How Healthy Thinking Patterns Strengthen the Mind

Let’s reflect together on the importance of cultivating healthy thoughts, recognizing unhealthy ones, and training our minds to observe and choose to resist the negative, dysfunctional thoughts that hinder our mental health and negatively impact our relationships. Therefore, let’s now think about healthy thoughts.

Our Creator inspired the apostle Paul to write the following:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Philippians 4:8

This is very interesting because one of the scientific techniques used in psychological counseling or psychotherapy, called CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), seeks to help people with, for example, depression or a tendency toward panic attacks, to examine their thoughts and realize that they may have thoughts of pessimism, hopelessness, or catastrophizing—and by correcting these unhealthy thought patterns, they can improve.

Many individuals are unaware and have not yet grasped that they can change their negative thought patterns. They believe that their current way of thinking is the only one they can have, but we can develop a better thought process with healthier mental content. In fact, this is the primary goal of psychiatric and psychological treatments.

This is because if a person suffering from mental distress, depression, excessive anxiety, and other issues does not learn to manage their thoughts, handle them properly, and instead relies solely on medication-based treatment, they may experience relief from symptoms, but they will lack this learning process—which I call psychoeducation—that involves cultivating healthy thoughts and managing emotions in a balanced way. It is true that it is not easy to change the flow of thoughts or one’s habitual way of reasoning, because we have become accustomed to having them in a pessimistic or optimistic, negative or positive, hopeless or hopeful, joyful or sad, nervous or calm manner.

It’s important to understand that much of what we feel depends on what we think, how we think, and what we think about most. In part, we become what we think about most. You become more like what you contemplate most and what you think about most. In fact, the Bible spoke of this centuries ago:

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Proverbs 23:7

We can get used to always thinking in the same negative way, even though it feels terrible to act that way in our conscience. There are people who get used to unnecessary suffering, much like those who get used to living in places that are very hot or very cold. There are many kinds of feelings and sufferings, in fact, that we don’t need to experience, and many of them stem from cultivating wrong ways of thinking over a long period of time. For example, many people have gotten used to thinking negatively about themselves, frequently putting themselves down.

This is self-sabotage and causes emotional suffering. Instead of cultivating thoughts of self-contempt and self-deprecation, you can protect yourself from the tendency to belittle and diminish yourself. This involves observing your thoughts of self-disrespect, stopping them, and shifting your thinking so that—while acknowledging that you have some character flaws, like all of us—you don’t need to despise yourself for them. Have you realized that you can think about what you’re thinking? It’s possible to step out of autopilot, at least for a few moments, and reflect on yourself, on what’s going on in your mind, on the kinds of thoughts you harbor.

In other words, it’s possible to observe the type of thought that most frequently comes to your mind. This means there’s an area of your mind that’s free to think whatever you want. And there’s an area that’s stuck in habitual, old thoughts. This free area—where you can think whatever you want—is the one you need to use to train yourself in new and better thoughts. Understand that you have a choice in what you’ll think.

Paying attention to your thoughts really takes practice and effort, because a habit formed over so many years can cause someone to get used to—to get into the habit of—always thinking in the same negative way, constantly harboring thoughts like, “Oh, people reject me,” “Life has no meaning,” “No one understands me,” “I’m weak and hopeless,” “I’m good for nothing.”

But the healthy part of the mind can look at that and say, “Wow, look how I just keep thinking destructive things that bring me down.” So every time you catch yourself having these bad, negative thoughts, you can say to yourself, for example: “I decide not to allow this unhealthy side of my mind to keep thinking this way. I’m going to choose what I want to think right now.” And so you replace the bad thought with a better one and force your mind to focus on that better thought.

Yes, you need to make an effort with this task. That’s because your old habit of negative thinking may have become deeply ingrained in your mind, which requires effort to break free from that negative thought pattern. It is through this training that things will change for the better for a mind full of negative thoughts that produce painful, unnecessary feelings and lead to mental illness, disrupting a person’s relationship with themselves and with others. You should also ask God for strength and protection against these destructive thoughts, because many of them may be related to the battle between good and evil within you.

