Familiar Feelings

​I woke up this morning with a familiar feeling and I thought because I’ve had it many times that others may too but in a different way. In the past 6 months I’ve lost 32 pounds and it’s changed my body etc for the good. I’m very happy about it. There are days mentally though where if I went by my thoughts or feelings that I would swear to you that I gained 32 pounds back over night. If I eat the wrong thing my body reacts not in a good way. This feeling has always made me feel like crap. Every time this happens my thoughts will say that I feel like crap therefore I must look like crap and because the feeling is familiar and so are the thoughts I would swear to you that I gained all the weight back over night. It’s the craziest thing. It takes stepping on a scale in the morning to bring me back to truth. Sometimes the scale will say I’m the same, sometimes I’m up a pound. I have yet to gain 32 pounds in one night.
This is kind of a funny way to describe the way our mind works but I’m catching myself. In the past, that feeling would end up becoming a self fulfilling prophecy because while I wouldn’t gain the weight back over night I would eventually gain it back because in the past when I felt that way I wouldn’t step in the scale. I felt like it was better to just avoid the truth than actually see what it was. In avoiding truth, I went on how I felt and if I had enough of those days, I would go back to eating and doing what I was doing and would be back where I was.
There are familiar feelings and familiar spirits that both when not checked in with actual truth will take you off course because they remind you of something that was and that feeling while not enjoyable is familiar. PTSD is a great example of this. PTSD triggers a person by something that happens in the present, a sound, smell, action whatever that reminds you of a traumatic event from the past. Even though that event is not currently happening, your brain reacts like it is and you will see yourself or others have a very strong reaction to something that isn’t actually happening but it was triggered by something familiar that made you mind think it was.
Why is this important? Thoughts and feelings are a dime a dozen. I have thousands of them every day. They change throughout the day. They aren’t necessarily good or bad, they are just information about how I currently feel right now and it’s good information. They are in fact not truth though. This is where you will end up derailing yourself if you are not careful. So fact, this morning I woke up with my body feeling crappy. I’ve felt this way many times and it always triggers not a good feeling in me. Truth…I ate stuff yesterday I shouldn’t have that makes me feel not good. It also inflames my body, makes me retain water and just in general is not a great idea. Truth, I am probably up a pound in water weight today. Truth, I didn’t gain 32 pounds and all I need to do is stay away from that stuff and I’ll go back to feeling great and my inside matching my outside. If you don’t align your thoughts with truth, you end up back where you were because your mind is a terrible decision maker. It takes in information and processes it based on what it has experienced. Just because you have experienced something once doesn’t mean it’s happening again and just because you’ve never experienced something doesn’t mean it exists. Truth is your friend. It can feel like a scary friend but it’s actually your best friend and will keep you on track to where you are headed instead of putting you back to your past. The best part for the Christian is truth is a person. Align yourself there and you will experience the Psalms 23 life where you are lead by peaceful streams and have dinner in the presence of your enemies with no fear. Selah…..