Deanna Shrodes: Lessons from Kathryn: Where do you feel it in your body?
A new study has revealed that emotional pain hurts as much as physical pain.
Last year I was expressing to my boss a situation in my life that was stressful and she asked me the question, "Where do you feel it in your body?" I said, "excuse me?" Nobody had ever asked me that question before.
Kathryn reposed the question: "Where do you feel it? Where in your body do you specifically feel the pain of this situation?" I had never thought of it that way before and upon stopping to think about it, I realized that when I focused on this particular situation I could definitely feel negative effects in different parts of my body. She went on to explain to me how powerful this connection is.
Of course this was not news to God, although it was news to me. He created us to respond this way -- some of us are just catching up to figure it out!
There are toxic situations in our lives that cry out to be changed. Our body talks to us (through pain) trying to get us to set boundaries, eliminate relationships that are toxic, add relationships that are healthy, refrain from toxic speech, stop doing things that are ultimately hurting us, etc. Our body longs for us to take a stand for our physical and emotional health. What we think about also makes a difference too -- in fact it all starts there!
Tammy Young, a close friend of mine, just introduced me to a book called, "Who Switched Off My Brain?" by Dr. Caroline Leaf. This book has revolutionized Tammy's life and she had just finished teaching it in at the church now where she and her husband pastor, and it's transforming lives there. Researchers say that 87% of illnesses plaguing us today directly result from our thought life! What we think about affects us physically and emotionally. Dr. Leaf's book connects science with scripture and teaches about learning to detox your thoughts, God's way.
We are starting this new series at Celebration, this Wednesday night April 6 ~ "Who Switched Off My Brain?" based upon the book of the same title and what the Word of God says about our brain and toxic thoughts. I have, of course, read Dr. Leaf's book in preparation to teach it at our fusion services. It's powerful. Don't be expecting bunch of psycho babble or just another self help book. I know most of my blog readers aren't from Tampa nor can you attend this series however I want to recommend the book to you. It's really changing the way I think, and thank God for it!