When is the last time you remember getting a full night’s sleep? Finding nourishment for your mind, body, and soul is essential – especially in the midst of hectic seasons. Jo talks with author Becky Johnson about a book she recently co-authored titled . It’s helpful advice for women of all generations – on this latest Connecting Faith.
Becky offers some practical ways to combat negative thoughts & find peace:
“We are so quick to take those negative thoughts and just expand on them. So here are a few just really practical things I’ve learned that have helped me so much.
The first one is that if you’re starting to feel stressful or a painful thought or a looping negative thought, scientists have discovered that any kind of movement at all will sort of immediately calm you…. So that could be walking. It could be rocking, sitting in a porch swing. You know how we calm a baby by going back and forth? It doesn’t ever change. The brain calms as you take a little moment to just walk, whatever you want to do.
Then, at that moment, I look and say, ‘Do I want to deal with this right now? Do I really want to deal with this thought?’
If it’s not a good time… I have learned that sometimes it’s best to just do a healthy distraction – something that just totally takes your focus away – whatever that is. Maybe it’s cooking, or maybe it is a writing project – whatever it is. If it’s not the right time to deal with the thought, it’s ok to do a healthy distraction.
Then, if it is time to deal with that thought – look at it. Look at what you’re feeling. So let’s say that you’re feeling worried. Go underneath that thought and find the one sentence really that is causing that worry…. And what you do is you look at that thought and then you ask the Lord, ‘Would you replace that thought with truth?’
