Self-Care for Your Thoughts

Our thoughts impact how we feel more than most anything else. Therefore, being aware of your thoughts, evaluating whether they are helpful, and deciding when and whether to give them attention will have a gigantic impact on how you feel hour to hour and day to day. Thought patterns like worry, rumination, and despair are not helpful and tend to increase levels of anxiety and depression. And the voice of the Good Shepherd will never come in the form of unhelpful worry, rumination, or despair! Internalizing this truth can be a helpful starting place for discerning the voice of the Good Shepherd. Try the following exercise to learn to listen for and know the voice of Jesus.

The Ministry of the Orange and Purple Pen

1.Gather the tools for this practice: a journal, an orange pen, and a purple pen. The orange pen is for writing down your worry, rumination, and/or despair. The color of the iconic jumpsuits that prisoners wear, this pen reflects our own imprisonment to unhelpful thoughts. The color of royalty, the purple pen represents our ultimate king, Jesus.

2.Set a timer for three minutes. With the orange pen, write down all the worry, rumination, and/or despair that is present for you. Don’t hold back—just let it swirl and roll, no matter how insane it gets. The goal is that by seeing it all on paper in orange, you will grow more sensitive to these kinds of thoughts throughout the day and will learn to call them what they are—unhelpful, even downright harmful. When the timer goes off, stop.

3.Set a timer for three minutes.With the purple pen, write down what you sense Jesus is saying to you.This might be hard, but be patient. Purple text may come to you in the form of Scripture verses, song lyrics, memories of affirmations, or just impressions that you sense are from God. It can take practice to grow this ability. Stick with it! These things that come up during this time may or may not directly correlate with your orange text. The point is to let God speak to you and to grow in knowing his voice.

Adopt this as a regular practice to restore your soul with the words of the Good Shepherd.