Some may have a spiritual rather than a psychological source. We do not struggle only with psychological issues that affect our sanity. There are spiritual forces of evil at work in our daily lives, seeking to destroy us, discourage us, and drive us to despair. That is why God recommends that we put on the spiritual armor for this battle. He says in Ephesians chapter 6:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:10–12

Next, following this text, comes an explanation of the tools we need to use in this battle. Read Ephesians, chapter 6, starting with verse 10 and continuing through verse 20.

Remember that what we think about most shapes what we feel, and what we feel most shapes what we do. And what we do most creates habits. And the repetition of habits shapes the basic conduct of life—that is, our character. That is why, if most of your thoughts are negative, your feelings will also be negative, and your life decisions may be negative as well. Therefore, thinking correctly is very important for improving your emotional life and for helping you overcome the feeling—which may be long-standing—of being rejected, unable to improve, and depressed.

Yes, it’s important to understand, express, and experience feelings that may have been inappropriately suppressed. Expressing a feeling means talking about it, and experiencing it means living through the feeling with balance. But you can start by working on training your thoughts, and that alone will yield positive results as you learn to better manage your emotions, aided by healthy thinking. To change, you have to think. Do you want to think, or do you want to repeat the behavior you see on social media and television?

Or would you rather stay in your comfort zone with dysfunctional behavior? Dysfunctional behavior can include getting easily irritated, speaking loudly without respecting others, wanting to dominate, doing everything to get noticed, loving to argue, constantly complaining about everything and everyone, or letting yourself be dominated by someone else, among other attitudes. It seems that the vast majority of people live on autopilot. What does it mean to live on autopilot? Have you ever driven a car with an automatic transmission?

What’s the difference between a car with an automatic transmission and one with a manual transmission? With an automatic transmission, all you have to do is put the shifter in “D” (for “drive”), and that’s it—you just drive forward without worrying about shifting gears; you just use the gas and brake pedals. With a manual transmission, however, you need to shift gears frequently, especially if you’re driving in the city. When people live on autopilot, they get scared when some emotional problem arises in their lives.

Because living on autopilot means not thinking, acting more on impulse or desire, and sticking to routine without questioning whether that’s the best course. Living on autopilot isn’t bad in itself, but it can be dangerous, because emotions often deceive us. In postmodern thought or culture, what matters is what you feel. But our emotions fluctuate a lot, especially in highly emotional people, which are those who don’t like to think much—to think from cause to effect, to reflect on their own behavior.

A lot of people act first and think later. Of course, thinking too much is tiring, but not thinking at all and just living on autopilot—driven by your feelings—can lead to avoidable complications. When people live on autopilot, they get scared when an emotional problem arises in their lives. Because living on autopilot, as I said, means not thinking; it means acting more on impulse or desire; it means sticking to routine without questioning whether that’s the best course of action. Mental health depends on the balance between living by reason and living by emotion.

The challenge is to have emotions without letting emotions have you. I think we can divide people in terms of mental health into a group that operates very much on the rational side—people who are colder, more calculating, with little or no compassion for others’ suffering; and the other group of very emotional people, full of exaggerated passion, who live with their emotional antennas turned up to the max, get startled when someone confronts them, trying to show that they’re letting emotions take over their minds, and think they’re very loving because they confuse love with emotion.

You might ask: “Do I really have to think? Can’t I just go through life on autopilot?” Well, if you’re an impulsive, very anxious, very impatient person, maybe you really do need to stop and think about your behavior, instead of expecting others to put up with your—perhaps uncontrolled—way of being. You have the choice to change your behavior for the better.

You have a choice. The world is becoming more violent because many people are letting their emotions get the better of them. That’s how you build a society based on emotions. In other words, if I feel good, then it’s valid. It seems like people want to feel good, regardless of the truth about what constitutes healthy, ethical, and balanced behavior.

And as someone wrote, people are very sensitive and easily offended by anything, including the truth. Do you want the truth or to feel good? Well, think about it.