From Anxiety to Peace Sýnishorn

Authenticity is an important value to me. So often I have found it difficult to muster up positive thoughts or statements when they simply do not line up with my feelings. For example, if I have flu-like symptoms, I am not going to repeatedly say, “I am not sick, I am not sick, I am not sick.”

However, one day as I listened to a teaching on Philippians 4:8 I realized just how often I do actually proclaim untruths in my mind instead of truths. The verse says, “fix your thoughts on what is true." When we fix our thoughts on what might possibly happen, or the worst that could transpire, we are meditating on untruths. When I worry that the pain in my head is a cancerous tumor, I am dwelling on untruths. Could it be cancer or something else serious? Perhaps. But until that is the case, it is not true. 

I cannot tell you the number of ailments, financial crises, failures, and serious consequences I felt like I have experienced over the years because I chose to fixate on what was untrue. And most of them never even came close to actually happening. They were just bouncing around in my mind as mere possibilities.

It may seem obvious and simple, but I have found tremendous relief by reminding myself to only focus on that which is — not that which might be. My task is to only focus on that which is known to be true.