Words of Wisdom, Email Newsletter
Plant seeds of wisdom today
Take the next 40 or so breaths slowly and reflect deeply on your life. I hope these words help you grow in you the most valuable treasure in life: wisdom. Wisdom grows imperceptibly but flourishes like a mighty oak, standing the test of time.
WoW 123: On transformation in therapy, Psychotherapy Series, Part 2
Listen instead of reading
If you prefer listening, you can subscribe to the audio version on Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, or Google, or your favorite podcast player.
Feel free to leave me a positive review if you like what you hear! It really helps me spread the message.
Listen to every Words of Wisdom ever recorded.
----------------
Deep transformation is completely possible and will be unsurprising if you courageously apply truth as you receive God’s love for you.
How you live is based on how you think. Therefore, transformation isn’t fundamentally about your actions. Why? Your actions are based on what you think. We do what we believe. We can say we believe one thing, but over time our thinking will be revealed by what we actually do.
Thinking → Doing → Results
This is part of why in therapy we spend a lot of time talking about what you think. If you don’t get enough upstream, your distorted thinking will continue to impact your actions and you’ll keep getting the same results.
Yet it is also true that the more you do what is true, good, and beautiful, the more your thinking changes. This gives you more consistent actions, improving your results. So you must change your thinking to change your actions and you must change your actions to change your thinking.
But this is still too simple. Your feelings also have a profound influence on your thinking. Here is a general principle about life: the less you have identified and expressed certain significant painful feelings, the more you will be controlled by them. Not only that, but you likely won’t even be aware of it, let alone that another way is possible for you. Your thinking will strengthen and defend your wounded way of being, and you will dig yourself deeper into the pit.
While this simple description doesn’t do justice to the healing process, it is a way of touching upon what happens in therapy. You will talk about and change what you think, you will talk about and change how you feel, and you will talk about and change how you act. As you make changes in your thinking, your feelings, and your actions you will see progress more holistically.
Quote
"And here is where healing comes in. We can do nothing about the world that created our mind, that may have instilled in us limiting, harmful, untrue beliefs about ourselves and others. However...we can learn to be responsible for the mind with which we create our world moving forward. The capacity to heal is born of the willingness to do just that, to take on that responsibility....It is about the willingness to reconsider our entire view. If the wounded mind can be tyrannical, it is a tyrant secretly longing to be deposed. I have seen this in my own life numerous times, experiencing the freedom that comes with relinquishing some unhappy belief or perception my mind has clung to just seconds prior. I have also been most fortunate, through my work, to encounter case after case of astounding turnarounds. In every instance, the essential shift transpired not in people's circumstances or histories but in how they related to them."
Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal
Questions
When is the last time you learned something new about yourself?
What is one thing you've changed your mind about that has turned out to help you?
What feelings do you need to feel today?
What small new action can you practice consistently this week?
(Use these questions as a journal prompt and to guide your prayers this week)
Endnote
Commit to being a person who continues to grow in their thinking, their ability to identify, feel and deal with their feelings, and a person who takes courageous action. All you need to do is to decide to take the next step of growth today.
Live wisely,
Josh
Support my work
As a psychotherapist and writer, I love sharing how you can overcome your greatest struggles and pursue living wisely.... Read more
Did someone send this email to you? Do you want to cultivate more of the good, true, courageous, and beautiful in your life?
Join the growing community and subscribe to receive my Words of Wisdom every Wednesday.
Did someone send this to you? Do you want to cultivate more of the good, true, courageous, and beautiful in your life?
Join the growing community and subscribe to receive my Words of Wisdom every Wednesday.
