“On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use.” (Chapter 6, Big Book)
I ask once then take responsibility for my thinking.
Once is enough. God does not need to be nagged.
Having asked, the onus is now on me to reject all negative thinking.
I have to change my thinking.
God won’t do it—God enables it.
That’s different.
He’ll specify the direction.
But I have to make the decision:
Do I want to be a big, frightened, whiny milksop?
Or a joyful, active, life-loving adult?
Here, I use my pride against my ego—
(and this is the legitimate use of pride):
Becoming embarrassed at what I had become …
… and sincerely wanting to be bigger than my feelings.
Having made that decision, I have to guard the gate.
I have to do that. God won’t do it.
God gave me a brain to use, so I must use it.
... under His direction and under His strength.
No negative thought has any power whatsoever except what I give it.
I shoot down the thought at the gate, and it’s over.
That thought is gone forever.
Another may come, but I shoot down that one too.
It might be the twin of the first thought, but it’s a new thought.
When I shoot that one down, it’s over, gone forever.
Eventually, they stop coming. They go and bother someone else.
What do I think of instead?
- Grateful thoughts
- Compassionate thoughts about others
- Constructive thoughts
- Interesting things I might do
- The interesting thing I am doing right now
Especially, I listen and read.
Sometimes something spiritual …
… but that can be misused to continue to think about me.
Best to listen to or read something that has absolutely nothing to do with me.
So something worldly and practical can be more useful spiritually.
Spirituality is about self-forgetting and re-engaging in the world.
Not thinking fluffy spiritual thoughts about self.
When bad thoughts come:
“we ask God at once to remove them.” (Ibid.)
I don’t then just sit there like a Christmas pudding, waiting for God, like a servant in Downton Abbey, to remove the dirty plate.
I have to go and wash up the dirty plate.
This might mean a ten-second spot-check inventory.
It might mean saying the rosary out loud.
But then:
“Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code.” (Ibid.)
We resolutely. Not God resolutely. We.
Asking God to direct my thinking and / or to remove a thought is a momentous but momentary action.
What’s the constant mental action?
“Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. ‘How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done.’ These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.” (Ibid.)
In other words, 99.9% of the time I’m not sitting in a mental and emotional stew, asking God to change my psychic nappy: I’m actively channelling my mind in constructive directions, and anything that does not fit this plan can F right O.
What's next? Action, action, action.
With God’s help, this is perfectly possible.
I got sick of being unhappy and did something about it.