MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY

Will changing my beliefs REALLY change my behavior? REALLY? Really!

Behavioral psychologist Dr. Shad Helmstetter had been studying the impact of how people talk to themselves in his research working with top athletes. He decided to experiment on himself to see what effect positive self talk had on his personal challenges with losing weight. Dr. Helmstetter recorded an audiotape for himself full of healthful messages about eating well and becoming more active. On the tape he told himself things like: "I love exercise. I am in control of my eating. I enjoy healthy foods." He listened to the tape each morning as he shaved at his bathroom sink. Over the course of many months he lost 58 pounds! What's even more interesting is that his wife, who was getting ready at the other sink while he was shaving, also lost weight, and it wasn't even her tape! Dr. Helmstetter proved for himself the truth of how the brain is designed - the most dominant thought will ultimately drive our behavior.

We've talked before about what an astounding creation the human brain is. Recent advances in medical technology have proven how some of the pathways in our brains become physically strong and dominant because of how frequently a thought or experience is repeated. They become like superhighways in our mind, overriding many of the weaker pathways or less dominant thoughts.

Our brain is filled with billions of neuron pathways that our thoughts and the messages we are exposed to travel down. Those neuron pathways have the capability to physically change. Old dominant pathways can shrink and become less influential when they are neglected or overridden by a new message. Smaller, weaker pathways can physically grow and become like superhighways.

How?

They change through repetition.

Doctors can actually detect microscopic changes in the brain's neuron pathways after about 21 days of any message being repeated. The brain actually begins to change physiologically! Now we understand why behavioral psychologists have been saying for years that it takes at least 21 days to begin to change a habit!

Before you get too excited about change taking place in just three short weeks, you must realize that at 21 days of repeating a new message, the brain is just BEGINNING to change. For any SIGNIFICANT changes to take place, we must maintain a consistent flow of new information to override the old dominant thoughts and their resulting behaviors. We have to keep focusing on the new messages until the neuron pathway it's traveling down becomes wider and wider and smoother and smoother. When the new message is firmly etched in our minds, that neuron pathway will be a dominant superhighway. Like any road construction, it could take many months.

Does this sound like "brain-washing" to you? In a way, it is. It's washing our brains with the water of God's Word. It's washing unhealthy messages out of the dominant place they have previously held.

The fact that it will take us many months to accomplish a change in our beliefs is something we should be VERY grateful to God about. You see, our Creator made our brains this way so that we couldn't be easily brain-washed and led astray by false teaching and every whim of doctrine. Our brains store everything we take in through our auditory and visual systems. It stores all kinds of information very randomly. But the messages that are repeated most often are the ones that become most prominent and settle down as beliefs.

Did you know that about 75% of what we receive on a daily basis is negative? Isn't that scary. It sure helps us understand the importance of reinforcing positive truths from God's Word to override all the negativity, doesn't it. I used to preach "garbage in - garbage out" to my kids when they were teenagers anytime they wanted to listen to music or go to a movie that wasn't appropriate for believers. As I recall, they groaned a lot in response! GRIN I sure wish I had applied that same truth to the negative self talk I was allowing to build superhighways in my own brain!

Today I am asking myself, do I want MY WAY or the HIGHWAY? Do I want MY WAY - the way that allows unhealthy thoughts and attitudes free reign in my brain? OR. Do I want the HIGHWAY - that nice smooth, wide pathway in my brain that dominates my thinking with healthy God given TRUTH?

I want the HIGHWAY, girls!!! How about you?