While addressing limiting beliefs and reframing negative thoughts is incredibly powerful and a game changer for those of us that learn to reframe and turn limiting beliefs into empowering beliefs, is there a limit to how far this practice can take us? Does it work on all the thoughts that we think? This is important because our thoughts impact our life.

Our thoughts impact our life. They make a difference.

In my journey to change and improve my situation, I started reading and listening to people that had already improved their situation. It helped me immensely to engage this type of content. It provided me with ideas, insight, and hope.

Since becoming more intentional about my personal growth I’ve noticed a change in my default thoughts or responses to questions. I have stronger answers to certain questions and some of the questions that would have deflated me in the past (due to a lack of confidence) don’t. Listening to podcast interviews from people that do research on the brain, or understand behavior in an eye opening way, or who have discovered a tool to help them gain traction in life, helps me continue to rid myself of straggling negative thoughts that want to stick around.

This can all be summarized by remembering that what goes in will also come out. I have heard this theme in several podcasts that discuss making changes in your life as well as in personal growth and productivity focused online courses. The idea is that if you fill your brain with inconsequential content, stress inducing content, or negative content, that’s what will come out. On the other hand, if you fill your mind with empowering content, that’s what will come out.

Therefore, if we are facing our negative thoughts and working to overcome limiting beliefs it can be helpful to also surround ourselves with content that reinforces what we want to think about and express.

Overcoming thoughts at a deeper level.

While addressing limiting beliefs and reframing negative thoughts is incredibly powerful and a game changer for those of us that learn to reframe and turn limiting beliefs into empowering beliefs, is there a limit to how far this practice can take us? Does it work on all the thoughts that we think?

In my experience, the answer to that last question is no. At least not in the way it’s explained by the personal development world. While the strategy for overcoming limiting beliefs helps me in terms of what jobs to apply to and when thinking about what I am capable of accomplishing in a day or a year, there are some thoughts that need a deeper practice to overcome.

What are these thoughts?

If you read my article that introduced this category for my blog, it mentioned good and bad in the unconscious heart. What the personal development world doesn’t talk about are thoughts that feed in an unhealthy way on our inner desires. These are the types of thoughts that need more than the beginning steps of reframing.

Our inner desires run amuck (called passions) lead to thoughts that need a deeper strategy- a strategy that enters into the heart through what is called the prayer of the heart. These thoughts and the deeper strategy are the topic of the book I mentioned in last month’s introductory post.  It is also the source for the remaining paragraphs in this article.

The book is Confronting and Controlling Thoughts.  The writing on thoughts found in this book is very accessible. It is extremely helpful for gaining insight into the urgency of not simply learning to reframe thoughts, but to guard your mind from negative and distracting thoughts.

An introduction to logismoi.

These negative and distracting thoughts are called logismoi. There are actually 2 kinds of logismoi: 1) thoughts of peace and joy and 2) thoughts of anxiety and turmoil. The thoughts that we need to confront urgently are those that are of anxiety and turmoil, those that distract, and those that keep us focused in a negative direction other than focused on God.

In “Confronting and Controlling Thoughts”, St Thalassius is mentioned as describing the source of logismoi as being from 1) the senses 2) memory and 3) the body’s temperament. What we take in, what we remember, and our temperament are sources or entry ways for logismoi to enter our heart.

Positive Input

This brings me back to what I mentioned at the beginning of the article. What we take in will come out.

A quote in Confronting and Controlling Thoughts was helpful for my own understanding of this connection.

The mind is like a clock that is constantly running down, someone said. It has to be wound up daily with good thoughts. We need to start storing God’s powerful words in our memory bank as well as in our heart.

from Confronting and Controlling Thoughts by Anthony M. Coniaris

Taking in readings from the Bible is an important part of filling your mind and heart with the positive thoughts needed to overcome passions and logismoi.

What does this have to do with personal development?

It’s important because our thoughts impact our life!

A person that thinks confidently sees opportunities. A person that thinks they will never amount to anything misses opportunities. Consider thoughts that lead us to feel overly anxious, depressed, or bitter. These thoughts might not easily be affected by the typical personal development strategy of reframing. If unattended these negative thoughts will affect our life in negative ways.

If a thought that is unhealthy for us to keep focusing on takes root in our hearts, we are not able to grow.

More to Come.

There is so much that I could write about this topic. I’m sure there will be more to come.

In fact, next month, if all goes according to plan, I will continue this mind and thoughts theme by taking a look at the book, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives. Be sure to check back on the 4^th Thursday of the month for the next post in the faith and behavior category.

Until next time, have you tried reframing certain thoughts only to feel like you can’t overcome them?

Behavior Challenge:  Is there a scripture that you can memorize to help keep your mind thinking positive thoughts?

Resources:

Still not sure what I mean by passions? Here’s a short intro post on the essence of the passions.

Not sure what the prayer of the heart is? Read this short into post on the prayer of the heart.

Other Posts:

I mentioned in my introductory post on faith and behavior the importance of making connections between science and faith .

When learning about behavior we often think about things such as learning why we do things the way we do or how we can take what we learn about behavior and apply behavior change strategies. However, there is another aspect that sometimes gets left out. Faith. Does faith have a place in personal development? Can it help us know good help from bad help?

