Noon Inspiration: SWITCH THE CHANNEL

Your memory is very powerful. You can be driving in your car when all of a sudden, you remember a tender moment. Maybe it was a sweet time with your siblings or loved ones. It could have been five years ago but when you remember it, it brings a smile to your face. You start to feel those same emotions, joy and warmth, just like it was happening all over again.

On the other hand,you can be enjoying your day but then start to remember a sad event when you weren't treated right, somebody did you wrong or you went through a loss. Before long, yow will be down and discouraged. What made you sad? Dwelling on the sad memories. What made you happy? Dwelling on happy memories.

It's interesting that our mind will naturally gravitate towards the negative. A study showed how positive and negative memories are handled by different parts of the brain. A negative memory takes up more space. There's more to process, because of this, we will remember the negative more easily than the positive. The example they used is that a person will remember losing 1 million naira more than they will remember gaining 1 million naira. The negative carries more weight. It has a greater impact than the positive.

Knowing this, we have to be proactive. When the negative memories come back to the movie screen of your mind, don't pull up a chair, get some popcorn and watch them all over again, No! that's not the only channel in your brain. There's another movie playing. It's not your defeats, your failures, your disappointments, it's a channel filled with your accomplishments, your victories, the things you have done right, the times you were promoted, when you met the right person, your blessings. Instead of staying on the negative channel, you've got to switch over to your victory channel.

Remember, if you want to move forward into the new things God has in store for you, you have to stop replaying the negative things from your past. Those memories will play the most often. The good news is that you have the remote control. Just because the memory comes up doesn't mean you have to watch it. Learn to change the channel and keep your mind focused on the good things God has in store for you.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable, right and pure, lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise~( Philippians 4:8)