feel true, because you have driven down the same neural highway of your thoughts and feelings for so long.
When you continually ruminate on things that are not true, there’ s no room for things that are true. Therefore, the way to get unstuck from rumination is meditation! God has been telling us this for millennia. But now neuroscientists confirm it! Meditating on what is good isn’ t only good for us spiritually; it’ s psychologically and physiologically healing as well.
Hebb’ s law is a neurological concept that states,“ Neurons that fire together wire together.” 1 The more positive thoughts you entertain, the more positive thoughts your brain will create. But the opposite is also true. The more negative thoughts you revisit, the more negative thoughts your brain will produce. This is the science explaining much of our stuck-ness. What we feed grows. When we feed ourselves negative thoughts, negative thoughts increase. And the more we run through those negative thought patterns again and again, the deeper and more formed those neural pathways become in our brain. That’ s how we get mentally stuck.
Focusing endlessly on what we do not have and how we have been hurt( whether by others or as consequences of our own choices) creates an ongoing attack on our inner world, reinforcing, even enlarging those wants and wounds. Ruminating in the present on what hurt us in the past has the power to continue hurting us in the future... from within. However, the inverse is also true: Meditating on what is good and healing brings more healing goodness to our lives.
God promises that“ he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds”( Psalm 147:3). Thankfully, He doesn’ t just bind up our shattered hearts, but He also cares for all our wounded parts— even our fractured brains. One of the main ways God brings healing to our whole lives is by renewing our thought lives. He can, and He does, but we must participate in the process! When we take God at His Word and meditate on what is true, we unlock the power to get unstuck from those negative thoughts and feelings.
With God, we are not weak or helpless. With God as our help, we have hope— hope to replace the thought patterns we are endlessly stuck in with truer, purer, more praiseworthy ones! What’ s more, God designed our brains and spirits to work in tandem. He made us and gave us the power and authority over our thoughts when we partner with Him. When we intentionally and continually think on what is good and true about God’ s nature at work in our life, He renews our minds! As we meditate on the truth of His Word, He pulls us out of the old patterns that keep us stuck in pain.
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