
Right now, let me invite you to fill this table again. You have to fill it every single day.
Exercise 1: Track Your Thoughts
| Body Sensations | Feelings
(Rated 1-100) | Corresponding Events | Thoughts |
| Increased breathing rate and heart rate (I also felt pain in my chest, shoulders and back) | Anger (70), shame (90) | I was discussing over the phone with my ex-fiance and we were trying to decide on how to send back the wedding gifts we received since the wedding didn’t happen because I was dumped at the altar | – I am a failure -Nobody loves me – I will never get married -Nobody will ever want to marry me -I have disappointed my family |
Increased breathing rate and heart rate, crying | Sadness (70) Shame (90) | I was looking at our engagement pictures | -Why didn’t he choose me -There must be something wrong with me -I don’t deserve to be loved |
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Now try to think about this.
This is the moment to reflect
Exercise 2: Reflect
- Do you see any patterns to the type of thoughts you have ?
- Are these thoughts associated with certain types of feelings?
What we’re looking for right now is a trend in the way you’re thinking about yourself and your situations.
From the previous example in the table, the reflections of the person who made this table would be something like this.
My Reflections : Example
I notice that I’m not confident enough about whether I can be loved by someone. I feel angry because my fiance left me at the altar, but I also feel extreme shame because of it. The pattern I notice is I tend to blame myself for what happens wrong in my life, and the feelings I have are essentially shame because I believe that being rejected means there’s something fundamentally wrong with me.
1. Pattern: Blaming myself for everything which goes wrong, internalizing
2. Feelings: Shame
Why do I require that you reflect today?
I require that you reflect on your thoughts because at times we think that our thoughts are legitimate, normal and rational, while that’s not always the case. The event you went through may be real but the thoughts which you have about it can be distorted.
Proverbs 23:7a KJV
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:
Proverbs 4:23 NIV
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Your thoughts ultimately affect your emotions. If your thoughts are distorted and negative, you will constantly be feeling bad, and you’ll always think
- “Why am I never happy?”
- “Why am I always depressed?”
- ” Why is everyone else happy and not me?”
It’s not that you’re always depressed, it’s not that you’re never happy, it’s just that you’ve not learned to identify your thoughts, to study them and to train your brain to think what’s in line with God’s Word.
Today, all you have to do is reflect and realize clearly that if you keep thinking negatively, you’ll always feel sad.
Make a clear decision that you’ll train yourself to actively change the way you think.
Tomorrow God willing, we’ll explain more about distorted thinking and we’ll define the different categories. So that you’ll be able to identify the distortions in your thinking patterns.
Prayer
Father Lord God Almighty, please Help me make a firm decision to choose my thoughts at every single moment and to let Your Word transform my thoughts in Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
It’s Now Your Turn
Review through your exercise book and reflect on the different things we talked about since we started this Lent journey against depression.
How’s it going so far? What are your reflections? Please let us know in the comments section.
Don’t forget to share this blog post on your social media accounts and to invite your friends and family members to join us as we’re waging war against depression. You may save a life by sharing.
If you’ve not done it yet, subscribe to my Newsletter so as not to miss any post on depression and also, make sure to invite anyone whom you know is suffering from depression.
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Invitation
Click here if you’re looking for a church. I recommend Elevation Church to you. A wonderful Christ-centered Church in which you aren’t limited by your location and in which you can see what God can do through you.
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God bless you
Victoria Eyog
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