People from many drastically different walks of life say it is valuable to visualize what you want to see happen. The people who teach this are all so drastically different, that I'm convinced it is a law that God built into our world. We were given an imagination, and we can use it for our benefit. Sports people, New Age'rs, motivational speakers and charismatic Christians all teach that if you want something, you must first see it in your mind and heart.
Here's the question I've been asking myself: can I see myself well? Can I see myself eating *that* food, and not having symptoms? Can I see myself with lots of energy?
Sometimes it seems to me that reactions are almost as much about expectations as they are physical realities.
Thoughts?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a similar problem. She was so used to the being 'ill' that it didn't occur to her for years that she didn't have to be an invalid and that most of her problems were all in her head. I want SO MUCH to not be that kind of person.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I'll have to read more about her. What made her assume she was an invalid? And how might her life have been different if she had not been ill? Would she have been as famous for poetry, or would her life have taken a different path altogether, if she had been well? Although I personally do not believe that God sends suffering, I do believe that He uses it for our good when we love Him.
ReplyDeleteWhen we spend years and years "ill," it has the danger of getting into our self-image. I think that can be even more dangerous than the illness itself.
I just have to comment here. We have been on the GAPS journey for 19-20 months now. My kids and I all have many physical and mental issues related to food and chemicals that I can not deny, but I always come back to wondering if our thinking effects our physical state as much as our physical state effects our thinking.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through the Bible, I keep reading that "your faith has healed you", "because of your faith, you are healed", and in Matthew 6 when Jesus went to His hometown and they rejected Him, he could not perform any miracles there except to lay his hands on a few people and heal them. He wondered at their lack of faith.
We have been working on renewing our minds and have found that we tend to state everything in the negative. This was eye opening. When our little ones cry/tantrum, we now tell them to figure out what they want and use their nice words to ask for it. We found that this applies to us, too. We have to "figure out what we want or need", "find the words to say", and "ask specifically and confidently".
An article I read about EFT mentioned that what we put into our inner selves is always neutral and that the negatives are omitted. When we tell someone not to think about Teddy bears, they can't help but think about Teddy bears. When we pray to stop waking in the night, we are thinking about waking in the night. When we say we will not behave like so&so, we are thinking about how so&so behaves. We need to think about how we want to behave, not how we do not want to behave. We need to think about how we want to be, not how we do not want to be.
I woke up tired this morning and thought to myself that I was tired and that I wanted to stay in bed, but I knew I had to get up. I stopped myself and realized that what I really wanted was to be able to get up and serve God by serving my family so I changed my thinking. I thought, even though I am tired, what I really want is to get up and serve my family, so I got up and cheerfully served my family. It was a good day.
My GAPS blog is www.gapsfamily.blogspot.com
God is healing our family of food sensitivities, autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more.
I think GAPS tends to uncover much more than just food issues. It tends to also show you things in yourself that need to grow and stretch! I know I'm being stretched, but I can tell that it will be good in the end. Thanks for your thoughts! I completely agree!
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