When I hear the word detox, the first thing that comes to my mind is to “cleanse”. I don’t think going through a cleanse is a process that anyone looks forward to, but setting your sights on the results makes the journey worth traveling.

Have you ever heard someone who’s been through a detox say that when starting the process, “you feel worse before you feel better”?

When you go through the detoxifying process, the negative toxins that have continually lived inside you start to be released, flooding your body all at once on their way out.

The same is true of detoxing your soul. Everything toxic is trying to leave your body at the same time, which can cause you to feel anxious, overwhelmed, hopeless…

Your soul is made up of your:

• Mind
• Emotions
• Will

Today we’re focusing on the mind, and I believe that our thoughts are the gateway to who we become as individuals. If those thoughts are toxic, they become the jump-off to toxic emotions and a toxic lifestyle.

A few examples of toxic thoughts are:

• Fear- of people, failure, or rejection
• Negativity- always assuming the worst
• Discontentment-never satisfied; ungrateful

According to the National Science Foundation, the average person thinks anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day, and 80% of those thoughts are negative. First of all, what?!?

So the question becomes, how in the world do we stop doing something that we’re accustomed to doing all day, every day?

We change our negative thoughts by consuming positive information:

• Having a devotion with God and reading His Word daily.
• Listening to podcasts that are positive and uplifting. My absolute favorite podcast is Focus On Greatness with Hiram Roché (yep, the plug.)
• Reading inspirational books. One at the top of my list is The Power of Positive Thinking.

A healthy mind is everything; however, transforming it doesn’t happen overnight. Changing the way you think is a progressive work, and progress is simply taking one step at a time in the direction of your goal.

It’s not a sprint friend, it’s a marathon.

Until next time…

mjr.