What works to change thinking patterns?

Anyone want to share their advice that works to change thinking patterns?

Here are some I've found:

1. Read and meditate on scripture

2. Spend time with balanced people.

3. Whenever a thought comes that's not of the Lord, simply say "no" (don't allow yourself to entertain it) and meditate on the truth.

4. The process of "bringing all thoughts into captivity" by Dr. Caroline Leaf (http://www.drleaf.net/thought-life)

There are four simple techniques involved:

1. Understanding that thoughts are real and have an actual anatomy

Thoughts are real things: they have a structure in your brain and occupy space. Thoughts are the same as memories. Thoughts and memories look like trees and are called neurons or nerve cells. You build a double memory of everything as a mirror image of each other. This means that the memory on the left side of the brain builds from the detail to the big picture; and the memory on the right side builds from the big picture to the detail. When you put these two perspectives of thought together, you get intelligent understanding taking place. As information comes in from the five senses, you process it in certain structures of your brain, then you grow branches on the "trees" to hold this information in long term memory. In fact, as you reading this, you are growing thoughts, because, thoughts are the result of what we hear and read and see and feel and experience. This means that whatever you grow is part of you, actual branches in your brain that create your attitude and influence your decisions.

2. Increasing conscious awareness of your thoughts and how you are feeling.

Knowledge of the anatomy of thought naturally leads into the process of actively analysing incoming information and thoughts constantly. You should never let a thought or thoughts roam chaotically and unchecked through your head. Examine every thought you have and ask yourself: is this good for me? Is it from God or the devil or my own confused thinking? Conscious awareness of your thinking should become like a habit. A habit takes twenty-one days to create. Today is the first day of that twenty-one...

3. Doing something once you have analysed the thought.

So, whilst technique two is developing a conscious awareness of what you are thinking about. Now technique three is doing something about the thought. This means making a conscious decision to actively accept the thought (if it is good for you) or reject it (if it is bad for you). This means you use your God-given ability of free will (this also has actual structural position in the brain) to do something about the thought you are consciously aware of. Thoughts have as much control as we give them.

4. Building new memories over the old.

This is the really exciting part in dealing with our thought life because, accepting or rejecting the thought is changing the neural circuitry of your brain: you brain is growing while you think and you have control over the process. Technique four happens when the brain steps in and creates a structural representation of what you have chosen to accept (adds more branches on the tree) and converts what you have chosen to reject into hot air!

Lets see how these four techniques work if you have an unforgiveness in your memory trees towards someone:
Technique one: this unforgiveness looks like a thorn tree and will hurt you - visualize the twisted bitter thorn tree.
Technique two: be consciously aware of this thought of unforgiveness - where it comes from, how long it has been there, and so on.
Technique three: ask the Holy Spirit to help you use your free will to make the wisdom decision to reject unforgiveness and forgive. Picture the unforgiveness disappearing as hot air.
Technique four: now build a new de-thorned memory to replace the thorny unforgiveness with for example, quoting scriptures, singing a worship song, praying for the person, and so on.

While I was at Mercy Ministries we did these things called "Truth Statements." What we did was we wrote a list of all of the lies we believed about ourselves (I'm ugly, I'm not worth loving, my ED will always control me, etc.), and of course everyone had huge lists.

Then our counselor would tell us to go back and write the truth about every one of those lies. And by the truth, I mean the Truth-- as in the Word, God, etc. It was an unbelievably frustrating process. I mean, I had to crack open my Bible, study it, and learn the truth about myself.

The point to it was... we told ourselves (or other people told us) these lies for so long that we started believing them. I mean, if someone calls you "stupid" every single day, eventually you'll start to believe it. After writing down the TRUTH behind the lies, we were supposed to read them OUT LOUD... EVERY day until we started believing the truth over the lie.

And like, if you got an old thought pattern, or an old lie that popped in your head... you would be able to sit there, denounce it, and declare the Truth over yourself.

I'm not going to share all of mine, because of course they are quite personal. But, I feel a few examples would be good (and I'm only giving the Truth-- not the lies; no need to go back there)!


-God is always with me. He is a strong refuge when I’m facing troubles. (Psalm 9:9)

-God thinks I’m exceedingly beautiful and is enthralled by my beauty. (Psalm 45:11)

-God accepts me as I am. He created me in His image, so that makes me of great value. (Genesis 1:27)

-A bruised reed He will not break; a smoking flax, He will not quench. Where there is breath, there is hope. (Isaiah 42:3)

And then a few that aren't derived from the Word, but still follow the same "guidelines."

-I choose not to take up an offense against people when they hurt me. With God’s help I will continually walk in forgiveness. When conflict arises, I will confront the situation in love, and do my best to resolve the situation in a godly manner.

-The blood of Jesus makes me worthy to receive good things from Him.

-As I develop more and more into the woman that God has made me to be, I will trust that He will bring a guy into my life that will understand, love, and appreciate who I am.

-I choose to trust God to give me wisdom and discernment to know the people I can trust. Therefore, I can develop godly relationships, trusting God to help me to keep my heart guarded and balanced.


I hope this was somewhere in the ballpark of what you were asking? I tend to go on bunny trails quite often, but this is what came to mind when I read this post.

Both of these are really awesome. Thanks for posting them!