Take the Thought Change Challenge

I recently had an opportunity to visit Pompeii in Italy. As I walked down the stone paved streets, I couldn’t help but notice huge ruts in the roads. These ruts were gradually worn from years of wheels going down the same paths of countless vehicles, day after day. From my perspective, it didn’t look like a vehicle could choose a different path with how worn the path already was. It was easy to know and predict where flow of traffic went day after day.

As I was thinking about it, if those deep ruts in the roads of Pompeii were to be fixed, each worn stone would have to be replaced with a new stone. It would take effort and strength and purpose to lift the old stones out and replace them with a new stones. Just think how easy the way would be if that were to be done. Travelers could take a new paths and try new ways to go.

Our minds work much the same way. In order to change old thought patterns, we must replace them with new thought patterns. These new thoughts make new paths that take us down better roads. Life is just easier. Most of us have gone down thought paths so often that deep ruts have formed in our mind’s pathways that we automatically go down whenever we fall into certain situations. We often want to change these pathways but we don’t know how.

A few of my personal ruts have looked like, anxiety when it’s my week to play the organ, a belief that I can’t write or speak well, thinking life would be easier if I had no responsibilities, tryingand worrying about what others think of me. These ruts have been such stumbling blocks for me, keeping me from accomplishing the things that I want to do and the things I want to change. I have been working very hard to get rid of the ruts in my life and to go to the place I want to be mentally and emotionally. I have worked hard to repave my thinking habits and in doing this I have found greater joy.

I challenge you to change your thoughts. It is going to take spiritual and emotional muscle, but I would like to invite you to join me over the course of my next few posts in learning how to take responsibility for your thoughts. I will share tools that will help change your thought patterns. Some of your challenges in life will disappear simply by thinking about life in a new way. You also will be able to feel greater joy and less stress. I can’t say that your circumstances will change, but I can say that you can change in your circumstances and life will be better all the way around!