Change the Channel. Goodbye, Zombie. Hello, Sunshine!

By Jillian Cooke, MTh, MAPM
Fr. Kolbe Missionary of the Immaculata

In my world of practicality things are very easy. You do this and that happens; you don't do this and that is avoided. In my world, everything makes sense, the will commands the emotions, and bends agilely to the changing terrain. The problem is that my world only gets you so far across the landscape, and it cannot be forced onto other people. I know; I've tried. It doesn't work.

Nowhere, perhaps, is this more clear than in the inner-workings of my much cherished brain. As a kid, playing on the soccer pitch, my dad would yell "get your head in the game." Or, more lovingly "you are a head case like me." I was the poster-child for inconsistency... one game loving the intensity, scoring multiple goals, controlling the midfield - and the next, I was a dazed zombie. Dazed zombies are not good soccer players.

No matter how hard I tried, I could not get out of my head - or into it-  or whatever. Telling me to stop thinking or start thinking, or to "just play" didn't do much either. As I grew, in height and width, I began to see this blessed pattern manifest in plenty of ways. My family still laughs at my going to the store for triple A batteries and coming home with triple Antibiotic ointment. So... what's the deal? How do we learn pay attention to our thoughts, and yet not get totally absorbed in them? This is far from an exhaustive list, but here are some tips for those days when - like St. Maximilian at one time - we begin to obsess, live in the clouds, turn off, or go into hyper-drive thinking speeds.

As always, I presuppose a life immersed in the sacraments!

5 TIPS.

1. Admit it and Adjust as necessary/able. 
(I'm not going to try to do calculus when I know I can't, so why do we try to do so many other things without recognizing our limits. They are human and ok. Push them - I took pre-calculus and did ok - but I wasn't about to try and be a mathematician!)

2. Pray... however and wherever it helps...
(I like to dig ditches, walk, stop by the chapel, pray my rosary, breathe and keep going...)

3. Think positive, and when those negative thoughts come up just let them roll over you... there they go....
(I can't do this.... [thought rolls over].... Yes, I can. Totus Tuus.)


4. Stop talking about it. Talking is great to a certain point. It helps clarify things, order your thoughts, vent, etc. However, repetition builds those pathways even deeper into your thinking process. This is science, and it works. 

(If I keep telling people that I'm scared or don't want to do something, it is going to burn into my brain that it is scary and not a good thing to do. I can say it once or twice to be open and honest, but then consider changing the topic. Stop the radio inside your head. Change the channel.)

5. Don't be your own Savior. Talk to someone; think it through with one person you trust. This may be a spiritual director, therapist, mentor, etc. 

CHANGE IS POSSIBLE. But be patient, it won't happen overnight!