THINK ABOUT IT

by Patsy Clairmont
Have you heard Anita Renfroe sing “Think About it”? I love that girl! One of the repeated lines in the song is, “You’ve got to think about what you think about ’cause you think about something all day long.”
Ain’t that the truth! Our brains don’t rest. Oh, they might nod off for a nano-second, have bleeps, or even visit Mars momentarily, but they are aerobic, always active.
Ever have a night where your brain decides to chatter at you? Probably we all have, when what we want to do is sleep, yet when we lie down the brain rises up and decides to replay our day, our conflicts, our upcoming demands, our childhoods, the news, etc. It’s like being subjected to a yodeler in a canyon and we can’t find our way out. Yikes!
So what’s a girl to do?
I have found a few things that have helped me to help shush my brain noise. (“Shut up,” doesn’t work, I know. I tried that.)
What does help is if I reserve the last half hour before bedtime to get quiet (soft music, a soothing book, Scripture, prayer). If my head is stirred it helps to jot down what’s whirring around up there giving it somewhere else to be, besides on the fast track of my thoughts. The head-racket may be things I need to do in upcoming days, or conflicts that are current, and writing them on paper can relieve the immediate pressure.
I have found that my nature doesn’t do well with bad news before sleep, so I tend to catch up on world events throughout the daytime hours. Also rowdy TV shows can leave my brain cells in a wrestling match. So no thrillers or tension-producing stuff for me at night, lest I beat the stuffing out of my pillow―or worse yet, my sleeping husband. And arguing with one’s mate or teenagers is best reserved for daylight hours and should have physical and emotional boundaries. (Don’t forget: the purpose of an argument is not to prove our point, but to resolve conflict. Rats!)
During the day I have to deliberately scrutinize my thoughts, because I can entertain unworthy musings. I need to work at upgrading my thoughts, because they inspire actions, they spill out lips, and they affect or infect my beliefs about myself and others.
Anita is so right when she belts out, “Think about what you think about, ’cause you think about something all day long.”
What you thinkin’ bout??
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