Make connections with your faith

What I have done to keep faith a part of my learning about behavior is to look for connections.

When I find practices and studies on behavior that are grounded in science, I look to see that the practices and results hold up against my own life experiences or the experiences of those around me. Yet, these are not the only connections that I seek. I make connections between what I learn in the science to what I learn in my faith.

Good Help or Bad Help?

There are a lot of resources out there for people that want to change their behavior. If you start the journey to improve yourself you will find that there are many people out there with reasons and practices to improve yourself. How do you know good help from bad help?

Being intentional about what we believe was the topic of last week’s article. It discussed how different people or groups can influence our thinking and behaviors, often without our even realizing it. In today’s article I suggest that we also need to be intentional about incorporating our faith into our personal development plan.

Faith is the lens

Faith is one of those important things to remember when we learn about behavior and start to apply it to our lives.

Faith is important because it provides you with a lens for looking at the theories for understanding behavior and applying what you learn. Without that lens you might follow theories or practices that might be harmful rather than helpful. Or, even if it’s not harmful, it still might not provide you with the full or complete picture of the behavior or practices that you are trying to change or improve.

Have you been looking for connections with your faith as you navigate the personal development world? Are there self-help or personal development practices that you question since they don’t line up with your faith?
(Share them in the comments section of this post. Perhaps I can write a future post addressing these things.)

Behavior Challenge: Reflect on how you currently incorporate your faith into your self-help and personal development strategies and goals. Are you happy where you are or do you want to grow in that area?

Other articles you might enjoy:

• Read more on the connections that I am making with faith and behavior and personal development.
• Read Where do beliefs come from?

Faith and behavior topics are often avoided because they are viewed as separate subjects or somehow taboo. However, work on yourself is more complete when you work on both your mind and your heart. There are scientific practices that connect. I see this in my learning and practice of Eastern Orthodoxy and personal growth.

My goal for writing about Eastern Orthodoxy and Personal Growth

You could choose to navigate this blog and not read the articles on faith and behavior. However, I submit that if you skip these articles you will miss part of the story.

As I share more articles on the subject, I hope it will become clear why I have decided to include this focus on faith in my blog on personal development.

For now, let me sum it up. It’s about faith and behavior.

In my process of learning scientific practices that improve behavior, I often connect what I am hearing or reading to teachings of the Eastern Orthodox spiritual life. My goal, in this section of my website, is to share the connections I see in scientific practices to practices in the Eastern Orthodox spiritual life. To do this I have committed to writing monthly articles where I will share my learnings.

I emphasize learnings. I am not expert in either scientific or Orthodox practices. I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian and I am learning.  

I invite you to learn with me.

Why write about Eastern Orthodoxy and Personal Growth?

Is not it enough to write about the Christian Church and personal growth?

Why is this discussion needed at all?

Personal development is better accomplished when all areas of one’s life are addressed. To exclude the spiritual part of your life when you are growing in other areas leads to an imbalance.

I also find the depth of the teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church assist me in understanding the larger issues of personal development. 

In future posts I want to discuss the scientific and faith connections in greater detail. Sometimes I will specifically refer to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Other times I will write about a broader faith in God.

For now, I want to share what I mean by heart and the importance of training your heart.

The meaning of train your heart

In my post on building confidence through science and faith I shared how it’s important to grow your faith and that we can affect our confidence by working on our inner being. I also shared that I train my heart through prayer and building community.

What do I mean when I say that I train my heart and how does this affect my behavior?

The following is an attempt at an introductory and foundational answer to this question. I will break the question into two parts. I will share my current understandings on this subject and I aim to share what I know to the best of my ability.

The heart is the center of our being

What does it mean to train your heart?

At the center of this question is a need to understand the Eastern Orthodox view of the human person.

When I speak about the heart, I am not talking of the heart as a muscle but as the center of our being.

I am currently working my way through the book Confronting and Controlling Thoughts by Anthony M. Coniaris and it helped me formulate what I will share in this section.

The heart can be compared to the unconscious.

The unconscious is: 1) the past 2) the passions that we inherited

Therefore, in our unconscious we have both memories and things we desire, the passions.

Fr. Stephen Freeman’s blog Glory to God for All Things has an introduction to the Orthodox understanding of the passions if you want to learn more.

How does this affect my behavior?

There can be good and bad in this unconscious heart.

The good: our conscience, knowledge of God, and a sense of right and wrong.

The bad: evil thoughts, evil actions.

Therefore, in the heart we can have self-awareness and an idea of God. However, we can also have distraction and evil.

Knowing this provides us with insight into how our heart functions in the human person and provides us with a greater understanding of where our behaviors fit into the picture. This is important when we are thinking about behavior and behavior change. It shows us how important it is to take our faith into consideration when we are making big behavior changes.

Want to dig deeper into this subject? If you’re interested in learning with me, look out for the monthly posts on faith and behavior.

Join the mailing list so you don’t miss a post on faith and behavior!

Read more posts on faith and behavior:

Faith and Behavior: Why do we keep faith and behavior quiet?

Confidence Through Science and Faith | Train your heart and mind