• Do you find it frustrating when you are trying to go to sleep and your mind is racing with many thoughts?
  • Do you find your brain goes into a fog when you want to perform a task that needs to get done?
  • What about when you try to be positive and grateful, but you have so many more emotions that are vying for attention?

These frustrations can be described with the word consternation.

Merriam Webster definition is “an uneasy feeling about the rightness of what one is doing or going to do.” We are trying to do one thing and experiencing another. Consternation, dismay, disquieted…

What if I told you that your brain and emotions are doing exactly what they are designed to do?

Say What?

Our brains are built to protect our bodies and soul. They are solution-seeking machines. We might be trying to go to sleep but the brain is driven by the need to solve or complete the situation at hand. Think of our brain like a computer and the little circle is spinning and spinning but the program is not opening. When we haven’t taken time to reflect or process our life circumstances with God, our brain won’t stop until it finds a solution.

Eeek

At the same time, our brains are finite. They can’t keep going and going; it needs to rest. How long would a hair dryer last if you never turned it off?

What if the fog you are feeling in your thinking is your brain saying,

“I need a rest!”

What about those darn emotions?

Am I not supposed to rejoice always, feel good and positive? Yes, absolutely. Peace and joy are ours now and for eternity. But we have other emotions as well. Emotions are signals and we need to get the message. The messages are just as important as the warning in our nervous system to pull your hand away from the hot stove.

Author and speaker Dr. Chip Dodd says, The more we resist feeling “negative” emotions, the less able we are to experience the gift of these emotions. Emotions are neither good nor bad. It’s what they lead us to do that’s either good or bad.

In the next few articles, we will look at how to walk with God to care for our minds and emotions.

Your Turn

Here’s an idea. Ask God to show you what you think about racing thoughts, foggy thinking, and unpleasant emotions.

You may even start a list of how you respond to these three. (You may notice something I haven’t mentioned that causes you consternation.)

Feel free to reach out to me for a chat and access any of the tip sheets I have created for us to get off the do-more-try-harder hamster wheel and walk with God on His path of joy.

Dancing, resting, feeling … with Him.

You are my path Lord (John 14:6)